How the Money Works

[Kaine Chandler]

NOTR will be taking donations from the players at EC.

These donations will be recorded, and reported to various tax agencies (see the post on taxes).

The money will be spent first and foremost on rent for the BGC.

IT IS ILLEGAL FOR US (the Board and Officers) TO GET PAID TO DO THIS, so we can't personally keep any money.

We (the Officers and Board) CAN be reimbursed for money spent on behalf of NOTR. Sarah has been spending ALOT of money getting nickeled and dimed on registration fees for all the lisences we've had to get, and I think it would be nice for her to get some of that back if we raise enough over rent.

IT IS ALSO ILLEGAL FOR US TO GIVE MONEY BACK TO YOU

so, if we raise more money than we need to pay rent, we have to decide how to spend the money, but we will be spending it ON EC.

We can't hand an ST money for an event, but we could buy and then give food/drinks or other goods or services that EC needs/wants.

or we can just hang on to it for next year's rent.

In the event we have "too much money" we'll talk to EC about how you'd like it spent.

If NOTR is ever dissolved, then any money in its bank account has to go to another non-profit organization of our choosing at the time.

[Just Evan]

Would it be appropriate for you guys to post up the total costs associated with forming this NPO?

If that isn't something you are comfortable with, I for one certainly understand.

Also, who decides where money goes? Obviously, if a donator says "here's my $4 for the week for the B&GC and here's an extra $6 to pay back your formation costs." it's pretty straight forward what to do with the funds; but if you are over $200 for a given month, who is making the call that X amount goes to the next month's rent and Y amount goes to paying back costs or other works?

Thanks,

-Evan

[Valerie]

At this time, the total costs of formation consist almost entirely of license & filing fees. As of today I am in approximately $100 regarding licensing fees and the cost of a receipt book (OH, IRONY) so we can keep track of the money coming in.

Our #1 priority is making rent. If we collect over the amount of rent in one month, I'm of the opinion as the Treasurer that the money should be saved until next month in case we're a bit short on collections. If we get donations over rent a couple times in a row and we have a little bit of money in the coffer, that may be an appropriate time to look at reimbursing license fees. I'm not in a huge hurry, and for the time being I am looking at the money I have invested in getting this thing running as a "donation to the cause" more than something I'm sitting on my hands waiting to get reimbursed.

We do keep receipts for everything and transparency is key here, so we'll be looking at situations more like "X dollars came in, Y dollars went out for rent, Z dollars were used to buy a new receipt book or pay for licensing fees." and not "X dollars came in, Y dollars went out for rent, and somewhere somebody bought something." We are accountable to our donors for the way that money is handled and have a vested interest in keeping us up on rent so we all have a warm place to play, since that's how this all started in the first place.

Edited for first-post-of-the-morning sentence structure fail.

[Kaine Chandler]

If in the unlikely circumstance we do have so much money above and beyond start up costs and rent, we will be making board posts to communicate this and find out what people want to do with it.

Legally, the Board and the Officers decide how the money is used as long as it is used in accordance with the purpose of the corporation (to support EC). However, since we don't want to railroad people, we will find a way for everyone to vote about how any money beyond rent and startup costs should be spent or saved. Until there is a vote, extra money will simply be saved against future rent costs, or business license renewal fees.

I didn't mean to imply there would be lots of spending, just to make people aware that, legally, we cannot return funds, so if we do somehow have extra, we have to find a way to spend it on EC.

We will of course, be posting financial info the same way Jeff did last year.

[Just Evan]

Thank you both for these answers.

[Jane]

If for some reason we have a large excess of cash I have a suggestion of where it could go. The suggestion is the maintenance our websites. Currently the hosting costs $30.00/month and there are some yearly domain name fees as well.

[Valerie]

That's a really good example of something monies could be donated for and we could pay toward, yes. We'll make sure it's something that is voted on when we have enough money!