Budget and Finance committee report
by Kristin Pazulski
The budget and finance committee of the Chestnut Hill Community Association
met Thursday, March 2, to discuss its recommended budgets for the CHCA,
the Community Fund and the Local. Due to time restrictions, the committee
only discussed the Local and Association’s budgets at this meeting.
They also met Monday, March 6, to discuss the Community Fund budget and
decide on grants to be given from the Fund Drive, which currently has
about $30,000 to distribute to interested organizations, about half as
much as they had last year to give. Details will follow in the next issue
of the Local.
The following is what was discussed at the March 2 meeting, and may be
modified when it is brought to the Executive Committee meeting on March
9, since the budget and finance committee planned to meet again prior
to the executive meeting.
Budget Overview:
The Chestnut Hill Local
The Local is the most financially sound part of the three budgets, and
is owned by the association; however, its budget does not support the
association unless the association runs a deficit, and then the association
can borrow funding from the Local.
In the proposed 2007 budget, the Local is expected to have an income
of $1.15 million, up two percent from last year. Revenue from classified
advertising is higher as the cost of each ad is increasing by 50 cents
to account for inclusion on the Internet. Additionally, the goal revenue
for display advertising has increased.
Total expenses for the Local add up to $1.11 million, up 1.1 percent
from last year. The proposed outside articles and photography budget was
cut to allow for salary increases for full-time staff according to Kari
Ghezarian, business manager for the CHCA.
The budget for the Local’s marketing research increased to allow
for a survey of the Local’s readership.
The cost of printing and delivering increased, partly because of the
recent hike in gas prices, as well as inflation with paper and printing
expenses. The Local prints with Press and Journal, outside of Harrisburg.
A fund exchange between the Local and the association is budgeted for
the association’s advertising endeavors. In essence, the association
will be receiving free advertising in the Local, which is no change from
previous years, but budget and finance commmittee chair Mark Keintz wanted
to see all these transactions in the books.
The tentative Local budget is therefore expected to be $34,000 in the
black, after putting money in its reserve, sort of like a Local savings
account.
The Community Association
For the 2006 fiscal year, which ends March 31, the association is expecting
to borrow some funds from the Local to help with the expected $25,000
shortfall. The committee has scheduled to pay back part of that in the
proposed 2007 fiscal year budget.
With this in mind, the budget and finance committee challenged themselves
to cut expenses from the proposed 2007 budget to help ensure the association
would be in the black for the next year. However, reviewing the expenses
actually added more expense lines, and eventually they realized cutting
was not the ideal option and instead began exploring ways to increase
income to the account.
As it stands now, the 2007 tentative income for the association is $127,000.
The association, now at about 2,500 members, relies heavily on its membership
dues, and so for 2007 is expecting to increase membership to 2,700 with
a membership campaign.
The Holiday House Tour has been financially unpredictable in the past
few years, so Keintz averaged the past three years’ to estimate
an income and cost of the event for 2007. The association is also gaining
income from the fundraiser AbZOOlutely. The profits from the November
auction will be split between the CHCA and the Chestnut Hill Business
Association.
Monies raised from a wine tasting fundraiser, scheduled for May 2006
(in the 2007 fiscal year), are to be put toward the 2006 deficit.
Searching for options to increase the CHCA income, the committee decided
adding a fundraising event would not help their plight because there wasn’t
enough dedicated manpower to run a successful event.
The committee is considering asking the 36 at-large board members to
give non-tax deductible personal contributions. One committee member said
that the board members, as evident by their running for the board position,
are the most involved persons in their community and should be willing
to help in this “emergency situation.” This added income will
still leave the CHCA budget in the red after the following additional
expenses.
The membership committee budget increased for their proposed campaign
to recruit new members. However, most of that budget is to be used for
advertising and will therefore be returned to the CHCA from the Local.
It was initially proposed to change the current annual awards, which
are plaques, to paper certificates in order to save money, but the committee
decided to stay with the nicer presentations.
The added expense line of a professional minute recorder for the board
and executive committee meetings was added to ensure there are no discrepancies
in the minute taking.
The CHCA personnel expense has increased; however, a part of that is
set to come from the Local and the Fund budgets to pay the community manager
for her increased involvement with these organizations.
Total CHCA expenses came to $116,000.
The tentative budget leaves the association in the red, if the board
passes the budget as is, but that included a repayment to the Local and
money placed in the association’s reserve.
|
