[Seattle-editorial] Re: [IMC-Seattle] IMC Finances ready for morein(tro)spection

[Troy Prouty]

okay..

I am going to say it.

It is time for indymedia to start over in seattle and re-organize..

Obviously there are problems and the way things were set up - IS NOT 
WORKING..

insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different 
results.

indymedia is a good thing - but the whole process of organization has not 
been what it could be..

There are plenty of models of achievers in the non-profit industry and yet 
we might not agree with all of those - we can still focus on certain one's 
and learn from what they have done to achieve some success in staying in 
business and organization.

** I realize I need to come up with more answers, myself**

But I would like to put out a question to all - Think about what you feel 
would make an organization run, then think about what would make one run 
even better and start posting it and let's brainstorm on starting indymedia 
towards those things that will work, and will work well..  EVEN in the low 
points.

Sincerly,

Troy Prouty*


>From: Rick Harrison <rickharrison555 at yahoo.com>
>To: Joseph Eisenschmidt <relayer at riseup.net>,ListSeattle 
><imc-seattle at lists.indymedia.org>
>CC: ListSeaTech <seattletech at lists.indymedia.org>,ListEditorial 
><seattle-editorial at lists.indymedia.org>
>Subject: [Seattle-editorial] Re: [IMC-Seattle] IMC Finances ready for 
>morein(tro)spection
>Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2004 11:43:05 -0700 (PDT)
>
>Folks,
>
>While I agree that we need financial accountabilty, I
>am not sure how to achieve it.
>
>Yes - a bunch of money went through our bank accounts.
>  Some of that money was never really Seattle IMC's
>money - we just held it for another group until they
>could get organized.
>
>The biggest problem, of course, is the sloppy
>bookeeping.  Having been the one who actually
>re-created the check register from the bank
>statements, I was able to draw some conclusions.
>
>In my humble opinion, we were misserved by sloppy,
>inconsistant bookeeping.  Long time members agreed -
>money management was a job no one wanted.  When I
>became involved w/ IMC, I felt the same way.
>
>No one's fault, just the reality - media work is fun,
>financial stuff is not.
>
>Balancing a checkbook is NOT media work - but
>essential if we want to succesfully be a media
>organization.
>
>Where do we go from here?  First, I think the decision
>to ask for missing bank records or not should be made
>by the larger group after we re-convene.
>
>The first 9 months of 2000 - we have no check register
>or cancelled checks.  So the first 9 months of 2000,
>the only thing we have is a bank statement, showing
>check #.  Therefore, we have no idea who got what
>those 9 months.
>
>After that, we were able to locate, sort and file the
>cancelled checks.
>
>2000 - 4 years ago.  There are a total of 126 check we
>still don't know what they were for.  The bank charges
>4 bucks a piece for copies of cancelled checks, so
>that would be $504. just to find this out.
>
>Is that a wise use of what little we have left?  I
>personally think not.  The people involved are all
>long gone, we won't gain anything materially by having
>this, and we cannot afford it.
>
>Same with a formal audit - lovely idea, but who will
>pay for it?
>
>Folks - some quick bottom line numbers.  We have 2
>grand left after paying expenses to move out of LIHI,
>rent for storage, etc.
>
>We owe 7 grand left to LIHI, which is less than we did
>owe, more than we should.
>
>We have some decisions needing fairly quick
>determination, such as the CTC stuff.  (We have a firm
>deadline from the city of July 30, btw)
>
>I do believe we must deal with the past.  But we
>should focus on - what lessons did we learn?  What can
>we do differently to avoid the problems we now have?
>
>How can we learn from the past, without letting the
>past continue to divide us?
>
>Folks, the whole money issue is one that I believe we
>all must decide together.  As an empowered member of
>the interum finance committee, I have proceeded by
>doing only that which was absolutely necessary.
>
>These bigger decisions are things we all must decide
>upon.  After we start meeting again.
>
>Rick
>
>=====
>ASK THE EXPERTS - "Fascism should more properly
>be called corporatism, since it is the merger of
>state and corporate power"
>Benito Mussolini
>
>
>
>
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