GWA finance info

**j* e* m* s* <h*@sbcglobal.net>**

I contacted Anne Marie Van Nest, who is president of Garden Writers 
Association about some of the questions raised on this list. Here is 
her response:

First a little GWA financial history... until Bob LaGasse arrived as 
Executive Director, GWA had very little reserve funds in the bank and 
with a "wish and a prayer" board members hoped to end up at the end 
of the year without a deficit. It was lean going for a long time in 
this organization.  Over the last 15 years, Bob has tracked every 
penny that goes in or out of our bank accounts and through 
frugalness, balanced budgets, joining the Author's Coalition and 
conservative investments has slowly built up our monetary reserve 
until it is where it is today - at a comfortable amount.  This 
reserve and the disbursement of it is governed by IRS rules for a 
501(C)3 non-profit organization.

Some members of GWA look at our bank account balance and think that 
it is a waste to "sit on it" and would vote to spend it.  Others feel 
that it should be returned to the members as some form of benefit - 
for example to reduce the Symposium registration fee. While I agree 
it would be a nice idea to give back some of our funds to the 
membership, deciding on a fair way that would benefit everyone 
equally and over the long term is not an easy task.  It has taken a 
lot of hard work over many long years to get to this point; while we 
are now at a point where we can take some liberties to spend some of 
our reserve, I would like to see a majority preserved and a potion 
invested as our security blanket for any unusual and unexpected 
events in the future. For example, we have to book our Symposium 
hotels 2-3 years in advance and guarantee a large block of rooms to 
get a good rate for members.  If the price of gas suddenly springs up 
to $5/gallon during the summer before a Symposium and many members 
decide not to attend, we would have to pay for the room nights that 
we committed to years previously.  This could be many thousands of 
dollars.  A hurricane warning for Raleigh, NC just before the third 
week in September this year is something that I would also like to 
have a contingency fund for- granted there is event insurance for 
portions of our losses in this case. 

Our invested funds also allow GWA to tackle big projects like the 
website upgrade without worrying about raising membership fees or 
borrowing money to do so.  The budget has traditionally been a 
break-even one during the last few years, but the current board did 
approve a 2009 budget of $705,442 in expenses and $653,419 in 
projected income for a deficit of $-52,023.  The increase in expenses 
is attributed to increased costs of bus rentals, hotel catering 
costs, postage, printing, and the website development for this year. 
The deficit, if present at the end of the year would come out of our 
invested funds.  GWA activities have grown each year and our member 
participation continues to increase as well - both a very good 
situation to be in, but GWA needs solid finances for this.

The GWA finances are scrutinized monthly by the Treasurer (currently 
Shirley Remes).  Check out the two excellent candidates presently 
running for Treasurer for the next term on your online GWA election 
ballot.  Make your vote count and tell GWA your choice for the next 
Treasurer. 

All national board members and the Executive Committee meet twice a 
year and go over the full GWA financial details.  New budget items 
are always discussed at the board meetings and a majority vote gets 
them adopted.  If you would like to add budgetary (or any other) 
items to the next meeting agenda or find out more specifics about the 
budget, please contact your national director, Bob LaGasse 
(execdir@gardenwriters.org) or myself before the board meeting starts 
on September 22nd, 2009.

Everyone is also very welcome to attend the annual breakfast meeting 
where the GWA finances will be presented to members.  This year the 
GWA Annual Business Meeting will be held on Saturday, September 26th 
at the Raleigh Convention Center. The Garden Writers Association 
Foundation will also present their finances (which are separate from 
GWA) during this gathering.  The Garden Writers Foundation raises 
funds through PAR sponsorships, the Symposium raffle draw, individual 
and corporate donations and investment earnings.  This money is used 
by the Foundation to grant scholarships ($6000-$8000 each year) to 
post secondary students combining horticulture and journalism 
studies, fund the Plant A Row for the Hungry program, and operate the 
consumer statistics/garden trends research.

Please feel free to drop me an email or phone to discuss any of this further.

Anne Marie Van Nest
GWA President
avannest@austin.rr.com

And speaking of Raleigh, it was announced in the Project: Green 
Industry news yesterday...
July 23, 2009	 
Raleigh turns to flower, solar power
The Public Utilities Department of Raleigh, N.C., has planted about 
50 acres of sunflowers to harvest the seeds for oil. The oil will be 
processed to produce biodiesel. Department officials hope the 
biodiesel could then be used to operate the city's farm equipment. 
The city is also leasing 10 acres of land near the treatment plant to 
Southern Energy Management and NxGen Power to install solar panels 
that will generate 1.7 kilowatt hours of electricity annually, 
reports The News Observer. The amount of power that will be generated 
is about the equivalent to energy used by 200 homes for a year. Learn 
more about Raleigh's eco-friendly initiatives on our blog, Project: 
Green Industry.

-- 
Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp
The Hoosier Gardener
Director Garden Writers Association
Writer * Editor * Speaker * Garden Consultant
Co-author,The Indiana Gardener's Guide
Editor, Indiana Living Green magazine
P.O. Box 20310, Indianapolis, IN 46220
E-mail: hoosiergardener@sbcglobal.net
http://www.hoosiergardener.com
http://www.IndianaLivingGreen.com
E-mail: editor@IndianaLivingGreen.com
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