Re: The Latest from Simon Carter

In message <rhni12d4mvu305qijnht8g8irrfht3vsho@xxxxxxx>, Ewan Scott <ewanscott@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes
On Thu, 16 Mar 2006 11:43:56 +0000, Paul Harris
<nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I am in Essex, what do you think they might charge us for?

Absolutely no idea and that is the danger.

Sorry, but that is scare mongering, I am sure that our County Commissioner and his Team will do the right thing. You worry about your Counties expenditure, we will see to ours.

Lesser mortals trust that
District, County, Area, National will spend their funds wisely and
despite a theoretical control in the various AGMs, few people know
what to look for or what to ask about.

I can assure you that there are some in Essex who would spot anything strange going on in the accounts, but I also have considerable faith in nothing getting past our County Treasurer or County Exec. I am not sure that I always have the same level of confidence in what H.Q. might sanction or spend.

It can be very easy in any organisation for people to get carried away
and blow budgets - especially if those people are not usually in
command of a budget.

I agree but that is why they have a budget system and hopefully an appropriate level of authorisation and monitoring.

So the amboree is being run by a separate company to isolate any
debts/ liabilities - that is fine.

Is it?

However various counties, districts
and groups will also being doing their Jamboree/ Centenary Year events
and these can easily grow out of all control unless someone is asking
questions about how and where the money is being spent. Too late to
ask after the event.

True, but I would expect the controls to already be in place, if they aren't then they need to be put there PDQ. I don't share your concern at County level however I would not be surprised if financial controls for the Jamboree were not all that I would wish for and were very difficult to manage. It must be very difficult to control the expenditure and budgets of a disparate body with a wide divergence of skills, experiences and agendas.


The big party next
year is bound to have boosted egos and that sets a trap for the
unwary.

True, but that could affect us all not just the locals.

Indeed, so we ought to be on top of whatever is planned and be asking
questions that ensure we do our best to make sure funds are spent
wisely. It may make us nuisances, we may be seen as negative, but at
the end of the day we are not saying don't do this or that, we are
saying, have we got the checks and balances in place? Is this a good
idea? What if? All nothing more than due diligence.

Nothing wrong with any of that, ask away but I am sure that if you want answers they will want you to be specific. Was there anything in particular that you were concerned about so far?

For those of us who are Trustees, in particular, we need to show due
diligence in our actions. Not to do so leaves us open should something
go wrong.

So, let me just clarify, because I'm trying to be more sensitive to
peoples' feelings.

:-)

I'm not accusing anyone of anything more than
enthusiasm. I'm saying that we should check that their enthusiasm does
not lead to ill-spent funds, that they/ we perform all the correct
checks and balances so that what we do have is a brilliant time for
everyone, and no-one footing the bill for the overspend without
realising it. Trust me, I've been there, I've done that, I won't let
it happen again. (I'm even saying that an overspend is okay - if it is
known about and authorised).

All good stuff, but we are not really in a position to audit, sanction or control. H.Q. will no doubt have already appointed people to manage various aspects of 2007 including the finances, hopefully they have the right people and controls in place. If we see anything untoward we can ask questions but I don't see how we can help manage expenditure unless we are directly involved. I share some of your concerns about the overall budget, people tend to get carried away unless reigned back and having run parts of Jamborees I know that sometimes one does need to curb their enthusiasm.
--
Paul Harris
.

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