Draft FY 2013-2014 Budget - Income and Expense Narratives, Resolutions

The GPCA annual budget process is governed by Article V Annual Budget of the party's Fiscal Policy, which specifies that the Draft Budget shall:

5-4.1 Incorporate budget requests and income projections from standing committees and working groups as described in 5-2 and the prioritization of expenses as described in 7-2;
 
The Budget Committee integrated income and expense projections from standing committees and working groups, based upon these Work Plans. Despite some initial cost-cutting around the margins, came up with a draft budget reflecting a potential $32,000 deficit.  That draft budget is found here in .xls format and here in .pdf format.
 
Part of this projected deficit is a function of efforts to grow the party by hiring a Field Organizer, Fundraiser and Press Secretary and by maintaining a Clearinghouse & Merchandising operation in Sacramento.  
 
Rather than making further recommendations on what else to cut - or to make unrealistic income projections, the Budget Committee is of the belief that the results of fundraising efforts between now and the Napa General Assembly should be taken into account. In addition, County Parties are asked to evaluate the draft budget and the work plans submitted by each standing committee and working group, to see what kind of cuts they would recommend and be prepared to debate this in Napa.  
 
5-4.2 Contain an attached Income Narrative to explain the income categories and line item projections of the budget, and provide a plan for raising that income, corresponding to the income projections; The Income Narrative follows below.
 
5-4.3 Contain an attached Expense Narrative to explain expense categories and line item projections, that identifies legal and contractual obligations as provided in Section 7-2, provides job descriptions where they exist for GPCA staff and Independent Contractors, and provides a plan to fund a Reserve Fund as specified in 6-2.1(b). The Expense Narrative follows below. It contains job descriptions where applicable.
 
5-4.4 Contain any budget approval resolutions necessary to award contacts, hire staff or independent contractors or other discretionary choices.
 
Funds budgeted for the independent contractor positions of Field Organizer, Fundraiser and Media Secretary as independent contractors have been recommended by the Grassroots Organizing Working Group, Finance Committee and Media Committee, respectively and hiring will be through the recommendations of those groups or committees to the Personnel Committee, as provided for in the GPCA Personnel Policy.
 
With passage of the budget, funds budgeted for hosting of cagreens.org shall be considered authorized to contract with Godmoma's Forge.
 
With passage of the budget, funds for hosting of the Green Party voter registration data base shall be considered authorized to contract with Nationbuilder.
 
With passage of the budget, funds budgeted for the conduct of the 2014-2016 County Council elections, shall be understood to empower the Coordinating Committee to contract directly for support services.
 
5-4.5 Contain an attached balance sheet and statement of revenue and expenditure from the most recently completed fiscal year and a statement of the year-to-date and a projected year-end total of the current fiscal year.
 
At present, not all of these documents are available. In FY2012-2013, the budget process and indeed all record keeping and analysis of financial information was made much more difficult this year because of fraudulent access to our Wells Fargo Bank accounts, starting October 2012.  Over a period of six months, we became aware of many checks in amounts of thousands of dollars that were sent by FedEx to random individuals, businesses and even a police department. This was discovered and immediately reported by the GPCA Treasurer to Wells Fargo, and the matter was addressed by the Coordinating Committee. But Wells Fargo failed to act in a timely manner to address the situation, and often failed to follow through on promised actions at all. 
 
As a result, the GPCA was forced to shutdown online banking access to reduce the fraud, with the result that we no longer had access to data in electronic form, just paper as mailed out monthly. In addition, we were forced to close the three separate accounts we had and open four new accounts (state and federal checking and savings). But in spite of this, Wells Fargo still issued new checks on our old account in response to a fraudulent request.
 
Fortunately Wells Fargo refunded all fees so we did not lose any money. But otherwise, they refused to cooperate in reporting these crimes or making any attempt to stop them. After much wasted time and a lot of research, we opened new accounts at a southern California community bank and at a northern California credit union to make it possible to do business from both parts of the state. We were finally able to close all accounts at Wells Fargo at this point.
 
