A year ago when we were preparing the budget for 2011 it appeared that the industry was on an upswing. Human nature dictates that we are always cautious when doing personal budgets, and I always struggled with that bias when preparing the CSEG budget. The CSEG has an extremely healthy balance sheet, and there are plenty of rainy day funds, but it’s difficult to feel comfortable with a deficit budget in spite of our natural cautiousness, so we strived to produce a balance budget for 2011.
This turned out to be much easier than we anticipated. All the major programs are run extremely efficiently. Jim and Cheryl maintain a very tight operation so administration costs are well under control, and we were able to keep all programs from 2010 pretty much intact. As you should know by now, the CSEG office has moved, and the timing was tremendous as rental rates have dropped significantly from our previous lease. The other major factor affecting operations is always the convention revenue. A very successful joint convention in 2011 contributed $390,000 in profit to the CSEG. In 2010 due to operating the GeoCanada convention, profits were only $233,000. That extra $157,000 sure came in handy!!
The convention was an indication of virtually all financial aspects of the society in 2011. When I compare the anticipated revenue from essentially every line item in the budget, they all exceeded expectations. While expenses were up slightly they were not proportional to the added revenue.
One additional item in the budget in 2011 is a donation to the CSEG foundation. The foundation’s work is a very valuable part of our society. They run the extremely successful outreach program, and among many other programs help fund the CSEG scholarship program. The CSEG executive supported our proposal to make a $25,000 donation to the foundation. If you are unaware of the work that the foundation does, I urge you to check in out online. There is a description on the CSEG website.
The bottom line! It is anticipated that we will have a surplus in 2011 of approximately $72,000. Once again the support of our members has kept our society financially strong, and bodes well for future years. On that note, I want to thank Glenn Malcolm for his assistance in 2011. He bailed me out several times when I was unable to attend meetings, or make reports. I even thought about asking him to write this report, but he will get his share of reporting next year. The society is in very capable hands.
I want to also thank the various executive committees that I worked with. I gained a huge appreciation of the contribution this society makes to our industry. It is a finely oiled machine, and I hope my contributions helped maintain the high standard that the CSEG strives to provide. I’ve really enjoyed my time, and made some great friends along the way. I encourage everyone who is reading this to consider helping out in any way they can. Good luck next year!
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