Re: Finances

[Mark Schuldenfrei <schuldy@MATH.HARVARD.EDU>]

Greetings from Tibor.

It's interesting, but I think I would divide the money quite differently
from Earl Dafydd.

When I've been in tough monetary times personally, I've taken to ruthlessly
lightening the lifeboat.  Make a list of what you MUST spend, and spend
that. Cut the balance of the spending out.  Postpone, or shift whatever
expenses you can.

To that end, I would preserve spending on the necessities of bureaucracy such
as officers stipends and postage, which lend themselves to infrastructure,
and dispense with travel funds altogether.  Simply because one can shift the
cost of having the Crown come to an event by having the event donate the
cost of travel.  After all, having the Crown attend an event is of financial
(and intangible) benefit to the event itself.  Consider it an expense for
the event.

Certainly out of Kingdom Travel is not required, and most Crowns would
travel to Pennsic even if they hadn't won the Throne.  Regalia in most
Kingdoms is handled by specific fund raising for a particular item, or a
publicized request for that item. Either takes it off budget.

In addition to all this, since the spending of stipends and postage is
discretionary, I would increase the oversight and auditting functions, in an
attempt to reduce those expenditures.

If you followed my scheme, you would have the following expenditures;
  Great Officer Stipends (75 x 9 x 2)				$1350
  Postage							$1000
  Contingency/Emergency Funds					$1000
  
  Total								$3350

This is less than half the original expenditure.  If Crowns saved their
receipts for travel (which they should anyway, as they MAY be deductible if
you itemize), perhaps any excess funds at the end of the year could be used
to reduce those travel costs on a pro-rata basis.

It is probably true, Dafydd, that the Postage figure is budgeted at too
high a figure, and it could be reduced.

I think the difference between Dafydd and my analysis comes down to
considering not merely what is vital to the management of a Kingdom, but
also to considering which costs can be displaced.

	Tibor (looking forward to comments)