SOUTHWEST REGION FINANCE MEETING 20:00 Central

17 JULY 2015 20:00 CENTRAL (telephone conference call)

Members attending:

· Lt Col Harriet Smith, CS

· Col John Varljen, CV1

· Lt Col Debora Spencer, FM

· Col Joe Smith, CV2

· Col Mark Smith, CC

Agenda Items:

· Review June Financials

· Budget Adjustments for FY 2015

· Budget Status Report for FY 2016

· Review Credit Card operations procedures

· Update Expense Reimbursement Policy Letter

Review July Financials:

Bottom Line Up Front:

SWR Only: Income $32,329.55, Expense $23,004.94, Net Income $9,324.61

NFA Only: Income $45,805.00, Expense $8,162.74, Net Income $37,642.26

Summary: SWR has total Net Income a/o 30 June of $49,967.37. The credit card statements for July are very substantial. I am reasonably confident that the NFAs will have enough funds to cover the expected expenses. I am very concerned about the SWR expenses because I don't think the $9324 will cover it. We will have to transfer funds from the Wells Fargo account to the Servisfirst account to pay the credit card bills.

Observations:

· The %Spent number should be at 75% to be on target. Both the Region Dues (74%) and Operating Funds (75%) are on target for Revenue

· Travel Expenses overall are on target at 74%, even though the IG and Other Staff Travel are over budget. I think that the budget adjustments we made in July will keep us on target.

· Other Expenses (supplies, telephone, postage, awards) are overbudget (126%) with three more months to go. I am not sure if the extra $800 that we transferred from CISM will be enough to cover remaining expenses for this FY.

· Activity expenses are currently under budget, but the expenses are still coming in. We will only know how this plays out at the end.

Budget Adjustment(s) for FY 2015:

The Finance Committee decided not to make any further adjustments in the FY15 budget at this time. Will expect the staff members to stay within the existing budget for now and concentrate on making plans for the future.

Budget Status Report for FY 2016:

FM received budget inputs from the IT and inquiries from Safety and AE . Staff members are uncertain what they should ask for, since none have had a line item budget before. CS will send a reminder email to the staff and encourage the staff to prioritize their requests.

Credit Card Procedures:

Reviewed the list of SWR Credit Card holders that we received from Susan Easter (NHQ FM). Decided to cancel the credit cards for Paul Spencer and James Quick, and issue cards for Roberta Himebrook, Joe Smith and John Kruger. Will keep the individual credit card limits and the corporate credit card limit the same for now, but may revisit this matter later. Will also change the Flight Academy credit cards once the new POCs are chosen.

Discussed the requirement for staff members getting authorization to use the credit cards before expending SWR funds. We can take a passive approach (where no advance authorization is needed IF the staff member submits a detailed budget and stays within that budget) or a pro-active approach where ALL expenses require prior approval. The consensus—if the expense is in the approved detailed budget then no other approval is needed. All other requests must go through the Finance Committee or the Region Commander.

NHQ may require staff to attend activities, and NHQ may pay those travel expenses. SWR staff must contact NHQ in advance to see if NHQ will pay those expenses prior to using SWR funds.

Reviewed the Credit Card Operating Operating Procedure policy letter. Will update the policy letter, send through Sertifi for approval and post to the SWR website.

Expense Reimbursement Policy Letter:

The committee voted to approve removing the reference to SWR reimbursing “at the current IRS mileage rate of $0.565” and reimburse for actual fuel costs only. Will update the policy letter, send through Sertifi for approval and post to the SWR website

Next meeting 21 Sept 2015

End of meeting 21:00 Central