<P>This section details some things Earl found as Expo treasurer in 1999, since updated, which we hope will help you avoid some errors and worries. </P>
<LI>Explore last year's <ahref="http://expo.survex.com/boe/boc.pl">Online Bank of Expo</a> data to see how it all works</a></LI>
<LI>Then, create the <ahref="bankofexpo.html">Bank of Expo</a> for this next year - you may need a nerd <ahref="../documents/bierbook/readme.txt">to help you</a></LI>
<LI>Create the <ahref="bierbook.html">Expo Bier Book and Sesh Book</a> when you know most of the people have signed up - you may need a nerd to help you </LI>
<LI>Process the Expo Bier Book and Sesh Book through Bank of Expo to produce Expo Bills. </LI>
<p>Study the <ahref="finance.html#summary">previous expo accounting policies</a> and write one specifically for the coming expo you will be managing. Then everyone knows which policy is "active" and you won't get conflicting requests from incompatible historic approaches.
<P>In the beginning were the grant applications. At least, there were if last year's committee remembered their responsibilities, so first check that they have been submitted! Also track down the ex-treasurer (if he didn't get you first!) and get the bank details and get yourself as a signatory to the account.</P>
<P>You may find at first that the Expo committee is just you and the Expo Leader. Help him/her find and <STRIKE>pressgang victims</STRIKE> persuade volunteers for the <em>other</em> committee roles:</P>
<P>Even before you've got a full committee, start promoting Expo as the top experience it is. Start taking deposits. Ask for £200 before Expo, as installments of £80 and £120. Of course, people can pay it all at once if they want!</P>
<P>The deposits are to give Expo some cash to buy gear. Try and get most people to pay up; people paying for a lot of gear in Cambridge (e.g. for top camp meals and the chief fettler) may request not to pay their deposit. Certainly get at least the first deposit of anyone potentially 'unreliable' (i.e. you haven't seen caving or hasn't been on Expo before) before you spend any money on him/her.
<p>See the instructions to expoers on what <ahref="paperwork.html">their paperwork responsibilities</a> are as this sets out payment terms and says in writing that someone is only registered as coming on the expo <em>after</em> thier deposit has been recieved. It says "If you are late paying the deposit you may need to pay your entire expected cost, not just the deposit, before you can attend. The expo treasurer will tell you what is required". This was because we had one person just turn up without warning. (He was happy to pay, he just wasn't aware of the procedures.)
<P>A good way to get the deposits is with the Expo form. This is completed in some way by each person wanting to go on the Expo. Have a look at past year's forms. The forms get you, as treasurer, (hopefully) all the information you'll need to start organising Expo. People are often pretty lousy at completing or even starting their forms, but you'll need an idea of when people want to go on Expo and a list of contact addresses etc. Distribute the forms:</P>
<P>In the past requirements set by the GPF/NCA meant that <EM>all</EM> Expo members needed to be members of a club/organisation which is in turn a member of the NCA in order for Expo to get any grant money. Check whether this is still true for the year you are treasurer.</P>
<P>Expo has a number of gear requirements distinct from CUCC in the UK; these include rings, hangers, drills, bolts, surveying instruments and long ropes. We own our own surveying instruments, but they may need expensive maintenance and are very expensive to replace. Consumables and other caving gear are often bought with a large communal order from Yorkshire.</P>
<P>Try and place Expo gear orders jointly with CUCC main orders to maximise the discount we can get. Invite club members to buy their personal gear at the same time. Work with the CUCC main committee to eliminate unnecessary duplication of resources; there is a web page describing CUCC equipment purchasing.</P>
<P>How much of this happens depends on how keen and how many Expo members you have. In 1999 we placed an order with Field & Trek, where we got the <EM>group sales</EM> rate of 'up to' 25% off their normal prices. Bernies will normally give 10% off medium to large orders, or 20% on large orders if you give him a few days notice. Recently (1998/9), it has seemed that Bernies offers better value than Inglesport; Dragon do excellent tackle sack repairs for £10 per sack.</P>
<P>This involves paying money in, writing cheques and looking after the statements. Statements are currently sent to the Expo Treasurer's address, which is changed for each treasurer. You could get them sent to Dr James Hickson, the CUCC Senior Treasurer at Pembroke. This would mean less changing of addresses, but add delay/uncertainty to your receiving the statements.</P>
<P>Equipment orders are normally paid for by Expo or CUCC main, with the other then repaying their share. The float money (about £850 at the end of 1999) can be used as necessary, but should be replenished at the end of each year. The extra money is very useful for smoothing the cash flow. Do not let the account go overdrawn.</P>
<P>The Expo account is with National Westminster, number 22997253, sort code 60-04-23 (Market Street branch). Remember to give the bank the signature authority forms to authorise your successor before you leave Cambridge.</P>
<P>The <ahref="bierbook.html">Expo Bier Book and Sesh Book</a> is a record of every expedition expenditure and many administrative details of Expo. Refined over many years, the format now consists of the following sections:</P>
<p>The expenses and sesh swaps are also copied online into the <ahref="bankofexpo.html">Bank of Expo</a> and the bier book and sesh book are annotated when when an expense has been transcribed.
