Update by the Executive Director
Tim Merriman, Executive Director
September 2006

Audit, Budget and Cash Flow
Desiree Calvelage, our consulting auditor, and Marsha have completed 95% of the changes to our accrual approach to accounting under current GAAP standards. This spreads every membership over twelve months in taking revenue. We currently have over $650,000 in deferred income on the balance sheet that accrue to revenue as events occur. The $325,000+ collected for the NIW 2006 in Albuquerque is in this deferred income account but moves to revenue on our income and expense statement in November when the event occurs. We show a deficit of $230,000 in national operations to date, but much of our revenue for this year lands in September (certification), November (NIW), and December (EPA/FWS/ILI grant). We seem like we are on a good course for a profitable year but forecasting is challenging since we do not have comparables for 2005 to look at and allow comparisons.

Cash flow has greatly improved due to receipt of grant funds and registrations for NIW 2006, which now stand at about 750 persons. Registration of this number on this date is just a little lower than Tucson (1500 attended in 2000), our best year ever, and Iowa (about 1150 in 2001). This next registration deadline in early October will give us a better number for comparison because it is just after start of the new federal fiscal year. Many of our federal members wait for the new budget before registering so a surge in numbers is usual at this time of the year.

You will see a new budget report page this month that shows deferred income for 2006 and 2007. The 2006 amounts will accrue to our revenue for this year and the other moves into 2007 as events occur. It is helpful to look at this to understand that our collection of funds and writing of ad contracts for periods into the future is good, but does not count as revenue when collected or put under contract. This new accounting system will help us forecast revenue, but it will take one full year to give us comparables for comparison.

Please note the new grid of Deferred Revenue at the bottom left of the financial page. This shows revenue already on NAI's Balance Sheet that will accrue to our income for the year when triggering events take place. For instance the $336,195 in revenue collected for NIW 2006 will become earned revenue in November of this year when the event occurs.

Business Plan
Completing the change in our accounting system allows to go to work on the 2007 Business Plan. We hope to have a draft for presentation to the Board by October 7, 2006.

Grants
We will show a substantial grants revenue amount for 2006, about $153,000. That is substantially more than projected for 2006 but it reflects the work on the CSU environmental education curriculum project and the FWS/EPA/ILI Definitions Project. We also have about $60,000 confirmed in grants for 2007, which is good to know this far in advance. This is for Phase II in the CSU/EE grant with EPA. We have not done as much consulting as projected in the 2006 Business Plan due to the extraordinary amount of work requireded to manage the grants projects.

Definitions Project
The third meeting of the Definitions Project team from 25 or so organizations and agencies was held in Fort Collins in August. As expected, this was a very productive meeting under Lisa Brochu's able facilitation. A glossary has been developed that will documents the range of definitions used in non-formal education/free-choice learning/interpretation. The final meeting is being held at the National Conservation Training Center at Shepherdstown, West Virginia in late November and early December. This will finalize the products resulting from the work and the website for it will go public to share the results. This has been a very positive experience that we hope will result in a long term council or network of non-formal educators that will continue to meet in the future.

InterpPress
The History Book has been sent to the printer and will be available for sale by mid-October. The interpretive writing book by Alan Leftridge is written and in our hands for editing. Despite a very large workload, Paul Caputo has that scheduled for printing in October so it will be for sale at NIW 2006.

Journal of Interpretation Research
The first 2006 issue of the journal has been mailed bringing us up to date. The second is in progress according to editor Carolyn Ward, so we should be back on schedule with this by fall.

Legacy Trust Fund
Board mandated changes in investments were made on July 31 and completed by August 11. An update on those changes may be seen by clicking here: NAI Investments.

Networking
This was an intensive month of certification courses for me and Lisa. Our networking was mostly with the participants of CHI, CIP, CIHT and CIT courses. In the next few weeks we will be participating in meetings in Ohio, Arkansas, Seattle (NRPA), and St. Paul (NAAEE).

Travel Plans
My upcoming travel may be viewed here.