Logistics and Finance Committee Meeting -Minutes:
2012-01-31 4:30pm Upstairs at W2.
 
In attendance; Tosh, Bob, Andrew, Chris, Tom, Jarred (Doc), Natalie.
 
Routine reimbursements:

 Bob to be reimbursed $50.00 for paying Mya’s parking ticket from the Free Market.

  New reimbursements:
Dan Richardson $69.00 (dollar amount rounded off by Dan, accepted by
the committee for Kamloops trip. Up to $75 had been approved by GA)
 
Susan (aka G-Ma): presented her history at the encampment, she was asked to pay for supplies for the Tea House and use her vehicle during the move, Tea Tent receipt 24.47 (found to be valid will be paid by cheque) and parking ticket $105.00 (found to be valid and will be paid by cheque); $121.00 for moving violation ticket (not paid as there is no precedent for OV to pay moving violations.) Susan provided her full name and address for the cheques to be sent.
 
Read into minutes from last meeting: Parking tickets: As was not stated policy we will pay parking ticket presented today but this is done without precedent or prejudice, i.e. No more tickets will be reimbursed in the future, with the possible exception of parking tickets received in the course of an occupy direct action (unloading or loading) [This is the reference from last meeting regarding prior knowledge of Susan’s parking issue from the day of the move. It is agreed no further parking tickets will be
considered from this point on.]

 
Spokes Council Finance Policy:
 
The GA has not given explicit financial consideration to spokes, spokes council would need to make this explicit to the GA and seek their approval. Finance committee, routine logistical matters e.g. cheque writing so if presented with a situation they may act. Finance doesn’t have explicit authority from GA to make financial decisions but what has been approved to date has been to do with the encampment. Tom raises the issue that Spokes was mandated to find space, so can it spend money on rent?

Natalie asserts explicit authority was not given to Spokes Council to spend money on rent in that mandate. Suggestions to define Finance Committee dollar amount so that it can deal with financial decisions. Suggestions; to put a proposal through GA then it’s done; Up to x amount finance can approve, x amount spokes can approve, rest goes to GA. Hearing similar concerns, finance has done what needed to be done up until now.

 Suggestions ; Finance decides that we continue emergency small stuff, spokes up to 500 if we ok it,if higher than that then need to go to GA, we announce it as an interim policy until GA, no agreement is reached on these suggestions. It is pointed out there are no emergency decisions with no encampment.
The question is asked why there is so much effort to "go around" the GA?
The meeting is reminded there is a proposal regarding Spokes Council and finance that has had its first reading. It is noted that at that at the first reading there was a recommendation from the GA there be a limit imposed on Spoke’s financial decision making ability, if it is approved at all, the recommendation was ignored. The GA participant (Rob) clarified the recommendation was a very strong one, to spite indications of support from other OV members attending the GA that night, it was ignored a second time. Further this recommendation was not added to the minutes of that GA.

Chris suggests The Finance Committee adds to its regular meeting agenda the reading of Financial Considerations raised in the Spokes Meeting minutes. Tosh suggests it would be Spokes and GA minutes and this is agreed to. The question is put to the meeting what purpose this serves? Reason given was discussion, possible recommendations to GA but not for the purpose of approval as this authority has not been given by GA. Andrew agrees to take on reviewing meeting minutes for next Tuesday’s meeting. Onus is put on Spokes Council to establish explicit financial decision making authority from GA, not the Finance Committee.
 
Cheque book; Chris asks if there are issues with it not being available when Tosh is away. Chris suggests splitting the cheque book to two people or more. Tosh suggests there is no issue at this point that makes this necessary. Reconciliation is easier if cheques are used in sequence. Bob agrees there is no issue, he keeps the book of receipts, Tosh keeps the cheque book. There has never been an issue with this set up and there is no reason to anticipate one. Chris ask if we need more cheques, Tosh assures him there are still plenty of cheques. Chris asks if anyone can just go and get more cheques for the account? The answer is yes with three signing officers; even cash can be taken from the account with 3 signing officers. [Something to consider when allowing new signing authority.]

 Bob volunteers Andrew and Eric D. to address finding and vetting new signing officers. Currently there are 5 signing officers, do we need more? GA has approved up to 10. (Qualified as it stands; Maxim, Andrew, Sema, Tosh, Bob.) Bob suggests Finance will put out call to the committee email list to see who is interested. This raises the issue that there are aprox 19 people on the email list, but who is actually a participating member? New signing authority seekers need two pieces of ID and show up in person for an appointment with all current qualified signers.
 
Natalie raises the issue Committee decision discussions that take place outside of the meeting should include everyone who is actively participating in meetings. Right now the agreed communication is Google groups.  
New business: motor home 3-4 dollar/day in insurance, gmc hightop/ mobile medic as vehicle or what we want to us it for. Gasoline powered. Bob reminds the gentleman Spokes or GA is the place to bring
forward proposals.
 