<LI><ahref="../expofiles/writeups/2018/bierbook/654258.jpg">Name list</a> - with phone number & gear-tape colours for each expoer written in by hand</LI>
<P>Find last year's Bier Book to see the format and how it is used. Buy an A5 hardback lined notebook, with a wipeable surface (it's going to get food/bier/worse spilled on it sometime), and draw up the pages listed above. It needs to have a sturdy biro tied securely to it. Make sure it gets sent out to Expo in the first vehicle to arrive there.</P>
<P>The Stamps page could be improved; I recommend Expo buys part of a sheet of stamps (with the edge pieces) and sticks the edge to the inside edge of a page in the bier book. Then have a stamp tally nearby.</P>
<P>The largest single bill in Austria will be the campsite bill. Obviously the bill depends on how big Expo is; in 2019 it was over €2,100. How this is paid depends on how many people you have around at the end of Expo. If there are enough then the simplest method is for them just to pay Hilde and claim the cost back through the Bank of Expo. However, if there are not going to be enough people with sufficient cash around at the end, you should start collecting advance payements from attendees anticipating their eventual bills.</P>
<P>The <ahref="bierbook.html">Bier Book and Sesh Book</a>, including pre-expo transactions andd all as copied into the <ahref="bankofexpo.html">Bank of Expo</a>, should be a complete picture of all Expo financial transactions except for expo gear transport. As people leave expo enter their Gasthof camping nights in the Bank of Expo as a cost to them.
<p>After Expo, when you know who has contributed to transporting expo gear to and from Austria, create appropriate transactions in the <ahref="bankofexpo.html">Bank of Expo</a> as shared expenses: for everyone flat-rate (gear transport), for everyone pro-rata (basecamp food and topcamp food). You can do this immediately after expo as you don't need to wait for sundry expenses to come in, so long as you have the Bier Book record of where people were and when.
<P>You'll receive some extra Bier Book & Sesh Book entries by email, post and word of mouth after Expo, as people's credit card bills come in. Set a deadline (say, 40 days after the end of Expo) and add all entries to the Bank of Expo.</P>
<p>You may need to create a little calculator work to get the total topcamp food bill and basecamp food bill, but you don't need to do any allocation to people: that is all done in <ahref="bankofexpo.html">Bank of Expo</a> by putting the individuals' days in the allocation entries. So you do need to read and understand the <ahref="bankofexpo.html">Bank of Expo</a> documentation. But it is a whole lot easier than creating as spreadsheet (last done in <ahref="../expofiles/accounts/accounts2014.xlsx">2014</a>).
<p>Every treasurer who has decided that it is easier to 'just' use a spreadsheet instead of learning how to use Bank of Expo has regretted it. Severely. (Having said that, there are now (2022) free and commerical apps which do much the same thing, but work better on a phone. But few have the openness and transparency of BoE. )
<P>Once all the various expenses have been entered in the Bank of Expo (it's probably September/October by now), you're ready to tackle the spreadsheet. Here is the <ahref="../expofiles/accounts/accounts2014.xlsx">2014 Expo spreadsheet</a> - but this predates Bank of Expo, so hassle a more recent treasurer to get the latest copy. You don't have to use the spreadsheet, but it's best to unless you're a database wizard. Basically you remove the sheets for last years members, copy new blank pages for this year's members and then add this year's data. It's fairly straightforward, but lengthy and requires concentration.</P>
<P>What is paid for, for transporting gear, is determined by the principles described in part 1 of this document.
<!--Once all the data has been entered, check that each person has been allocated appropriate <EM>traveller</EM>, <EM>caver</EM> and <EM>grantshare</EM> values in the spreadsheet.</P>
<P>When sending out the Expo bills, include the addresses of the creditors. Send individual emails personally to each member, rather that announcing it on communal emails. This reduces the amount of ranting about 'Why's my bill more than his?'. However, if anyone asks, have the relevant data ready.</P>
<P>Record accounting trivia, such as the number of Gössers drunk, the times underground, etc.</P>
<p>There are nearly always corrections, even after the "final" accounting. It is helpful to have a general policy for how these will be handled up-front.
<p>In 2022, this is how Dickon handled it:
<p><em>
Following finalisation of the accounts I was contacted by a member of the expedition to point out the various errors in the accounting. This was quite easy to audit for anyone so inclined as its all visible on bank of expo for anybody to look at. The majority of the errors are fairly minor although there were two relatively major ones that have had a not insignificant effect on the final totals. These were as follows:
<p>
The t shirts were entered twice and thus everyone was charged twice for their t shirt and the purchaser of the t shirts got a large bonus.
The Ghar Parau grant money was not allocated as had been originally discussed. Previously it had been split more or less evenly between expo goers. This has now been amended such that the majority of the grant money goes to first time expo goers with the exception of those who received Alex Pitcher awards.
