We have been circulated the District 1100 2013/14 Budget (see attached), which will be presented at the District 1100 Council Plus on Tuesday 12th March for all clubs’ agreement. The budget income is from member subscriptions, so what the budget consists of and how it is spent directly impacts every one of us.
In businesses around the country managers are having to review working practices and related budget to ensure in these cash constrained times that business budget meets customer need. I believe that it is important we understand what our subscriptions are used for and what the planned outcomes/benefits of the spend are.
Please take time to review the budget we have been given, consider whether in your experience the costs look right, whether you can perceive an accurate picture of District planned activities from the information given or what information you would like to see if you cannot. Please either come with your questions to the Council Plus meeting or let me know what your questions are so that I can raise them on your behalf, and if you would like to discuss any queries prior to formulating your question/s feel free to discuss your queries here.
Firstly, the proposed capitation is much higher than my last District £10. Also I am not sure if the proposed subs does include an amount for District Conference, although an amount of £7.700 is shown but that’s under Training cost which doesn’t make sense ?
There are clearly expenses on the proposed expenditure that appear very high and the % increase over last year appears excessive without any explanation.
Why would a District pay £17,000 for Training? A rise of £5,000 without explanation appears excessive or £16,000 for Executive costs. My previous District are considerably lower than that with 6 AG’s a DG,DGN and DGNN? I suggest they find somewhere cheaper for meetings….!!! Comiitee costs are also extremely high well above my last District and we had the same comittees?
Also why are they sitting on reserves of almost 100% of annual expenditure. I believe the recommendation is much nearer 55%?
One thing I don’t know of course is the historical finances of D1100 and it maybe that everything proposed is normal but I should be a bit concerned if that is the case.
Also I don’t know how many members there are. We have 1500 in Devon and the income shown is double ours. If you have 3,000 members then economies of scale should come in to play and subs should be lower than D1170 which is £16 based on a £6 conference capitation.
As I say there maybe justifications which are not shown in the summary for the budgets in which case ignore my remarks except for the Reserves…!!!
I should also say my comments are based on 25 years of previous Rotary experience.
Best wishes
John
Good comments,John
I can add 1 or 2 points – there are 9 AGs in this District not 6 as in your previous experience. I think I am correct in saying that nearly 50% of the budget is in travel etc. And the training budget has been deliberately increased to offer more training to incoming officers and to help with Club Visioning.
But, I have no answer for you key comment on cover – namely 55% not 100% as per your last District. With probable District change ahead that seems a big area to look at.
I’d be interested to know where the reserve funds are held and what contingency they are being held for !
Hi, I have just discovered that the proposed District Capitation for next Rotary year in Devon is to be £7.50 (Not £10 as I originally thought). There is also a District Conference capitation of £6.50 which makes a total capitation of £14. It seems pressure about the cost of Rotary was brought to bear. John
I bow to the greater knowledge of others here. I wonder how much autonomy as an eclub we have. I can see if we want to go to events there is a cost to that but can we decide what we join in or ask for virtual attendance? I know that having a family mebership has been suggested and I am always pointing out the value for money one gets from the National Trust, the Art Fund , the Womens Institute, the Round Table etc. We need to bear in mind what other choices are available to people at what cost.
The autonomy question is an enigma to me, we are automous as a club, but are then told how much exactly we each have to pay centrally. This is why I believe we really should scrutinise what the payments are used for to benefit each club and its individual members.
I will definitly raise the question as to whether it is in their plan to work towards virtual attendance at District events.
I read an interesting talk the other day about how an organisation is now judged against not just what similar competitors can offer, but what people can access generally. For example, a web site might compare very well in presentation and information with other sites offering the same thing, but because people can use google search facilities and communication media like Facebook for other things their expectations are increased for what they expect from your site. As I read it I thought that firstly it made the point very clear as to why some members say they don’t like our website despite it being a good one for the kind of club we are running. Secondly I thought the sentiments were also very clear for Rotary as a whole, as an organisation it needs to be adapting to compare with organisations generally and understand member’s expectations to plan how they can be met strategically.