"All HMGS Members should check this out !!!!!!!!!!!!" Topic

Accountant Firm's Financial Report for HMGS for 2009 ending 12/31/2009. Approximate raises over 2008. A quick list of some of the expenses that increased in 2009.
Apologies for any errors.
Advertising +$1200
Education +$8000
Newsletter +$2500 (Did we get any?)
Outreach +$2700
Prof Services +$4100
Promotions +$22000
Software +$7500
Sponsorship +$11900
Staff Travel +$6200
Strategic Planning +$5600
2 letters of demand of payment for convention site and hotel rooms; disputed; amounts not given.

I think the new BOD has their work cut out for them! I like all the fancy classifications for the spending. One could only wonder the cost of the two letters of demand. Thanks VL for your honesty in regards to releasing this information. Why the membership was not kept in the loop regarding these expenditures makes you think. Once again who am I as I only show up pay my fees for membership and admissions to the shows but when you spend this much money for a failed venture someone has to be held accountable. I'm sure VL will keeep us posted.

Outreach: "Let's see how much Carmine wants to straighten things out for us with Baltimore."

Staff Travel: "Oh, Carmine wants a sitdown."

Strategic Planning: "Let's go down to Vinnie's Boom-Boom Room and have a few beers with Carmine while we talk things over."

Education: "Geez, Carmine sure charges a lot!"

Those are nice vague categories! I'm not a member now, but I was for several years and I only received one newsletter plus a notice for each convention every year.

Looks like a little bit of "mission creep". Isn't the main function to organize conventions? What are the education, outreach, promotions, staff travel, sponsorship, strategic planning categories for?

I assume that some of these categories cover the expense of bringing in speakers and guests and comping their hotel rooms. Although it raises the question, does HMGS-East really need to have so many guests and what does it have to do with a wargame convention?

The education part may have something to do with maintaining a tax free status. HMGS-Midwest runs a "war college" of speakers (who, by the way, do it for free) to qualify for the tax exempt status, but this is done at minimal cost, if any.

I guess it's true what they say about 'sausage making'.

Sounds like the Intoxicated Lascar budget process at work.

Allen

Who is bringing the snacks for this one???????

Who is bringing the snacks for this one???????

Carmine. It comes out of the Promotions budget.

I didn't release it. HMGS released it. It's public record.
There are probably some valid explanations in some of those expenses. Others not. And the point is we can't keep doing that.

I will get the popcorn!!! Mike Adams

Those are some valid expenditures, Alte Fritz, but those are pretty hefty increases over the previous year, don't you think? I sincerely hope that that's an anomaly that doesn't happen again on the current BOD's watch and I think they are cognizant of that, but have said little possibly due to pending legal matters.

"Fancy Classifications" and "vague Categories"………as an accountant who has audited and worked for non-profits these accounts (classification,categories) are quite normal.

Please be aware that this is half page of a income statement. Financials usually have more statements and some explanations. I would like to see the explanations of some of these expenses but I'll hold my comments until I see them.

Increasing the amount spent on a newsletter when there has been no newsletter for quite some time is brilliant!

Allen

I'd be interested in seeing what the actual expenditures were, not just the increases.

I see our good friend, John the OFM, didn't take his meds today. LOL!

I did too take my meds. That is why I have such a rational take on this "story".

Always remember these wise words:
"First they came for the smartases, but I was not a smartass, so I said nothig."

Readers of TMP, if "They" can silence me, they can silence anybody!

Where are the $400 USD hammers and $1,200 USD toilet seats like the government lists on expenditures? Can we learn nothing from our elected officials? Prof Services? Is that for the Prof Emeritus of the local University to oversee things, or is that for "Professional Services" during staff travel? I know, I mean I've heard that the local bordello in West Nanticoke Pa. could give Prof Service for an entire year for that price!

Also a caveat; some of these items were budgeted for in 2009. Some were probably increased over the 2008 budget. Looking back at 2009 budget, however, still indicates much increased spending and you can check the categories for yourself. The software budget had been greatly increased and you could probably take it off the list. But much remains and will take someone with practical accounting experience to break it down specifically, the overspending still seems to permeate the 2009 records and needs to be addressed.

John, they have silenced you or did you PM from the Dawghouse like I did. OOPS! Shouldn't have let that slip.

Readers of TMP, if "They" can silence me, they can silence anybody!

Then the terrorists win!

I always PM from the Dawghouse. Since conjugal visits are not allowed, I devote that energy into creative ways to smuggle out messages to my peeps and posse.

BTW, in a testament to how much I actually read the original posts, these are INCREASES in the various "budgets", not the actual ammounts.
As the late great Senator Dirksen observed, "A billion dollars here, a billion there… Pretty soon you are talking real money."

I'm telling you – Austerity program.

Hotel, with rooms and tables for games. (already a big expense, but a justified one)

Gamers (must be reached through advertising)

GMs (free admission a must, in order to get enough games to drive the attendance)

Volunteers (must be given some perks – like maybe reduced or free lodging, I understand this)

Vendors (keep the price of tables and booths down)

Eliminate all else in the budget that doesn't impact these areas directly for a few years, until we get past these monetary problems.

