Thomas F. Wiener
The Oceanic Engineering Society is a substantial business entity, with an annual budget of about $450,000. Our reserves amount to almost $400,000. Our Society has four major sources of income: OES singularly and jointly sponsored conferences, symposia and workshops, Journal page charges, and Society dues. Major categories of expense are OES publications, Society committee expenses, and IEEE Headquarters administrative expenses.
Conference income is the primary determinant of the Societyˇs financial health. The Society’s net surplus or loss each year closely parallels the surplus or loss of our conferences.
During the recent Technical Activities Board 5-year review of the Society, we reached the conclusion that we need to improve the management of our resources. That is, we need to identify society objectives more clearly, and we need to expend our resources more precisely to achieve these objectives. Also, because of the importance of conference income to our financial health, we need to take a stronger hand in helping the local Conference Committee spend conference funds wisely, limit conference expenses prudently, and be more proactive in working with local Conference Committees toward continuously responsible conference resource allocation.
Some of the expenses are absolutely under our control. For example, we decide to spend a certain amount of the Society’s funds by having an Administrative Committee meeting at each OCEANS conference. Some expenses are very little under our control. For example, when we have an Administrative Committee election, the IEEE charges us an amount to prepare and mail the ballots and to receive and tabulate the returns. These two examples are a small sample of what we need to understand and manage to get the most for our membership from our financial resources.
The foregoing should not be misunderstood. The Society is in excellent financial health. Even though our membership is smaller than any other technical society in the IEEE, our expenses and financial reserves place us well into the middle of the pack, and reflect our conservative approach to our fiscal responsibilities.
As the Society’s Treasurer, I am responsible for preparing the annual budget, and for monitoring our financial health. The IEEE Technical Activities staff in Piscataway does our accounting and receives and disburses our funds. One of the first things I discovered when I assumed my duties in 1997 was that the IEEE accounting system was complicated, opaque, and not at all suited to our way of managing our finances. Step One was to figure out how it all worked, and how we could relate the IEEE accounting system to our activities and purposes. After about a year of work, I sorted out the purposes and organization of the IEEE system.
Following another year of work, I have now related the system to our organization and purposes. We are now in a position to manage our finances more effectively.
The IEEE system is designed to help the IEEE Technical Activities Board (TAB) and the Operations Center Staff keep track of TAB finances. We, on the other hand, have an organization (headed by a President and Three Vice Presidents, together with the Editor of the Journal of Oceanic Engineering) with somewhat different needs. These five leaders are what I term ‘Claimants’ for the Society’s resources. They use those OES resources to accomplish the Society’s purposes. They also have responsibility for ensuring that our income appears as planned. For example, the Vice President - Technical is responsible for conferences, so it is to him we look to assure our conferences are profitable. Because the IEEE accounting system is unwieldy for our purposes, I have rearranged the accounts into Claimant Groups. They include income and expense accounts. These accounts include those controlled by the IEEE and those controlled directly by us.
As Treasurer of the Oceanic Engineering Society, I am forming a Finance Committee to help manage the Societyˇs finances more effectively. The Finance Committeeˇs Charter is as follows:
To assist the Officers and Administrative Committee of the Oceanic Engineering Society in defining Oceanic Engineering Society objectives and applying resources to achieve them.
The Finance Committee shall consist of the Treasurer as Chair and four other members of the Administrative Committee
Support financial aspects of OES management
Develop Financial Goals for OES
Develop Financial Calendar for OES
Develop standard Financial Reports for OES
Assist Claimants in preparing budgets
Provide Claimants with financial information to support their activities
Support financial management of OES Conferences
Assist in establishing the conference budget
Assist in obtaining approval of the budget from the conference sponsors
Assist in establishing a conference financial tracking system
Assist in preparing conference financial reports
Support financial management of OES Publications
Assist in establishing budgets for the publications
Assist in establishing a publications financial tracking system
Assist in obtaining publications financial reports from the
IEEE and other organizations
Assist in preparing financial reports for the publications
As you can see from the charter, helping to establish and support Society goals is the number one function of the Finance Committee. The other two major issues for the Society that the Finance Committee will deal with are conference finances and publication costs. The latter includes the costs for electronic publication of our Journal and Newsletter and the best way of achieving this goal. We need to understand whether we can realize a cost saving by ‘going electronic’. If so, are there alternative ways to do this that incur different costs? In any case, can we identify identify, and quantify and justify the benefits to the OES membership for such a step?
Given the amount of work necessary to manage the Society’s finances, we need a Finance Committee. None of us has enough time to do the whole job, but five of us can put together enough time to do it well. Also, Society financial management should not be a one-man show. I am sure that many of you have more good ideas and more experience than I in this area.
Therefore, I invite members of the Administrative Committee to join the Finance Committee. Via this Newsletter, I also invite members of the OES to volunteer for service on the OES Administrative Committee. Please send me your name, address, eddress (I communicate much better by email), and telephone numbers. We’ll have our first face-to-face meeting in Seattle during OCEANS ‘99. This will be preceded by a couple of telephone conferences. I appreciate your help.
Thomas Freud Wiener, Sc. D.
Treasurer, Oceanic Engineering Society
2403 Lisbon Lane
Alexandria VA 22306
t.wiener@ieee.org
703-768-9522 (H)
703-516-7363 (V)
703-516-7360 (F)