Diwali 2013 - Expense Reimbursement and Plan for Remaining Funds

[Krishna Nagaraj]

Hi all,

Please send me the expense information for Diwali party 2013 by 12/6. I'll be closing the Diwali 2013 account next weekend. Folks who have already sent me the information must have received the payment from Barnstead Paypal account. Please let me know if you have NOT received the payment.

Also, due to last minute participants (additional funding that was not considered in the budget), I'm expecting that we will be left with a balance of ~ $800 to $900 from the Diwali funds and we will be left with ~$1,400 to $1,500 in the Barnstead Paypal account ($600 was the balance in Paypal before Diwali 2013 came into picture.) In my opinion we have three options:

1. Return equal share of $800 to $900 to all Diwali 2013 participants (~$18/family). Very cumbersome as it takes a quite a lot of time to track, send and coordinate the payments to all the participants.
   
2. Reimburse expenses (these expenses were not part of the original Diwali, 2013 budget) incurred as part of dance, kids fashion show.. programs (example: dress rental, lungis -:) ................) and retain the remaining balance for future Barnstead activities.
   
3. Do nothing and retain the remaining balance for future Barnstead activities.

My suggestion: option 2. We still will be left with considerable amount for future activities.

Please let me know your thoughts by 12/6 (Friday). Please copy barnsteaddiw...@googlegroups.com email id when you send your suggestion so that everyone is aware of it.

Thanks and regards,

Krishna
703-989-6440

[Vamsee Chepur]

Hi Krishna -- My opinion:

a) Any expenses incurred due to lungi rentals, dress rentals or other fashion show miscellanious expenses MUST be born by the individuals of the group as I don't want to set a precedence of such potential future expenses being absorbed by the whole group.

b) While it maybe be painful, we will all help you, let us settle the Diwali 2013 expenses and return all the unused funds to the respective families that contributed for this year. 

I may be making a very bold statement, but I will muster the courage to say that I am not sure of the entire group participation for the 2014 Diwali. So, it is better to settle the 2013 funds and formally close the financials for this Diwali. 

Thanks,

Vamsee

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[Sreedhar R Malipeddi]

Strongly agree with option #1 even though its painful.

I am totally against option #2.

But, we have to listen to everyone in cmte and then decide.

Sreedhar Malipeddi

[Showry Kocherla]

I agree with Vamsee and Sridhar. However much I like re-embursing towards cultural activities, it is better not to do it for the simple reason: not to set a precedence. Having involved with cultural organizations for many years, my past experience is if we sponsor cultural activities, every group that is going to perform will tend to spend more and in no time it will go out of control. As such we heard from many people that 165 per family itself is high for Diwali. While I do not necessarily agree with that opinion, certainly there is a whisper. In my opinion option 1 is preferred. However, we can keep two to three hundred dollars towards future activities (Diwali 2014:)). We can have a meeting and take a final decision.

Thanks

Prasad

[Manoj Swamy]

Krishna - My 2 cents......option # 3 (Do nothing and retain the remaining balance for future Barnstead activities.).  To keep Barnstead's unbridled enthusiasm to come together and have fun, I would humbly suggest fostering an uncomplicated, fair (both to the organizers & participants) and reasonable process. 

Cheers!

Manoj Swamy

703-725-7743

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[Mahender dev]

I think option 3 is better.  But let's go with majority.

[jines...@gmail.com]

I will go with Option 3, as Manoj mentioned. We can keep reserves for any future Barnstead activities. Option 1 will be good but cumbersome, returning funds to 40 plus families. Option 2 is not much feasible. 

Jinesh 

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[Satish Narala]

Krishna - Option 3. We have already discussed this in our meetings I guess. We can use that money for our furture activities !

Cheers

Satish Reddy

[Charit Mathur]

Krishna, I would say we go with option A and return extra money to all families.
In order to make the process easier below is one way:
We can send email to all that they can bring $2 in change and collect $20 from couple of us. Also specify one week timeframe between 6 and 8 pm to collect money. I am willing to be one of the volunteer to do that.

Since you have worked very hard to track every expense and provide full accounting, let us continue that transparency by returning unused funds 

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[Sreedhar Sana]

I go with Option 3.

Thanks

Sana

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From: Charit Mathur <charit...@gmail.com>
To: BarnsteadDiw...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Sunday, December 1, 2013 9:57 PM
Subject: Re: Diwali 2013 - Expense Reimbursement and Plan for Remaining Funds

[Sanjay Rao]

My vote is for #3. 

- Sanjay 

=================
Sanjay S. Rao
san...@4raos.com
703-869-1461

[Shashi Goli]

If we go with #3, what about funds for families who are not able to attend the next Barnstead community event ? 

I agree with Vamsee/Malipeddi/Prasad/Charit for complete transparency, Option #1 is better.

Thanks,
Shashi

[Srinivas]

Krishna,

I strongly agree with Vamsee, Prasad, Shashi, Charit and other folks that suggested Option 1.  One reason the contribution was increased from last year was to not go back and ask for more money if the expenses turn out to be higher,   now that we saved money it makes sense to return the unused funds especially with the chatter that $160 was on the high side.  We can also not count on the same set of families attending next years Diwali event so it is not fair retaining the money and using it for other Barnstead events.  While the $15/20 that we return back may not be a huge amount it validates that we spent the money wisely and makes this whole activity transparent.

 

Srinivas

214-552-0401.   

[Smitsneh]

My pref is option 1.

