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Greetings to All Members,

Every quarter the board spends a portion of its time on financial reporting. David Thomsen, our Treasurer, gave his report. We are transitioning to a new bookkeeping firm and accountant and that will clarify and modernize our reporting of revenues and expenses. As you know, NCP changed the date when our new fiscal year begins to July 1 and that alignment with the academic year will make reporting easier. However, the issues with the BPPE in the summer and fall, a turnover of staff, and the pandemic in the spring, have made this year anything but usual. As a result, looking at past years revenue and expenses is not as informative for comparative purposes as we would like. We think our new system, which will be implemented July 1, will be easier to create and track budgets for each department. The market is down as we all know but we remain in good shape. Our spending is being maintained within the 4% rule as outlined by Ken House.

Cecilia and David worked together to understand and simplify our restricted fund accounts (some of which have not been touched in many years) and put them in larger categories: Outreach/Programs, Scholarship, and Child Program Funds, with sub-categories as needed. There are some funds that remain in a Restricted category but the others can now begin to be utilized for the purposes designated.

Mike Gales reported on the Program Committee's year, which was pared down due to the disruptions to operations previously mentioned. However, looking forward there may be opportunities to expand Scientific Meeting attendance, with or without in-person lectures, by including Zoom attendance. This may offer NCP opportunities for presenters that we otherwise could not schedule because of time and travel and budgetary constraints.

The board is also committed to board development. A board survey was given to all board members and the results reviewed. The survey demonstrated several areas that need to be improved, i.e., understanding bylaws, how to read financial reports, orientation for new board members, and clear goals for each meeting. Board members take their job very seriously and are committed to being responsible board members. Gabrielle Taylor will head a small group that will create an orientation handbook for new board members.