NAF Treasurer Election 2024
Following hot on the heels of the election for the NAF President, is the election for the treasurer. The current incumbent, Geggster, has opted not to stand having been in the role for several years.
The NAF charter defines the role of treasurer as:
- Collects any enacted club dues
- Maintains club finances
- Keeps records of finances (for public viewing if requested)
- Protect the organisation against fraud and theft, ensuring safe custody of money, and prompt banking
- Ensure that sufficient funds are available to meet all ongoing operational requirements
- Keep up-to-date records as well as an audit trail for all transactions
- Present the accounts of the organisation to the committee each January
- Ensure safe/secure means of payment for our membership
- Ensure that the organisation’s outgoings do not exceed our subscriptions
- Make sure the committee understands its financial obligations, particularly appropriate and inappropriate expenditure/revenue
- Be an active member of the NAF committee
- Advises on NAF strategy and planning
There are three candidates who have been nominated, and I will discuss a bit about how they have presented themselves and what they have said in the Q&A that has just concluded. As an accountant, I understand the technical stuff, but I will try to make it as jargon free as possible. Do feel free to ask me if anything is unclear.
So, in the order they appear on the ballot paper, we have:
Georgiechristo #19848
George lives in Sydney, Australia. He is the current captain of Team Australia who will be playing in the Eurobowl for the first time this year. He organises the Waratah Tournament Series as well as the Sydney Bowl.
In his professional job he manages and governs hundreds of millions of dollars of project expenditure and has to ensure that projects are delivered prudently and efficiently.
As membership gift expenses have more than doubled, George suggests he would take the opportunity to review procurement and the current inventory.
He wants to do some analysis on the increasing expenses, using the number of new memberships, active memberships and stock to be able to predict how much money the NAF will have in future years.
He suggests as a large capital project, he'd be looking at updating the website but he'd want the problem and opportunities to be fully considered and documented, with all options assessed before any investment is made.
George suggests that whilst the World Cup organisers should manage their own budgets, it might be possible for the NAF to support such a large endeavour with a loan, as well as providing guidance on the planning side of things.
He would be willing to support including in the budget an amount for artists so that the NAF can move away from using AI generated images in it's publicity.
He has also suggested that the NAF can look at purchasing options with regards to gifts, as well as distribution of them although he personally enjoys renewing his membership in person at the larger events.
In terms of increasing funds, he has said things he would be interested in considering are a NAF merch shop and tiered membership with extra gifts or benefits for a premium fees, but acknowledges that some of these cross over into other members of the committee, and so he would need to work with them on these issues.
When asked about foreign exchange losses, he has said that savings may be easier to make in other areas, although there are potentially ways to reduce these losses by looking at ways to reduce the need to transfer between accounts in different currencies.
Melifaxis #248
Rob is from Massachusetts in the USA. He has a masters degree in Finance and works in a financial planning and analysis and financial consolidation role. He also volunteers for various organisations, sometimes in the role of treasurer.
He runs the Beantown Brouhaha in Boston and runs the North East Blood Bowl Network (NEBBN) Tournament Series.
Rob believes that the agenda of the NAF Committee will dictate the needs of the organisation from a financial perspective. Despite an increase in NAF memberships, he has pointed out that the expenses are growing at a larger rate. Removing the NAFC loan from the accounts shows a slight decline, and as such he feels that this is a risk to the NAF along with inflationary risk and believes some of the NAF's cash could be placed in an interest bearing account, which would likely be one of his first actions as treasurer.
Among the solutions that he would consider help reduce this deficit are a slight increase in membership costs, looking at fund-raising auctions, adding a donation page and asking NAF majors to add a small amount to admission fees that go to the NAF - with the caveat that if the organisation is asking for donations, it needs to be doing so for a good cause, and attempting to increase the percentage of in person sign ups which is currently only 20% thus saving on mailing costs - potentially by putting an option when members renew to allow them to select a large event to collect their gift at. He would also support a NAF shop if the distribution is managed by a third party.
He views a website overhaul as probably the only significant project that he envisages funds being spent on and he did mention the possibility of developing an app for TOs to score events and allow the results to be directly entered into the database.
Melifaxis believes that whilst the NAF can loan money to larger events, it is simply not feasible to fully support some events (especially the size of the world cup) and the burden should vastly fall on the shoulders of those organising it.
He has 25 years experience of creating financial reports for a wide audience, including those with no accounting experience, and making sure that it is explained in language that the audience can understand.
Rob has spoken out about the use of AI from the NAF and would support spending funds on artists within reason.
In response to the question about foreign exchange losses, he pointed out that there are three different types of foreign exchange risks, and explained why we shouldn't be worried about them - especially as one of the losses is purely for reporting purposes only.
Ulvardar #13620
Juanma lives in Spain and works as a civil servent in a justice court, previously working as a freelance accounting and tax advisor for 10 years.
He has been the NAF TRO since 2016 and has been running Cheesebowl for 13 years. He is part of the staff at RIVA and was second in charge at the Alicante World Cup.
He wants to make the NAF more participative and involve members in the way the NAF is run and would suggest running several surveys to know what the community wants.
Juanma notes that the rising costs of buying and distributing gifts is outpacing the membership fee increase and suggests that he would look at different options for suppliers and quotes figures as low as £0.07 per dice due to lower living costs in Spain, as well as looking at whether the additional charged for non face-to-face renewals is enough. He suggests looking at suppliers in the EU to ease the costs and paperwork involved in distribution.
For the sorts of large expenditures he'd expect to see, he'd plan a review and analysis on the website and database, the cost of developing tournament software based on the one used at the World Cup. He thinks that the NAF should be more attractive to members than just the gift and rankings and that this would be a good additional benefit. Juanma would also like to review the gift distribution system.
Ulva is happy to advise and assist potential World Cup bids but recognises that the NAF can't manage the finances of the event and should take a hands-off approach to let the organisers get on with the organisation and that the events should be financially sustatinable and run without NAF backing.
He is happy to discuss paying artists rather than using AI but is also open to running an art and painting contest.
There was some comments from a current committee member about some of Ulva's suggestions going outside the role of treasurer - most of those that I felt were more a general committee role I left out of the above.
There was also a query from a former president regarding the fact that a large part of the committee would be Spanish if he was elected after the recent presidential election meaning the president and vice-president are now from Spain. The concern was raised due to a historical issue when 3/5 committee members were English and there was some pushback from members then. Ulva says that it will help him work with the committee, but that for him it is not about nationality but about giving back to the BloodBowl community, and that there will obviously be things that he disagrees with the other Spanish committee members on, and that he is also keen to work with the committee members from other countries. He will also be willing to listen to thoughts from members all across the world.
Voting
You can now vote if you log on to the members area on the NAF website and select the Treasurer Election 2024 option down the left hand side. Voting is open until 3rd March 23:00 CET.
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