I was looking through the exchequerate policies to answer a question about a recent event, and by accident I stumbled onto this provision.
A copy of the Comparative Balance Sheet and Income/Expense Statement from the annual report(Q4) must be made available to the membership at least annually, whether published in a newsletter or distributed to the membership in some other form.
East Kingdom Financial Policy VIII.B.6
It turns out that this directive comes from the corporate financial policy, which applies to every branch, and may help to preserve the Society’s tax-exempt status:
Financial statements (consisting of the Comparative Balance Statement and the Income Statement) must be made available to the public at least annually, whether published in a newsletter or distributed to the membership in some other form.
Society Financial Policy I.C.
As far as I can tell, Østgarðr has never made these public, at either the provincial or canton levels. Moreover it seems like this is a policy that nearly all Eastern branches are out of compliance with. (I found a few examples of baronies publishing these reports — but they’re all located in other kingdoms.) Perhaps some other branches are sending them to their local email lists? Or passing them around on paper during business meetings? Or, like us, maybe they are simply ignorant of this requirement altogether?
In general, publishing this information does seem like a good idea — groups don’t have to show a detailed breakdown of every individual expense, but letting the membership know roughly how much money they have and how that number changes over time seems like a good practice from the perspective of transparency and accountability.
[Update, January 2023:] I confirmed the outlines of this policy with the Society Exchequer; correspondence attached below.
From: Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin
To: Society Chancellor of the Exchequer
Cc: East Kingdom Exchequer
Date: 11 January 2023
To Mistress Marcel, greetings from the East Kingdom!
I am an officer here in the Canton of Whyt Whey, and hope you might be able to help us with a question that I haven’t been able to get answered locally.
We recently learned that we are required to publish our branch’s annual report’s balance sheet and income/expense statement as per Society Financial Policy paragraph I.C.
We aim to promptly bring ourselves into compliance with this policy and wondered if you have any recommended best practices for doing so.
I’ve had a hard time finding examples of how other local branches which are publishing these reports — can you point us to a couple that are doing this in a good way that we could consider emulating?
Thank you!
In service,
— Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin
From: Society Chancellor of the Exchequer
To: Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin
Cc: East Kingdom Exchequer
Date: 11 January 2023
Greetings!
We need to publish pages 3 and page 4 of the standard report form. We want all finances to be transparent and open to all. These documents do not contain any account numbers that can be ‘stolen’.
Many use their newsletter to publish these documents. Depending how local/kingdom financial policy reads, it is permissible to publish on the local/kingdom web page or electronic newsletter.
I know the Kingdom of Avacal uses their web page. Gleann Abhann uses their newsletter.
Please let me know if this has answered your questions.
Society Exchequer
From: Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin
To: Society Chancellor of the Exchequer
Cc: East Kingdom Exchequer
Date: 11 January 2023
Hello!
Thank you for your prompt and clear answer — that’s exactly what I needed to know.
I’ll chat with folks here and make sure we come into compliance with this requirement promptly.
With appreciation,
— Mathghamhain
I was surprised to find that in the Outlands my current barony’s financial committee is open to any attendees of the monthly populace/business meeting and does cover exactly how much we have in the bank. I thought it was private in Østgardr, at the meetings I attended there as a local officer, financial committee was in a corner afterwards and I was pretty sure that meant it was not for me to know about.
Yup — this kind of information used to be closely held in Østgarðr, but in recent years, our exchequer has made a point of periodically reporting the branch’s bank balance, and we’re continuing to work towards ensuring even more transparency over the coming year.