Sandeep

Sent from my iPhone

[Charit Mathur]

Since only $18 belong to each one of us, none of us can really take the call to keep rest 800 for future events.

However committee members preferring option 3 could elect to forgo their $18,  that way their concern of Some base for future events is addressed too. Rest of the money should be returned to attendees and those suggesting option 1.

[Adesh Nangia]

I agree with Vamsee, Charit, Sandeep, Srinivas, Sashi, Prasad and others. 

My vote is for Option 1. 

Most the payments were made by PayPal and should be easy to return in a similar way. 

Sent from my iPhone

[Shwetal Mehta]

Option 4.  Donate the surplus funds to the local food bank.  

As there was no obligation to pay extra if there was a deficit,  I don't belive there is an obligation to return the surplus.

Best,

Shwetal Mehta

[Laksh Nukala]

In this holiday season we can be generous and donate the amount as Shwetal suggested. Option 4 for me.

Laksh Nukala 

703-463-6678

[Satish Narala]

I agree with the new Option 4, but we are not running charity over here to donate funds. Every one has their own plans in donating funds either over here or back in India.

Looks like majority of them are with Option #1, and It's not a big problem to push back the money thru Paypal for all those who attended the Diwali Party !

Satish

Cheers

Satish Reddy

[Praveen Srivastava]

We have one more option, let us say option 5, we can keep the fund till next Holi party and return the money to only those who are going to miss the Holi party due to any reason. This way we have to refund the money only to selected people, which will also be more feasible logistically.

In the mean while we can notify everybody that we have this money left and this our plan.

Thanks,

Praveen

[Sandeep Shah]

more feasible logistically??? Come on, it's not that complex to return money via paypal (or using the method charit mentioned).

Let's not complicate the stuff and go with majority option (currently option #1).

P.S.: I would let Krishna to decide the level of effort, but I am ready to help if needed. 

Sandeep

[Satish Narala]

Holi is 4 months away from now..and we don't know who will be IN for Holi @ that time..Lets return the Money to whom it belongs thru Paypal as Majority of them are with Option #1

 

Satish

 

 

On Mon, Dec 2, 2013 at 10:07 AM, Praveen Srivastava <sripra...@gmail.com> wrote:

--

Cheers

Satish Reddy

[Praveen Srivastava]

Since everybody was giving option so I thought of giving one more option :)

However I am fine with majority decision.

Praveen

[Vikas Choudhary]

my vote is for option#1, let's return the money to everyone.

Thanks,
Vikas

[jines...@gmail.com]

One more option! Buy silver coin for each family in bulk deal and give it as rememberance.

Sent from my iPhone

[Sajai Raj]

My vote is also for option#1.

 

Thanks,

Sajai

[jines...@gmail.com]

Krishna,

Please let us know if you need any help from finance team members related to re-distributing of funds or any accounting work. We can do it over the coning weekend.

Regards,

Jinesh

Sent from my iPhone

[Krishna Nagaraj]

Hi all,

Attached is the final accounting spreadsheet for 2013 Diwali party. Based on the feedback received by many of you, an equal share of the balance money will be distributed to all the participants. You should be receiving $19.52 in your Paypal account by 12/15. If you do not receive the money by 12/15 or if you do not have a Paypal account, please email me (not the whole group) and I can coordinate with you to pay the money. Thank you all for making this is a memorable event.

Please see below the summary of amounts:

Barnstead Diwali Party 2013
Payments Received ($160/family)	$             6,870.12
Total Expenses	$             6,030.63
Balance	$                839.49
# of Families	43
Amount to be distributed back to each family	$                  19.52

Please let me know or call me @703-989-6440, if you have any questions.

-Krishna
703-989-6440

[Vamsee Chepur]

Krishna --

All things aside, I want to take a moment to appreciate the time you have taken, the effort you have put in maintaining transparency in these matters, which typically end up as a favorite topic of discussion for a long time. Kudos to you and the entire financial committee for the sanity and bringing all the 2013 Diwali discussions to a nice closure.

Great work Krishna.

Regards,

Vamsee

[Satish Narala]

Agree with Vamsee ! Great work Krishna !
Appreciated for your time and effort on doing this !

Thanks

Satish Narala

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[Praveen Srivastava]

I fully agree with Vamsee for the great effort by finical team specially Krishna to diligently maintaining the expense report for Diwali party.

I hope everybody will realize that people are doing volunteer work to bring the community together not for personal gain. Hope we will have more people like this for future who can step up and take responsibility with transparency.

Once again thanks to all the volunteers for another grand successful Barnstead Diwali party.

Thanks,

Praveen

[jags...@yahoo.com]

I agree with everyone

Kudos to all and especially the finance team.

Appreciating the effort from my end as well

- Jagadish

Sent from my iPhone

[Sreedhar R Malipeddi]

Kudos to Krishna (aka Chidambaram) and his team.

Sreedhar.

[Adesh Nangia]

Agree with all. Appreciate the effort and time of Finance team. 

Kudos to all for a great party. 

Sent from my iPhone

Sent from my iPhone

[Mahender dev]

Thanks Krishna and team, great Job.

On Sun, Dec 8, 2013 at 8:18 PM, Satish Narala <srna...@gmail.com> wrote:

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Mahender Dev

[Sandeep Shah]

Krishna - so many kudos... party to banto hain boss :-)

On Mon, Dec 9, 2013 at 4:56 PM, Ram Surineni <surineni...@yahoo.com> wrote:

Thanks Krishna, Great job!!!

Ram