However as a result of al of this, for FY2012-2013 we have had to reconcile 11 separate bank account for all state and federal reporting, general accounting and budget planning. Much of the time that was done without online access, and Wells Fargo never produced electronic files we requested, so we've had to resort to reading over a hundred pages of bank statements and manually entering the information, an unanticipated burdensome increase in workload for a mostly volunteer organization.
 

Income Narrative, GPCA Draft FY2013-2014 Budget

Clearinghouse Committee: $2750
• Merchandise sales:  3,000
• Platform sales: $250
• Brochures sales: $250
Merchandise will be priced to make a profit.  Recovery of cost will be sought for sales of platforms and brochures to county parties and other Greens. 

Coordinating Committee: $5,000
• Registration fees, two General Assemblies: $4,000
• Registration fees, one Gathering: $1,000

Finance Committee: $44,950
• Resolicitation mailings: $10,750
• Prospect mailings: $13,200
• On-line fundraising: $1,400
• Personal Solicitations: $10,000
• Sustainers: $4,900
• Events
-- GA associated fundraising event North: $750
-- GA associated fundraising event South: $750
-- House Parties: $3,000
• Voter Registration Tabling: $200
 

Expense Narrative, GPCA Draft FY2013-2014 Budget

Campaigns and Candidates Working Group ($5,000)

• Candidate Support Fund: $5,000 
This amount is intended for candidate support in municipal/county races in FY2013-2014 and does not include support for candidates in a Top Two Primary, should Proposition 14 not be overturned in the courts. If Proposition 14 will remain in place for the June 2014 primary - and this is known at the time of the Napa General Assembly, this number could be increased to account for possible support for endorsed candidates in the June 2014 primary.
 

Clearinghouse Committee ($4,010)

• Clearinghouse Storage (Sacramento): $100/month = $1200
• P.O. Box (Sacramento): $60
These funds provide space for storage and merchandising, and for receiving correspondance for Clearinghouse operations.
• Merchandise: $1500
• Telephone:  $600
• Postage: $400
• Printing (brochures): $250

Coordinating Committee ($12,250)

• Two General Assemblies: $5,550
-- Site Rental: $1,000/GA = $2,000
-- Food Expenses: $1,000/GA  = $2,000
-- Video:  125/GA = $250
-- Minutes Taker: $150/Meeting  = $300
-- CC Friday night dinner: $100/Meeting  = $200
-- Nancy Broyles General Assembly Hardship Travel Subsidy:  $400/Meeting = $800
At its origin, this budget line was funded directly by contributions made from Nancy Broyles and others specifically for this purpose.  No such dedicated contributions have been made for several years and instead this budget line has come from general funds.  Starting with the Napa General Assembly, a check off option with registration will be available to contribute directly to this fund.
• One Gathering: $1,300  
-- Site Rental: $1000
-- Food Expenses: $300
• Annual Coordinating Committee Retreat: $400  
-- Site/Food Expenses: $400
• Conducting County Council Elections: $3,000
A plan is being developed by the Coordinating Committee to conduct these elections in 2014, assuming that if Proposition 14 is overturned, the state legislature does not reinstate the state of California to conduct them.  Funding needs may change as plans and costs become more clear and a mid-year funding adjustment may be necessary, as may a mid-year fundraising appeal to provide for it. 
• Legal Consultation: $1,000
This is a contingency fund. There are no pending nor expected legal matters before the GPCA.
• Liability Insurance Policy: $1,000 (subject to adjustment for actual premium expense)
 
 
Finance Committee ($37,320)
 
• Fundraising Coordinator contractor position: $1000/month = 12,000 (Read job description here)
• Expenses associated with fundraising 
-- Resolicitation mailings:  $4,550 based upon 4 mailings/year with Fundraiser Coordinator
-- Prospect mailing: $14,000 based upon 4 mailings/year
-- GA associated fundraising events N & 2 (2): $1,000
-- House Parties: $100
• Treasurer stipend:  $150/month  = 1,800
• Processing fees: $2,000
These are fees for accepting donations on-line and processing credit cards; Pay Pal charges $30/month, Global Pay charges $70/month (http://globalpay.me), Amex Ex $8/month, Discover $0.45/month
• FPPC filing software: $1,500
Cost went down $500 from FY2012-2013
• P.O. Box (San Franciso): $180
• Bulk mailing permit (Oakland): $190
 

