1.
Executive Director
Update by the Executive Director
Tim Merriman, Executive
Director
Budget
and Cash Flow
We now have numbers for last year that are close to correct. These will change
a little with end of the year entries by our accountants and with entry of
a few late arriving 2004 invoices. However, the DDA grant and capital gains
in selling the building gave us a large surplus. We would have had a serious
deficit this year if relying only on the usual program income and expense.
The cash flow problem has been alleviated by increasing our line of credit to $150,000 from $100,000. Our Accounts receivable amount to more than $210,000, a new high for the organization. It takes months to collect on many of these.
We also will harvest almost $18,000 from profits above the $100,000 investment corpus from Bill Randall's bequest. This accrued from two years of improvement in the stock market.
Courtesy
Calls
Lisa and I will be calling all Regional Directors and Section Chairs each month
as a courtesy call. We hope to improve the quality of our communication with
you through this. We hope you wiill feel free to bring up concerns and questions
as we do this. I will call Regional Directors in January and she will call
Section Chairs. In February we will switch, so that we chat with each of you
every other month. If we leave a message and you have no immediate concerns,
please do not feel obligated to call back right away. We are simply hoping
to better serve your needs as leaders of the profession and NAI.
Legacy
Trust Fund
We finished the year with $70,974 in growth in Legacy Trust Fund pledges and
gifts. That helps with matching the Gates Family Foundation grant. Julie continues
to work on sponsorship of rooms in the building by donors and grant applications
with regional and national foundations. It is our hope to raise all funds owed
for the building over the next year to 18 months. For
more information on Legacy Trust Fund click here.
Networking
We met with various organizations during a recent site visit to Puerto Rico
in planning for an international meeting in May of 2006. Several organizations
are prepared to be partners and help us make this an excellent event including
the Institute for Tropical Forestry, Puerto Rican Trust, National Park
Service and U.S. Forest Service at El Yunque.
National Office Building
We continue to wait on resolution of some problems with the elevator but hope
to have that handled soon. Heath Construction has made all warranty repairs
we have requested and that service lasts for one year from completion of
the building.
www.interpnet.com/buildingnew.
Strategic
Planning
Please look at the Strategic Planning page in this report and
see if you have any updates to make based upon your efforts related
to those tasks. Please let Jim Covel know of any updates at jcovel@mbayaq.org.
Travel Plans
My upcoming travel may be viewed at www.interpnet.com/board/schedule.htm.