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:
The previous treasurer should have organised this. If they haven't, do it now.
Go to time-critical events.
FIRST begin the process to get access to the Expo bank account: you need to complete a paper mandate form (still, even in 2023) to become a full-power signatory to this bank account. This takes about a month so start this immediately that you are confirmed as expo treasurer.
Online access at Lloyds was significantly updated in 2022. Lloyds now require their own banking app or either the
Microsoft Authenticator app on a phone or a hardware key such as
Yubikey: see MFA enrollment.
Natwest requires special NatWest hardware or biometric
configuration.
You need to send all your details to the previous expo treasurer with the form so that he/she
can sign it and send it to the bank. These are
At some point you will also need to provide
EDIT: we use Lloyds not NatWest now.
The bank is the Market Street branch of Nat West, which is where you get the paper mandate form. Expo a/c 22997253. See below for how to operate the account.
In 2023 NatWest are now moving to an online method (click on "Add an account holder") for adding account holders. Try it out and then edit this page to include the new instructions.
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!
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 their 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 and out, setting up the online access system (2-factor authentication with special widget-box and personalised bankcard) and looking after the statements. Do set up the button-box hardware if you can, don't just rely on biometric face recognition in an app.
Paper 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. If you enable online-statements, set them up as copies of the paper ones, not as replacements. Email copies to a nerd for archival storage.
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).
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. )
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.
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.
In 2022, this is how Dickon handled it:
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:
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.
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:
|
Already Settled Up |
Not Yet Settled Up |
In credit to expedition and owed more following correction |
I will transfer additional funds to make up difference |
I will transfer correct revised amount |
In credit to expedition and owed less following correction |
If <£20 difference will write off If >£20 difference will ask for difference less £20 |
I will transfer correct amount |
In debt to expedition and owing more following correction |
If < £20 difference will write off If >£20 difference will ask for difference less £20 |
I will email directly with correct amount |
In debt to expedition and owing less following correction |
I will email asking for bank details to make refund |
I will email directly with correct amount |
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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