Grassroots Organizing Working Group ($15,300)

• Field Organizer contract position: 1,000/month = $12,000 (read job description here)
• Campus Greens: $500
• Volunteer Voter Registration: $1,000
• Literature (for creating templates, graphic design, printing): $500
• Tabling fees (for four best tabling opportunities of the year): $1,000 
• Banners (cloth, or hemp, or laminates, or low expense 3 x 15 foot banner): $300
 

Green Issues Working Group ($300)

• Flyers on Green Issues: $200
• Travel expenses for coalition building (on a needs basis by a mileage rate or public transportation cost): $100
 

GPUS Delegation ($3,800)

• Attending Annual National Meeting 2013: $3800 
This budget line is based on a goal of 12 GPCA Delegates attending the next GPUS ANM in Iowa City using an estimate of $625 per person combined expenses. ($125 for housing, $400 for travel, $100 registration.) Delegates are expected to attend these annual meetings [GPCA Bylaws, Section 11-1.3(a)]. The budget line request projects that four Delegates will need a full subsidy to be able to attend, another four Delegates will need a partial subsidy to be able to attend, and that four Delegates will self-fund their expenses. (4 x 625)=2500 + (4 x 325)=1300
 

Information Technology Committee ($3,621.60)

• Server Hosting: $55/month = $660
Contracting with God Moma's Forge for these services is considered authorized with approval of this budget.
• Technical Consulting: $500
While no funds were spent for consulting in FY2012-2013, $4200 was spent in FY2011-2012 to pay Radical Designs of San Francisco to install and modify the Drupal template files from the Green Party of Canada and establish the GPCA's Drupal Content Management System (CMS) website for cagreens.org. This initial expenditure was considered sufficient to start the CMS, but not to implement all of the features and functions needed by the GPCA. However, since FY2011-2012, then there have been no funds spent to expand these capabilities. Instead, owing to financial constraints, the attempt has been made to do all this work in-house, with some success, but still with the limitations of relying upon volunteers with limited time. 
• Voter Registration/Contact Management Data Base: $2,212
Contacting with Nationbuilder for these services is considered authorized with approval of this budget. This amount assumes that the GPCA take advantage of the 20% discount Nationbuilder offers for paying for 12 months at once. GPCA made a payment in March 2013 for 12 months. If this approach is continued to pay for 12 months at once, the GPCA would save a total of $547.20 in FY2013-2014 (12 months at 20% discount) for a total cost of $2,188.80 per year. The baselien price before discount for the one month plan the GPCA utilizes is $228 ($79.00 for NationBuilder political edition: medium plan, $149.00 for Email addon list size up to 25,000), which is $2,736 for the year. 
 
The budget line for Nationbuilder in FY2012-2013 was listed under the Finance Committee, but now have their own section in FY2013-2014, to reflect the new Standing Committee status of the IT Committee as of January 2013. IT-related expenses approved in the final FY2012-2013 budget were Nationbuilder ($3,318), Server Hosting ($770) and Server Backup ($280), for a total of $4,368. The FY2013-2014 draft budget utilizes a 20% discount option from Nationbuilder and the fact that the party no longer contracts for a backup server to reduce the amount requested in FY2013-2014, even while adding a new budget line for technical consulting.  
 

Media Committee

• Press Secretary: $300/month = $3600 (read job description here)
• Livestream Equipment Purchase: $300
• Skype Premium: $60
• Hotspot Expenses: $200
Instead of purchasing a hotspot for the GPCA, it would be more economical to reimburse on an as-needed basis, those who already have them for personal use.

Platform Committee

• Platforms (200): $250