2019-2020 Treasurer and Membership Committee Report

Treasurer Report prepared by Steph Calvert, Treasurer, March 2020

This report is for the fiscal year from January 1st to December 31st, 2019.

The Association finished the 2019 year with 98 members (so close to that seemingly magical and significant 100!); this is up from 65 members at the end of 2018.

The Vancouver Metal Arts Association remains in a solid financial position. It has been the Association’s unwritten policy that all events, exhibits and other activities break even financially. The organizers of the Association’s activities have done an excellent job at keeping costs down.

For those who would like an overview of how the finances work, we mostly have money coming in through membership fees and exhibitions/events/seminars, and money going out for either running those programs or operating expenses for the association. I will go into more detail at the AGM, but here is a summary of income and expenses:

• In 2019, the VMAA more than doubled its gross revenues over the previous year. Of this, 33% came from membership dues, compared to 55% over the prior year.

• This is due in part to a general increase in funds (as explained by the increase in member numbers), but as a proportional drop, it may be explained by greater engagement in exhibitions (with fees surpassing membership income) at 36% of our total income.

• Most of the remaining income came from miscellaneous seminars, workshops, and special events.

• As is usual for the VMAA, the lion’s share of the expenses incurred during the year were for exhibitions and workshops, for a total cost of [redacted] – nearly triple the previous year. Although the program costs increased, a corresponding increase in revenues offset these costs. Kudos to all our volunteers and committees, and especially to our exhibition committee!

Despite our total operating expenses tripling from 2018 to 2019, our administrative expenses remained modest. Total operating expenses tripled in 2019, leaving the Association with a net gain of [redacted] – once those expenses are subtracted from the Association’s gross profits, which were almost twice that of 2018. In all, we brought in more money for the Association as a whole, despite an increase in operational expenses and exhibition/event/program expenses.

As of December 31, 2019, the Association had just over [redacted] in the bank, with most of the net gains earmarked for exhibitions fees and expanding our offerings to members.

It is ideal for nonprofits to have an unrestricted reserve to cover approximately one year of expenses, which means that the VMAA should hold at least $2,000 in the bank at all times. It will be up to the 2020-2021 and future boards to determine the most fiscally prudent way to use these funds that have accumulated since the VMAA’s inception.

I have completed and filed our 2019 tax return.

I look forward to another year of serving on the Vancouver Metal Arts Association Board in my role as Treasurer.

Membership committee report prepared by Sharon Bradley, Membership & Engagement Chair

As mentioned in the Treasurer’s Report, In 2019 we had 98 paid members, a substantial increase of 33 new members over the previous year. At the time of this report we have 26 members renewed for 2020, and all lapsed members are reminded they can quickly and easily renew through our (new!) website.

The focus of my position has recently shifted from membership to exploring funding possibilities, so for the coming year I will be heading up a new Development Committee.

I am registering a Canada Council account for VMAA, so that we may be eligible to apply for a variety of grants in the future. The plan is to apply for project funding for an event or exhibition sometime in the next 1-2 years.

I researched the possibility of the Vancouver Metal Arts Association applying for charitable status, in order to open up some funding streams, but we have ultimately decided against pursuing this action for the time being due to additional costs for bookkeeping and other administrative duties that we would incur. We may revisit this possibility in the future as our membership continues to grow.