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.
So what does this Expo treasurer do? Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is as follows:
Your task, appreciated by a few, will require time, effort and perseverance...
Try to get someone else to do these even though they involves expo funds:
Study the previous expo accounting policies 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.
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.
There are copies of letters requesting grants on the expo online systems letters archive.
You may find at first that the Expo committee is just you and the Expo Leader. Help him/her find and pressgang victims persuade volunteers for the other committee roles:
See the checklist for running an expo in the expo planning guide.
Absolutely refuse (politely) to do any of these yourself. You have enough to do.
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!
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. Hassle everybody else too :-)
See the instructions to expoers on what their paperwork responsibilities are as this sets out payment terms and says in writing that someone is only registered as coming on the expo after 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.)
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:
There was an on-line version of the form in 2014, and possibly even a script for processing the responses. Find a suitable nerd to fix it; it's not difficult. Or use some newer online service, but not a Facebook "Event" as some expoers are not and will not have Facebook accounts.
In the past requirements set by the GPF/NCA meant that all 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.
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.
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.
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.
The Expo Bier Book and Sesh Book 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:
The expenses and sesh swaps are also copied online into the Bank of Expo and the bier book and sesh book are annotated when when an expense has been transcribed.
The 2016 expo bierbook and seshbook were scanned and can be downloaded (13MB and 5 MB) from here: expofiles/writeups/2016/
Anything else financial can also be included, particularly notes to the treasurer. The
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.
The Bier Book and Sesh Book, including pre-expo transactions andd all as copied into the Bank of Expo, 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.
After Expo, when you know who has contributed to transporting expo gear to and from Austria, create appropriate transactions in the Bank of Expo 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.
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.
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 Bank of Expo by putting the individuals' days in the allocation entries. So you do need to read and understand the Bank of Expo documentation. But it is a whole lot easier than creating as spreadsheet (last done in 2014).
What is paid for, for transporting gear, is determined by the principles described in part 1 of this document.
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.
Record accounting trivia, such as the number of Gössers drunk, the times underground, etc.
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: expofiles/writeups/2018/bierbook/.
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.
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
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.
Being Expo Treasurer will involve quite a lot of work. Remember the need to be open and fair. Good Luck!
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