2021 Treasurer

Hello Everyone,

Lots of new things for the financial side of the Folk Project:

1. We hired a brand new professional Bookkeeper who specializes in non-profits. Her name is Karen Buchanan. She is wonderful to work with. We have been working hard getting our books up to Standard Accounting Practices. We have been doing some re-organizing of classes to help make the data more concise and user friendly for reports. Not quite done but we are getting close. My biggest hope is this will free the treasurer to do more planning and follow up and less book work. It will also give us continuity from one treasurer to the next and drastically lower the learning curve in trying to figure out how we do things. Lastly making sure everything is gets done with no surprises and making it easier to apply for grants, fill out our taxes and other government regulations in the future.

2. Our Checking account was hacked. Everyone's nightmare. We caught it before disaster struck. The Bank didn't cash the $20,000 check... Phew so we have a new bank account number in case you didn't know. And, since I was talking so much with the bank I decided to get us a Credit Card account to make small purchases more easy. I am in the process of adding people to the account so they have easy access as well and don't have to wait to be reimbursed.

3. This isn't necessarily financial but I worked on getting us a real brick & mortar mailing address as apposed to the Post Office Box in Mendham. When Ralph moved away there was no one to get the mail. The Unitarian Fellowship is now our official legal mailing address. It will make applying for grants much easier and places like the Bank much happier.

For The Future:

I have been thinking of forming a Financial committee so there is more than one of me to work on future financial planning. I am looking forward to spending more time looking for ways to make things easier and maybe find some more savings and fun additions for our venues.

I currently don't have any committee members to thank except me. However, I would like to thank both Mark and Elizabeth who kept me glued together when things got tough and I got so sick. I can't thank you enough for letting me vent and knowing you had my back.

Peggy Karr

Treasurer