But would it be doable?

Chuck

As a former treasurer I have some questions about these "fancy" categories….

Advertising +$1200 Makes sense but seems awful low given what they've done to promote Historicon..

Education +$8000 Education for whom? The BoD or is this "educational" programs for the great unwashed? Is this where they shift the expenses for bringing in all those convention speakers from the convention to the corporate line…makes the convention expense look better.

Newsletter +$2500 (Did we get any?) nuff said

Outreach +$2700 Outreach to whom? Is this part of the expense of the forner president when he was globetrotting?

Prof Services +$4100 OK, is this for the accounting firm?

Promotions +$22000 Ah, here it is, promotions on steroids…how is this different than advertising.

Software +$7500 That the new registration system that everyone raved about? I think we're still waiting for the revised hand count of Historicon attendance…

Sponsorship +$11900 This one puzzles me…sponsorship of what…is this where expenses for Dukes games goes?

Staff Travel +$6200 Prez travel primarily…

Strategic Planning +$5600 Another puzzler…as someone who does strategic planning I'm not sure what could have totaled this much…even if they paid the hotels and meals for a weekend of "reflection and looking into the future" or navel gazing by any other name, it shouldn't have cost that much.

db

Having been given some insight this past weekend into what constitutes a "volunteer" getting a free room for the convention, I am starting to agree with some of the complaints there.

People who work the desk. I am fine with that.
Con director and staff. Fine.
Comps for some other activities I have less understanding of. As a member, I am starting to want a list of what exactly the people who are getting free room for the con do for their, on the generous side, $500 USD return for time and effort.

As for the above increases, I can see the promotions budget skyrocketing based on the venue bait and switch. How that is different from advertising someone will have to explain to me. Same with sponsorship? What does HMGS sponsor?

Remember -- these are the *increases* over 2008, not the actual amounts.

Outreach, advertisement, AND promotions?

HMGS East. The gift that never stops giving.
We need a Jay Leno or a Jon Stewart to do them justice.

So where did the cake fit in? Would that be promotions.

Oh boy… some seem so obsessed!

Did not mean to confuse you John the OFM, the first figures cited came from an annual report. Those are actual expenditures which at one point topped (90,000)difference and somehow got down to (81,000) difference after all was said and done. I brought up the budget because things were budgeted for in 2009 that definitely would be an increase over 2008, to be expected right? Then when you compare what was budgeted for in most areas with some exceptions, the budget was blown big time and I don't see how anyone can defend that; although some will try. So yes we have a problem. I believe it can be fixed. I could care less about the cake although it tasted good at the time.

As I look back through the threads several people said those are not actual expenditures. They are really really close to the actual expenditures. Nobody is making this up.
It's real. You can check for yourself on the HMGS forum files.

I took the difference between what was spent in 2008 and what was spent in 2009 which goes through the assets and then the liabilities. So the difference is my figure. If you compare the budget for 2009 to the difference, it holds up pretty well. Sorry for the confusion. Again check the reports and compare. You will see that 2009 was a banner year for expenditures with some validity, but these figures, wait for it, take the cake!

Nothing like the posting of partial, unverified information to skew things your way!

"Nothing like the posting of partial, unverified information to skew things your way!"

Welcome to the TMP hobby!

For refreshment or recreation?

Proof of the pudding is in the eating. Read the financial reports yourself and compare notes. You will find a big minus number there that is not accounted for by the budget. I think anyone is intelligent enough to read it for themselves. Compare it with 2008 or the 2009 budget. It's still a big whopping number. I wish it weren't but it's water over the dam.

All yours, Rusty. The Goobers are arriving.

Haven't any of you seen the forum rules? Nothing from the forum is to be published elsewhere under pain of death? Or at least something unpleasant.

Anyway, I've been living with HMGS budgets since Wally's Basement. And the numbers cited on this thread are a poor fragment of the recent budgets. There is a much more thorough examination of the numbers on the HMGS Forum.

And the picture doesn't improve with the additional data.

Complaint sent. Enjoy the DH.

7th Va Cav – What the heck is THAT supposed to mean???

Hear, hear Nazrat and Kyoteblue

It means he has had too much beer.

Aaaawwwwww, CRAP! What's the use??????

No use.

The whole thing is so repulsive I really have nothing to else to say. It's a miserable sinkhole and nothing ever changes.

I have always been fascinated why ehtnic food is considered a racial slur.

Why is watermelon considered an insult? Is fried chicken? Collard greens?
(For the record, I cannot stand collard greens or watermelon, but I love fried chicken.)

I like watermelon and I'll bet the President does too…my advice to the whiners is to get off the PC bandwagon.

db

"I have always been fascinated why ehtnic food is considered a racial slur."

Same reason it might cause upset if we were talking about wargame publishers and the criminal justice system, and somebody brought up baked ziti and "gabbagool".

But then, many would be shocked at how it's possible to connect (and not requiring even Kevin Bacon's six degrees of separation) Stefano "Steve the Truck Driver" Vitabile, Madonna, Rudy Guiliani, and TMPers who change their names frequently.

Allen