Below is an email exchange between jamie Dale and Susan Saunders. I suspect her sense of shakiness is felt by some of you, too. Does her idea make sense to you?

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Thanks, Jamie
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From: Susan Saunders [mailto:susansaundersaji@covad.net] Sent: Saturday, June 05, 2010 10:44 AMTo: 'Jamie Dale'Subject: RE: Yes

Hi Jamie,

Share away!

S.

From: Jamie Dale [mailto:jdale@bmwpc.org] Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2010 9:22 AMTo: 'Susan Saunders'; 'Bob Gist'Subject: RE: Yes

That’s an interesting proposal. I’ll have to think about it a bit.

Things may feel shaky in part because the budget we’re using at present was written for the old structure. One thing teams will have to do by about October is redesign their budget areas to fit what they’re up to. It may be that having the treasurer and perhaps session do a first run at that would make sense.

I’m thinking Session should see your ideas, Susan. What about all the teams?

Thanks. Jamie

From: Susan Saunders [mailto:susansaundersaji@covad.net] Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 11:30 AMTo: Bob GistCc: Jamie DaleSubject: Yes

Hi Bob and Jamie,

We were away for the weekend. I tried to call Bob but got no answer or answering machine. Yes, I want the youth to be able to use the money in the CE budget for the trip. What I am writing in the next paragraph does not change that.

I wonder how the line items all disappeared. It seems to me that we have a very shaky way of deciding to spend money. I haven’t found a way to express my confusion or the right people to share it with---but we used to have staff people who had some fiduciary responsibility as the folks who had the final sign-off rights on spending as well as responsibility for keeping track of where we were in our spending with an eye to the entire year’s worth of needs. Now it feels very lose and like we are not even sure the money we want to spend is there---or how to track it once it is spent. Does it seem to you we are in a budget muddle? Jamie sent an e-mail some time ago asking for people in each group (I forget what we are calling them) to sign off on expenses. I didn’t answer that request because I wasn’t sure what to say. I think the signer-offers need to be staff and only staff---not that others are untrustworthy---just that someone needs to have the entire picture of the budget for each team (ah that’s the word) and keep track of how the picture develops.

S.