PRESIDENT’S REPORT
June 2019
Feedback from members is always welcome, and although it is impossible to act on every piece of feedback instantly, the comments all provide guidance to how the Committee should lead the Club. The May General meeting was no exception, but it was interesting the significant number of comments that were made around issues of finance; and that several suggestions were incompatible with one another.
Before our next General meeting, our Treasurer, David Diamond will be available to talk through aspects of our accounts and explain how they work from 7pm. In summary, we keep records of all monies deposited to the Club account, and records are kept of all expenditures during the year. Expenditures are approved by either the Treasurer-plus-President, or Treasurer-plus-Secretary if the President is unavailable. These records are signed off by an independent auditor annually, and this auditing procedure gives Members comfort that due process is being observed. Our financial year ends on 30 June so our books for 2018-9 will be finalised shortly.
The Committee also has a budget for the financial year which is a plan that looks ahead to anticipate receipts and expenditure. The budget provides a target for the Treasurer and whole Committee, imposes some discipline on expenditure, highlights opportunities and risks for the Club, and provides a safeguard against any impulsive decisions. If we do have one-off special transactions that will tend to distort the overall picture, we will attempt to explain these early to avoid surprises.
Over recent years the Club has been running a deficit (e.g. ~$7000 in 2017-8), and in simple terms this means that we have been spending more than we receive. Over a one- or two-year period, running a deficit might not seem serious but in the longer term it is unsustainable because the Club cannot operate if insolvent, i.e. with zero or negative funds. There is a further matter created by living beyond our means (or running a perennial budget deficit) and that is the difficulty of reversing such a pattern; this sounds exaggerated but take one look at the USA deficit measured in $trillions per year. For a club such as ours it would be a painful process to fix a wayward budget by cancelling meetings, affiliations, certificates, courses, room hire, security, badges, websites and/or insurance for a year to rectify any entrenched overspending pattern.
Club financial decisions are guided by a mix of Member comments, our longer-term strategy for the Club, and of course the Rules of the Club. The Rules are accessible via the TeamApp site, and two of the rules are worth mentioning. Rule 5.3 only allows the Club to expend funds within the Purposes of the Club, and these purposes are outlined in Rule 2.
At a different level, Members suggested recently that the Club should give more (and others said to give less) to charities and worthy causes. The former was based on how important some causes were and what good work they do; the latter was based upon how unrelated some causes are to the purpose of a 4WD club with the added challenge from Members to the Committee of why would we charge membership and then give it to charity whilst we run a deficit. This is clearly a complex issue and I hope we can explain our position without promising to say yes to everyone and everything.
Pajero Club members are remarkably generous in the support they give to the Club, to formal charities, to community organisations and to our society in general. Leaving aside the extraordinary work members do informally (which we would struggle to quantify), there are many more direct ways that members can assist charities and groups-in-need including direct personal donations. We regularly invite an organisation to present to the Club at a general meeting and this is a platform for them to speak and to take a voluntary collection from Members. The Committee believes that organisations chosen for Club support should have a record of using their funds well, and a strong positive reputation.
There is a further level of support and that is where the Club essentially ‘writes a cheque’ to a charity. This is a more sensitive issue and the Committee has discussed questions such as does a specific charity fit our Purpose? Who decides what charity to support? Once a charity is supported, will this continue in perpetuity? Does the reputation of a supported charity get reviewed from time to time allowing for any new public information? Which charities that might receive our support cause angst or anger amongst one or more members because of any prior history such as abuse? How do we take account of the shifting patterns such as Gen-Z members who (anecdotally) are quite concerned about the reputation of any institution they might be supporting: does this attitude contrast with a Baby-boomer approach that giving to charity enhances the feel-good factor regardless of the recipient? Perhaps a telling example of this trend is the National Australia Day Council who have cut ties recently with the Commonwealth Bank after 38 years of sponsorship; the Royal Commission revealed failings of banks that were no longer compatible with the organisers’ values. With these complexities in mind, the Pajero Club Committee has decided that budgeting funds for direct transmission to charity whilst running a budget deficit is not in the interest of members this year.
Neil Phillips
1744
President