Finances

[kuijt@umiacs.UMD.EDU]

Earl Dafydd ap Gwystl greets Cheapside!

At Emerald Joust, Master Thomas handed out a financial analysis of
Kingdom expenses and revenues, in the hope of soliciting advice for
solving the current financial crisis.  This information has gone out
to all Seneschals, Barons, and Baronesses, asking for a reply by June
15th; Master Thomas requests that anyone else who reads this information
please contact their Seneschal with any comments.

In accord with Master Thomas' intent, I am going to send a copy of
my suggestions (later in this note) by snail-mail to the appropriate
people.  I urge all of you who have suggestions to do the same!  To
grouse on the net is fun, but has no impact on the rest of the world
outside the net.  If you have a comment, send it to Master Thomas
or to your group seneschal.  Incidently, Master Thomas mentioned
that he is (and has been for three weeks) computationally challenged.
This means that he may not be able to read your post on this forum,
in contrast to a month ago.

I would like to thank Master Thomas for his forthright and open
request for suggestions and display of the financial information.

The remainder of this post has two parts: first, I will replicate
what I consider the significant part of Master Thomas' letter, so
everyone will have this information.  Second, I will give you my
personal commentary and suggestions.


PRIMUS: Financial Statement (taken from Thomas' letter)

Expenditures:
Crown Travel In Kingdom (2x500)					$1000
Crown Travel out of Kingdom (2x500)				$1000
Crown Pennsic Travel Fund (500)					$ 500
Kingdom Pennsic Hospitality Fund (300)				$ 300
Great Officer Stipends (75 x 9 x 2)				$1350
Royal Regalia (10% of average Kingdom Gross Receipts)		$1200
Postage								$1000
Contingency/Emergency Funds					$1000

Total								$7350

Income is 75% of profits from Twelfth Night, Coronations, and Crown
Tourneys.




SECUNDUS: My commentary

Master Thomas' letter does not describe in detail what these
expenditures are, and a few of them are not clear to me.  In
particular the Royal Regalia fund, and "Postage".

Royal Regalia: in the past, if we wanted new regalia, the royalty
asked the Kingdom and the kingdom raised funds for it.  What, exactly,
is this $1200 per year going for?  $1200 is an awful lot of money to
spend every year on regalia--are we buying new crowns every single
year?

Postage: the Great Officer Stipend is used mostly for postage by
the officers.  The Acorn has its own funds.  What, then, requires
an additional $1000 per year?  That is approximately 4000 stamps,
or enough for two letters per year to every single SCA member in
the Kingdom.  I don't see where this is necessary, and I don't
see where this is being used, or for what.  It isn't going to the
officers, it isn't going to the Orders (who beg for funds from
their members), it isn't going to the Acorn--what is it being used
for?


Further Comments:
Allaying the cost of Crown Travel In Kingdom is a good thing.  It
should be a high priority.

Crown Travel Out Of Kingdom does NOT deserve to be 100% paid for,
at the tune of $1000 a year hurt to the Kingdom.  Estrella has very
few Atlantians; Gulf War has more, but is way out of kingdom, and
I don't think Atlantia gets fair return for spending $500 on it.

Crown Pennsic Travel Fund--everyone who is King would have gone to
Pennsic anyway.  If this fund is to pay for a trailer or rental truck
so the Monarchs can bring all the regalia and other stuff, the fee
is too high.  $250 would do as well as $500.

Kingdom Pennsic Hospitality Fund--is the Kingdom really paying our
money to buy beer?  I'm overstating the case slightly here, and $300
isn't a large amount relative to the total sum, but I don't think
that this is necessary.

Great Officer Stipends--this is absolutely necessary.

Royal Regalia--NO!  What are we paying for?  If we need Regalia,
we can run a fund-raiser for the money.  By having the money in
a pile, every King is going to be tempted to buy something with it,
rather than only stuff the Kingdom really needs (like repair for
the Crowns, or something).

Postage--as I say above, I don't understand what this is for.  Postage
doesn't cost $1000, especially as it doesn't go to the Acorn or the
Officers or the Orders.  Who is left?

Contingency/Emergency Funds--this is probably a good idea.  Note,
however, that if no emergency occurs, this money stays in the bank
and can be used next year--it isn't an expenditure, it is a 
potential expenditure.

My suggestion for an adjusted budget is as follows:

Crown Travel In Kingdom (2x500)					$1000
Crown Pennsic Travel Fund 					$ 250
Kingdom Pennsic Hospitality Fund (150)				$ 150
Great Officer Stipends (75 x 9 x 2)				$1350
Contingency/Emergency Funds					$1000

Total								$3750

This saves $3600 a year, almost exactly half the budget.

As I have said before, cutting the budget is MUCH SMARTER than trying
to raise taxation.  The benefits are self-evident.

Regards,

Dafydd