Doc suggestion; “reddit” as a tool for social media sharing, to organize, replaces facebook etc. Bob reminds the group we have just settled on Google groups.
 
Andrew will take on minutes from Spokes and GA for next meeting.
 
Spoke for this Spokes Council meeting will be Tosh. Also attending from Finance and Logistics; Natalie, Andrew and Bob.
 
End meeting.

Friends and fellow occupiers: hope you had a good holiday season and new year celebration - and maybe even took a little time for yourself and loved ones. Below you will find links to new documents. One is the expense tracking worksheets. It now includes all the expenses we are aware of to this point. There are pages with details for each committee or work area (the Outreach page combines a couple committees doing this kind of work) and a Summary page that provides the totals. Each expense is referenced to a page in the receipt binder so if anyone has a question it will be easy to look at the source document.

The second document is the latest download of our Credit Union total activity to date for your information. We have around $7,000 in the account plus just over $1000 cash to be depositied. With expenses of $25,000 that means we have accounted for approximately $33,000 in contributions - mostly monetary.

There is still some work to do in checking whether there are any outstanding cheques and any reimbursements still owing. In entering all the receipts I noted some had a name written on them but no other information. If you believe you are owed anything feel free to contact the finance committee.

Minutes of Finance Committee Meeting Dec 21 '12
Present: Bob A, Eric D., Tosh H., Andrew A., Ben, Natalie, Trevor and livestream
Location: W2

Create Agenda:
-circle checkin
-Firming up the process for reimbursements.
- logistics, storage and inventory update
- get caught up on current payables
- Sean's request of logistics to sell two dome tents to him and few others who wish to set them up on private property on the Sunshine Coast to continue the experiment of dome living.

1. Payables

a. Discussed at length whether or not to reimburse Telquaa and Frank for the drummers , etc. on their Pow Wow day. They did not clear this expense in advance with the Finance Committee nor the GA, but there are mixed reports that they were told it was okayed. Therefore, to maintain good relations and taking into consideration "Indian time" and possibly related "Indian money" we agreed to reimburse them.

b. Bob will communicate to them that all future expenditures must be cleared in advance with the Spokes Council or GA and that until we have a new site, any and all reimbursements, including their $50/day travel expenditure, are suspended, If they choose to participate in Occupy Vancouver events or rallies, they must cover their own expenses until notified otherwise.

2. Logistics update - Eric has moved all of the outdoor storage stuff to an OV supporter's private backyard under one of the canopies. Unclaimed items will be disposed of as there has been plenty of announcements and warnings to claim personal property.

3. Reimbursements process discussed and we concluded:

a. All expenditures must be pre-approved by the Spokes Council or GA. We will continue to work toward establishing a benchmark for the Finance Committee's petty cash.

i. New expenditures must be approved by the Finance Committee unless they feel it's beyond their authority, then requests must be brought to the Spokes Council and then the GA respectively.

ii. It was suggested that a "Finance" Spokes Council meeting be established on a regular basis (ie. that the spokes council designate certain meetings or meeting times to deal with financial issues.)

iii. Requests for financing can be submitted to our new email address: finance@occupyvancouver.com, or brought directly to the Spokes Council or GA.

iv. Natalie agreed to regularly check the email inbox and Trevor will be her backup.

Next Meeting:
W2 on Monday January 9th at 5pm.

As a finance person it goes against the grain to post a financial report before it is all finished and reconciled. However, the logistics and finance committee at its meeting on Wednesday decided people should be able to see where we have got to so far in entering the receipts.

Please note that I have just got up to page 30 or so in terms of entering receipts so a long way to go yet. The total will no doubt be double or triple what you see, or more. Will be back at it after the holidays. Have a good one with your family and friends. See you in the new year.

As mentioned on Facebook it will take awhile to enter around 400 receipts into Excel in order to generate a financial statement. Date, item description, amount etc all have to be manually typed. In the meantime this should provide some very useful information and assurance we are not "hiding" anything, just a little overwhelmed with the unanticipated size and complexity of the logistical and financial tasks. We can change the world but not the fact there are only 24 hours in a day, and seven days in a week. That appears to be immutuable.

Please keep in mind when looking at the final balance that there is approximately two thousand dollars in outstanding cheques not cleared as of  December 15. These are reimbursements to all those who used their credit cards or personal accounts to support the movement either due to the urgency of a situation or the gap between opening our Vancity account and oury cheques arriving.

Financial Transparency

Occupy Vancouver's Finance Committee aims to ensure transparency of all contributions through cash contributions, paypal, in kind as well as purchases made possible by receiving cash contributions. Updates and statements will be posted here regularly.