FINANCE WORKING GROUP POSTING HERE UNTIL WE GET OUR OWN USERGROUP

As the backup point person for this WG, I will be posting information here until we are assigned our own Usergroup, so please be patient with us until we are all set-up.

At today's GA, I attempted to report on the progress made at the last Finance WG meeting, but was met with such resistance that we have to schedule another meeting to include more "interested parties". We are looking at either Tuesday or Wednesday evening @ 7 p.m. @ GrandpaTom's place @ 704 Mohawk Drive Apt. 7 - let's see if we can come to a consensus on a meeting date/time.

Concerns expressed today:

1. Inability to get insurance if we go by the name of Occupy Boulder. Is everyone okay with Americans 4 Social Justice?

2. Having more than one check-signer living in the same location. Well, I am not a check-signer, Lexi is, and we are withdrawing Jessee as a signer, so that means we're going to need another check-signer - any volunteers?

3. Renee has volunteered to be the Accountant for the WG. Any objections?

4. I have volunteered to be the Registered Agent, and to take over the We Pay account. Any objections?

5. We will attempt to put together a spreadsheet of donations and disbursements from the 24/7 encampment, which no longer exists, but sure could have used some of the money in the We Pay account when it did.

Assuming we can have a meeting this coming week, we will be ready to report to the Saturday GA on January 28th, and hopefully find consensus for our actions. I will cancel our appointment to open the checking account, which was set for Friday, January 27th at 1:30.

Respectfully submitted,

GT (Grandpa Tom) Tommy

1. Independent and Responsible Financial Management
A few key principles that we want embodied in our financial practices:
Clarity (receipts, invoices, records etc.)
Transparency (reporting and requiring two signatures on credit union transactions)
No one person should bear an extraordinary burden for the group.
We propose that Occupy Boulder operate independently in dealing with its finances by creating
a non-profit (OWS is in the process of doing this now). This requires a registered agent.
We propose that we open an account with a local credit union where we can store our
funds and that we commit to keeping petty cash to $100 or less (making deposits as
necessary to allow for this). And we propose that we approve three people to be signers
on the account and that transactions removing funds require two signatures.
We propose that we have an accountant keep track of financial transactions and that the
accountant must never be a signer on the account.
We propose that candidates for registered agent, signers, and accountant be nominated
and suggested to the Finance/Legal WG. We will then make recommendations to the
Unity Group and once we have recommendations for these position they will be ratified
by a Saturday General Assembly.
We propose that the only responsible way for us to allow persons to fill these roles will
be to carry a liability policy for the group.
We propose that the Finance/Legal Working Group research and compare the
advantages of our local credit unions as well as the liability policy that would best suit
our needs. Our findings will be presented to the Unity Group for approval and then
brought to a Saturday General Assembly for final approval.
2. Financial Status Report
We propose that the Finance/Legal Working Group will prepare a weekly financial status
report which will include the week's receipts, expenditures, and financial position. This
report will be brought to the weekly Unity Working Group meeting and be posted in
Finance and Legal's Working Group minutes. An abbreviated version of the report will
be presented at the Saturday General Assembly
3. Authorization We propose that the Finance/Legal Working Group be authorized to approve expenses
clearly related to the operations of Occupy Boulder that are less than $50. The Finance/
Legal Working Group may choose to forward any request under $50 to the Unity
Working Group for a decision.
We propose that all other requests for funds be proposed to the Unity Working Group
and that the Unity Group have authorization to make those decisions. The Unity
Working Group may choose to forward any decision to a Saturday General Assembly

Unfortunately there are people who indicated they are not going to discuss this topic on the forum for fear that they will be attacked personally. Personally, I will want to have an honest discussion about how money is going to be spent before I agree to setting up the process for spending it.

Hi Alan,

Then I suggest you attend the next meeting of the Finance WG. If you join the Google Group, you will be notified when the members reach consensus on a date and time for that meeting.

Since I volunteered at the GA on Saturday to become one of the Moderators for the forums, could you please point out where in the past someone was personally attacked. Personally, I don't think such actions should be tolerated, and as a moderator I would hope that I would be granted the authority to ban any person who would make such an attack.

The Forums are a perfect tool for establishing "total transparency" for all actions, discussions, and activities of Occupy Boulder. At the 24/7 encampment, when an individual acted in an inappropriate manner, they were expelled from the encampment. I think the same rule should apply to the Forums.

if not email me direct andrewnewkirkrose(at)yahoo.com and we'll set it up

if so would you please tell me the name of the group and I'll update the occupyboulder.org webpage?

thanks!
:lol: :D :)

finance and legal have a working group google group:

https(colon)//groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/occupy-boulder-finance-legal

need a usergroup for finance to provide total transparency to all of OB