ARS AGM – FINANCIAL REPORT

November 17, 2019

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.

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