Don Burnside, ARS Finance and Audit Officer. Email: don.burnside@iinet.net.au
Financial Report for year ended 31 December 2017
Summary
The financial affairs of the Society remain on an adequate footing with a profit from ordinary activities of $52,460 (2016: loss of $39,499) and total equity/accumulated surplus of $138,494 at 31 December 2017 (2016: $86,034) (Note – all dollar values are GST exclusive).
The Society’s total equity is $138,494 which is considered adequate to cover any liabilities.
Income and expenses
| Year ending 31 December |
2017 |
2016 |
| Income | ||
| Conferences |
196,138 |
4,545 |
| Membership fees |
26,665 |
20,806 |
| Bank interest |
487 |
1,173 |
| Journal income |
2,291 |
26,713 |
| Refunded Grant income |
2,000 |
– |
| Sundry income |
888 |
– |
| Copyright income |
– |
979 |
| Total income |
228,469 |
54,216 |
| non-conference income |
32,331 |
49,671 |
| Expenses | ||
| Journal Costs |
(33,204) |
(38,944) |
| Conference Costs |
(113,719) |
(14,911) |
| Newsletter Costs |
(3,500) |
(9,500) |
| Other expenses |
(25,586) |
(30,360) |
| Total expenses |
(176,009) |
(93,715) |
| non-conference expenses |
(62,290) |
(78,804) |
| Profit/(Loss) | ||
| From ordinary activities |
52,460 |
(39,499) |
|
|
|
|
| Total equity/ accumulated surplus on hand at 31 December |
138,494 |
86,034 |
Supporting information
Unusual (one-off) expenses in 2017 included costs for indexing past issues of the RMN ($1,000), additional costs website maintenance ($2,380), and late payment of 2016 honoraria to the Website Editor ($1,500) and Membership Officer ($2,500).
The improvement in the Society’s financial position between December 2016 and December 2017 is due to the following factors.
- The higher than budgeted profit from the 19th Biennial Conference held at Port Augusta in September 2017 added approximately $60,000 to the ARS reserves (see further details below).
- The success of the system of three-year memberships at a slightly discounted rate as a means of ‘locking in’ members for coming years (agreed by Council at Meeting 254, 5 October 2016). This will be continued in future years. We currently have 31 members who are on multi-year memberships.
- Income from membership fees increased in 2017, not-withstanding that some of these funds are for multi-year membership fees already paid for 2018 and 2019.
- There was no payment of an honorarium for the Membership Officer in 2017, resulting in a saving of $2,500.
- A switch during 2017 from Chorus Call to Webex as the provider for tele-conferences, which are an essential requirement for the Society’s operations resulted in a saving estimated at $2,000 during 2017. The full year saving will be greater.
Conference income and expenses
Total conference income (spread over the 2016 and 2017 years) was $200,455 comprising registrations of $124,977 and sponsorship of $75,478. The total cost (spread over 2016-2017, and into 2018) was $139,753, and there was solid profit of $60,703 (as compared to a budgeted figure of $19,218). This is the highest profit made by a conference in ARS history, and has resulted in the Society’s finances being in a much sounder state at the end of 2017 than at the end of 2016.
Looking forward
The new contract for the publication of The Rangeland Journal will result in a reduction in annual payments to our publisher CSIRO from $29,091 to $18,181, a saving of $10,910.