A Way Forward for 2009

[Rory Bowman]

I am hoping that 2008 was clearly a nadir for VFC and that the
upcoming board can pull things together enough to capitalize on the
clear opportunity that the August Moon site presents. As part of that,
I have posted a clear set of metrics (financial and otherwise) that I
believe any future VFC board should keep in mind if they wish to
regain owner or public confidence.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pcu84d3MW6gf6GjcNN9gaMg&gid=3

These are the sorts of things that I would expect to see posted on the
official web site or have delivered to all owners at an annual meeting
or annual report.

I've put in a few numbers that I am fairly sure of, but the coming
board would do well to review their own history and fill in the rest.

[Glenna Rose]

There are two significant numbers missing from the spreadsheet, the
two harvest dinners, both of which were advertised to have netted
approximately $3,000.

The amount for September 2007 was $3,650 (number supplied by Sunrise
for the October 2007 newsletter and approved by her prior to
publication). She also said the dinner raised a total of $6,260 so
the $3,650 would be a net amount for the dinner (her numbers, not
mine).

The last cash-on-hand number I heard reported was in early summer of
2008 with $24,000 cash on hand with $27,000 collected in owner shares
(numbers rounded to the thousand). That meant that $3,000 of owner
equity had been spent in addition to $19,000 from other sources. I
could see no tangible benefits that $22,000 would have purchased. It
is things like that which led to me requesting my share be refunded.
With that track record, I can see no responsible lender ever granting
a loan. Nor do I see any private person stepping forward to lend to
an organization that does not responsibly handle its money and hides
the spending from its members as this one has in the past.

It was at that same meeting the board approved another $3,000 for
board training which would take owner equity to another loss of $3,000
making it then $6,000 under what had been collected. That would leave
only 78 percent of owner equity left since after that payment the cash
on hand would drop to $21,000 of $27,000. People might lie but
numbers do not!

My inquiry asking if there was a separate savings account for owner
equity and one for scholarship donations with the general fund from
which checks are issued for everything else was responded to with they
"see no reason to do that." That response was a surprise to me since
a CPA was then treasurer. With a bookkeeping background starting 30
years ago, it was the first time I heard a professional state there
was no reason to separate funds. They usually recommend it to be
done. You see, if there was a separate account for owner equity, it
would take a board decision to move the money to the general fund and
make them aware they are spending owner equity whereas it had been
being handled very casually with no forward thought to answering to
owners as to why the equity was decreasing with no store in sight.

At the time I requested a refund, they had received funds totaling
over $40,000 with no substantial progress to any store and no apparent
investigation into sites available in the downtown area of which there
had been at least two. The lack of store is not a result of lack of
community support or lack of monies received; it is a management
issue. Other co-ops have done it with much less and with a smaller
market area than in our community. The pixie dust just didn't work
for me anymore and I just could no longer give my support to the
sprinklers.

For your spreadsheet, you should add a line for the harvest dinners,
separate from any other fund-raising. It should be clear what was
raised at a function in which so many people participated with
donations and time.

The numbers for this organization don't look good. Numbers do not lie.

======================

--
---<-@ Glenna Rose @->---

I cannot change the world, but I can make my little corner better.

[Rory Bowman]

I had not intended this spreadsheet to be an exercise in forensic
accounting, but I have changed four cells as you suggested, changing
lines 6 and 19 to "harvest dinner" and putting the numbers you note in
the 2007 column.

My main goal with this is to provide a structure so that naive people
of good will can better understand the operational problem.

The VFC board has failed at multiple levels, including transparency
and accountability. Only the board can solve this, if they have the
wisdom to see and courage to act.

I'm not holding my breath.