Hope everything is okay Elin--have agreat night!
Elin - Hope everything is okay!
Welcome home! I hope that you feel less exhausted now.
I hope all is well this morning, Elin!
Thanks, everyone.
As briefly as I can tell you what put me in the state I was in: I am a member of the State Finance Committee as well as the State Executive Board of my music organization. Normally these meetings go very well and all recommendations are met with approval from everyone on all committees and boards as well as the general membership.
This year we have been faced with a two-edged sword that has impacted us financially as an organization. The president of the National Federation of Music Clubs is one of our own! She is a friend and is one of the most gracious and hard-working women I have ever known (Tammi -- think Janet King here). However, she appointed 11 members of the Virginia Federation to serve as national committee chairs. While that is an honor our group has a standing policy of paying an honorarium to every Virginia member of those positions (on any given year we are lucky to have 1 or 2). We also have three Board Members on the National level who receive money annually from us. The three Board Members receive $1500 each and the other 11 members receive $400. While that does not initially sound like a lot of money, it is $8900 annually (as long as they hold those positions) and there is absolutely no income to fund these honoraria.
The Finance Committee and the Executive Board fought over this for 3 hours each on Wednesday afternoon and again that night and the final recommendation to the general membership was that we would not pay the $400 since those people had been honored by being asked and that they were doing work on a National level as opposed to actually representing the state of Virginia. The Board members would continue to receive their payments.
The general membership was not happy and vetoed the recommendation therefore putting the money back into the budget. The same membership, after having argued for 90 minutes over this then refused to approve the 2009 budget because we would be operating in a deficit.
Another 2 hour discussion ensued and they finally approved the $98,000 budget. As you can see, as a non-profit organization, at this rate we will deplete our money very quickly!
The problem that is the most disturbing is that every single one of us on the Finance Committee and Executive Board are very good friends. This has caused a lot of hurt feelings all around and I hope we can find a way to mend them very soon.
Our meetings ran late and I got home just in time to drop my boss in her driveway and go to work for 3 straight hours.
There is my whine-y tale of woe that was not so brief. Sorry about that.
But thanks to all of you for your concern and worry about me.