<p>
For the majority of people the changes are minor and result in a difference of less than £20. We are also fortunate to have £400 in hand from people who paid non refundable deposits and then did not attend. I will therefore address the issue as follows:
<LI>As far as possible, maintain or improve the financial health of Expo, i.e. replace the float and don't put future Expos under obligation to pay debts from this Expo. </LI>
<LI>Submit a Treasurer's Report to anyone who needs one (e.g. grant awarding bodies). The GPF need a brief summary within three months of our return to the UK. A more detailed report, after the Expo Accounts, could be produced if you have too much time. </LI>
<LI>Make sure the following year's grant applications are submitted correctly. </LI>
<LI>Introduce your successor to the post of treasurer, preferably before you retire. </LI>
<LI>Work with the other members of the Expo committee in pulling off yet another stormin' Expo! </LI>
<P>Finally, keep these files up-to-date, and stored both on the Expo accounting disk and the CUCC file space on the PWF. Wookey or Olly may also be able to arrange archive space.</P>
<p>Archive all the accounts on the Expo online systems in expofiles/accounts/«year»/ and keep scanned copies of the Bier Book and Sesh Book in expofiles/writeups/«year»/ (along with the scanned copies of the logbook and the callout books). See 2018 for a nearly complete set: <ahref="../expofiles/writeups/2018/bierbook/">expofiles/writeups/2018/bierbook/</a>.
<P>Communication: would that it were clear, concise, courteous, correct, charitable and copious. Would that the response was well considered and timely. Try to make your requests SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-scaled.</P>
<UL>
<LI>Consult people before making changes. </LI>
<LI>Be ready with your own answers. </LI>
<LI>Don't be disheartened by received rants: defeat them with clear, good reasons or accept them graciously as helpful corrections :-) </LI>
<LI>Email is a poor medium for conveying the subtleties of sarcasm or the strength of anger; however, it enables rash and rapid ranting! Beware of misinterpreting emails, especially those from people you don't often receive them from. </LI>
<LI>If a committee email says 'can somebody do this...', then probably
<OL>
<LI>anybody could do it,</LI>
<LI>everybody will assume that somebody else should or would do it, and</LI>
<LI>nobody will do it.</LI>
</OL>
</LI>
<LI>Emails of the form 'if nobody objects to <unexpected, new & radical proposal> by the end of today...' are likely to prove problematic tomorrow or the next day... </LI>
<LI>Many rants are simple misunderstandings; try to explain what and why you are taking such and such a point of view.</LI>
<LI>Face-to-face meetings are much more effective than drawn-out email discussions. </LI></UL>
<P>You'll need several Expo Committee meetings. Firstly to plan what should be done, and later to check that all the jobs are being done. If someone just isn't pulling their weight or has too much else to do, the committee meetings should be used to provide encouragement (!) and/or redistribute the workload. I suppose one of the jobs of the Expo Leader is to check that everything is going to plan, be he/she won't always think of everything on their own. See the checklists in the expo planning guide</P>
<P>Remember that all the Expo committee are volunteers (more or less of their own volition :-), but they may have different priorities and/or different reasons for participating than yourself. This can make committee work interesting or taxing, depending on your viewpoint, but try to keep Expo as an adventure rather than a chore; it's worth it in the end.</P>
<P>BCRA Insurance was charged at cost to anyone who obtained it through the club, as are Expo T-shirts and meals at the Expo Dinner. All these are charged using Swaps (see below) to the relevant account.</P>
<P>The British Cave Research Association organises special travel insurance with provision for caving. Details are given on the BCRA website. The administrator is:</P>
<P>John Cooper, <BR/>
31 Elm Close, <BR/>
Wells, <BR/>
Somerset, <BR/>
BA5 1LZ</P>
<P>Telephone: 01749 670568 <BR/>
Email: jc@johnmcooper.freeserve.co.uk</P>
<P>The insurance does not seem to cover canyoning holidays, but possibly would cover a day's canyoning during a primarily caving holiday. The cost of the insurance has increased recently; there may be a better deal elsewhere. Personal members of the BCRA get a reasonable discount; you will need to quote their BCRA membership number (ask for it on the Expo form). </P>
<P>Insurance is generally recommended, though some people prefer not to pay for it. They risk the costs on the basis that cave rescue is free (usually) and the E111 form covers standard emergency treatment (maybe). Not all hospitals or all treatment are covered by an E111; they can be very expensive. Some members have used the SnowCard or ActiveCard company in the past.</P>
<P>Sometimes you'll hear of people who've never been on a CUCC meet or Expo before but allegedly want to come now. They may be allegedly keen cavers; however, don't get any insurance for them until they have paid their deposit or been guaranteed by someone you trust. We've had people decide not to go on Expo three days before departure, after we'd spent money on their insurance. They may be difficult to track down and get the money out of afterwards.</P>
<P>Peoples' plans often change in the months leading up to Expo. For this reason, try and leave arranging BCRA insurance as late as possible, but not so late that you incur the 'short notice' penalty charge (5%). Bear in mind the delays in the post when doing this.</P>
<P>Make copies of the insurance certificates from the BCRA. Take the original on Expo in case you need to wave it at hospitals and keep a copy in the UK in case you loose the original and have to make a claim.</P>
