Re: Current state of Foundation finances

[Ekaterina Gerasimova <kittykat3756 gmail com>]

On 13 April 2014 17:11, Stormy Peters <stormy peters gmail com> wrote:
> Is the budget and the current state of financials (account balances,
> invoices due, money expected) public? If not, can we get at least a summary?

Hi Stormy, here's the link to the financial summary for 2013, with
earlier years for reference:
https://wiki.gnome.org/Foundation/FinancialSummary .

We are aiming to publish the 2014 to-date accounts and proposed budget
towards the end of the month as we are currently concentrating on our
tax return paperwork (which is due mid-May) and chasing up invoices.

> Are we paying our employee during this freeze? Is it expected that we would
> be able to employ an executive director if we want to?

We are still paying all running expenses such as employee and
administrative costs. I estimate that these amount to around $5000 per
month. We will be able to employ an executive director, but not in the
immediate future as it seems prudent to keep expenses to a minimum
until some of the outstanding invoices are paid.

> Thanks to the board members for working through this and being open.
>
> Stormy
>
>
> On Sun, Apr 13, 2014 at 9:31 AM, Ekaterina Gerasimova
> <kittykat3756 gmail com> wrote:
> > On 13 April 2014 14:40, Allan Day <allanpday gmail com> wrote:
> > > David King <amigadave amigadave com> wrote:
> > > ...
> > > > > > Don't we have reserves though? We should have 6 months of operating
> > > > > > expenses as reserves.
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > I should leave maybe this to Kat and other board members but I'm
> > > > > recently enough gone that I can answer - the Foundation has adequate
> > > > > reserves for GNOME's ordinary operations but not for OPW, and the
> > > > > program has ramped up really quickly while the Foundation is still
> > > > > very
> > > > > small.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > That is not correct according to:
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > https://wiki.gnome.org/FoundationBoard/CurrentBudgetFAQ#What_is_the_problem.3F
> > > > That section states "The Foundation does not have any cash reserves
> > > > right
> > > > now".
> > >
> > > Blunt statements like this aren't very helpful, and they send a really
> > > bad message. It's easy to read this line and think the worst.
> > >
> > > Clearly we do have protected reserves - which we are preserving by the
> > > freeze on sponsorship repayments. The extra reserves that we usually
> > > have are expected to recover, and there is a plan in place to ensure
> > > this happens. Can we try and clarify this on the wiki please?
> >
> > We do not have protected reserves. The freeze on sponsorship
> > repayments is in place to make sure that we can reacquire our
> > reserves.
> >
> > The intention of the FAQ is to be honest with our Foundation members
> > because the board believe in being open not only in our code but also
> > when we keep in touch with the membership.
> >
> > As a large portion of our membership are not native English speakers,
> > it is important to keep to keep our communication as simple, concise
> > and precise as possible. The FAQ already clearly states what the board
> > is planning to do to fix the problem and when we expect it to happen.
> >
> > > Allan
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