Suggested Committees for the Operational Entity

Finance Committee
There is a principle in accounting best practice called the "separation of responsibilities" that requires multiple people to have different jobs to take care of in the management of the organisation's financial affairs. There should never be less than four people responsible for managing aspects of the org's receivables and payables. Splitting responsibilities reduces the risk of error and fraud.

1. The Finance Committee should be 5-7 members who already have or will be trained in book keeping principles and provided with the necessary software to execute their duties. The Chair should have demonstrated experience in accounting and book keeping and may also be the Treasurer of Town Council/Committee of Management

2. The Finance Committee should report to the Treasurer on at least a monthly basis (and weekly in the 6 weeks prior to and post the event) if the Treasurer is not the Chair. The Treasurer should report to the Council in turn.

3. The Treasurer should report to the Board of the Cultural Organisation on at least a monthly basis and fortnightly for the 6 weeks pre and post event.

4. "Reporting" includes at the minimum the preparation of; a General Ledger that is prepared once a Trial Balance has confirmed the accuracy of the accounts, Subsidiary journal Reports on Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable, confirmed Bank reconciliation, Balance Sheet, Income Statement (P&L), subsidiary ledger report for GST.

5. There should be systems in place whereby quotes for goods and services are gathered in a transparent way that is not vulnerable to nepotism; the decisions should always be made with the members' best interest as the priority. There should be a policy in place approved by the members with regard to subcontractors. The Finance committee needs to operate within these policy guidelines and develop procedures within those constraints.

6. It is the responsibility of the Committee to inform the Treasurer (and therefore the Council/Board) of any deviations from policy, any risks to cash flow, any errors, potential fraud, and to stay on top of legislative changes in relation to taxation.

7. The Committee should understand, adhere to and complete the reporting requirements for ROCO and ACNC.

1. The preparation of budget estimates for Council to review and agree on following year budget breakdowns

2. Prepare afterburn financial reports to be approved and presented by the Council Treasurer at Summit and published for review by the members

Officers and their duties on Finance committee:
Duties of accounts payable officer:
For efficient accounts payable, the accounts payable officer should do the following:

• Ensure all invoices are accurate by checking invoices against delivery dockets and checking accuracy of invoice charges.

• Use an internal memorandum to notify supervisors of errors, discrepancies and/or the need for a tax adjustment note from the supplier.

• Ensure the purchases, purchases returns and allowances journal and cash payments journal are updated daily.

• Ensure the accounts payable ledger is updated monthly.

• Ensure the accounts payable control account is balanced to the accounts payable subsidiary ledger totals monthly.

• Prepare cheques for signature by the Financial Controller-and then forward the cheques to the suppliers.

• Enter the cheques in the cash payments journal and post these to each individual creditor account in the accounts payable ledger.

• Arrange for all completed source documents to be filed by the filing clerk.

• Generate company purchase order from purchase requisition and place order with supplier.

• Enter suppliers' tax invoices as a commitment of funds on the Creditors ledger via the Purchases journal.

• On receipt of goods and the supplier's tax invoice, prepare the payment voucher authorising the drawing of a cheque.

• Request adjustment notes from suppliers for returned purchases or overcharged invoices as appropriate.

• Ensure all reductions received via adjustment notes are posted to the correct creditor's account.

• Process cash payments weekly for all approved accounts payable.

• Present cheques for signature to the Financial Controller and distribute the signed  cheques.

• Ensure that all cash payments are posted to the correct creditor's account in the accounts payable subsidiary ledger.

• Development of accounts payable policies and procedures

• Reconciliation of supplier statements of account

• Monitoring accounts payable

• Issue of and control over business credit/debit cards

• Answering supplier enquiries

As the Cultural Org will be the seat for the broad based membership, it would be wise for there to be a "Membership Committee" ie MemCom.

I am going to copy this to the Committees : cultural entity thread

I spent the evening with a Seed facilitator last night and the biggest critique of the current state is that there is no formalised/organised training regime and that volunteer crew are thrown in the deep end and often come in very enthused and motivated but get spooked and quit or vanish.

I would like to propose a Standing Committee for Operational Training and Development. We agreed that a well supported and competent volunteer corps is critical to the stable operation of the event and also boosts morale. Training opportunities and even sponsoring formal qualifications to fill critical gaps is a great incentive and helps avoid the need for remunerated positions.

@leanna here is the post about a training committee.

Training part 2: There should be a condition or contract entered into with the sponsored volunteer for any professional qualifications (forklift/digger tickets etc) that states that if they fail to attend the event the shifts that require those skills on site, and then the full amount of the training course will be repaid by the crew member.

I think this is excellent. Imagine this in particular would be good for current org peeps to look over though

If someone would set up an official forum and time frame for a collaborative interface between Ops and RC that would be marvellous! Agree "they" should be brought in but to date nobody has proposed or organised the way that can happen (that is inclusive of the entire committee).

Perhaps a solution is for us to create a Loomio space specifically to present our distilled ideas to Ops members. We have the technology and Loomio seems to be working we can have our discussions on our threads but create a subgroup that is edited and concise; then take some feedback. TBH we could/should do the same for theme camp forum. We have agreed to that consultation being important in our RC meetings but nobody seems to be up for organising it as a physical event. But I think these ideas should be going on the CEP.

Finance Commitee -I would add the perspective of protecting volunteers who apply themselves in this area. Hence roles like BookKeeper/accountant can be external while you develop the internal crew around the simpler systems of acquittal, transparency etc, budgets, spends. Madelines focus on min 4 development of team in this area is important

Are there any committees here from the Burning Man Project that be worth considering to be included:

BURNING MAN PROJECT 'BY LAWS' - COMMITTEES

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COMMITTEES OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Appointment of Committees

(Board my appoint Board Standing Committees as it may seem desirable)

Constitutional Committees as follows:

- Senior Executive Committee

- Advisory Board (as board seems desirable)

- Audit Committee

- Finance Committee

- Dispute Resolution Committee

- Human Resources/Personnel Committee

- Philosophy Committee

- Nominating Committee

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So I think we have many of these things here but my different names.
-The Dispute Resolution Committee is something our Conduct and Care WG was working on and I feel like that work needs to be continued and handed over (if it hasn't been) now that Jo has left. The work seemed to be heading in the direction of appointing an independent ombudsman rather than relying on internal investigations into disputes between members.
-HR is called Recruitment & Crew with a separate committee that only focuses on Training and Development of that crew.
-the Philosophy committee is here called the Cultural Stewardship Committee and I would suggest this is group who are focused on communicating and promoting the cultural values of a Burn. Leanna shared Jessica's (Entry Facilitator and CBR RC) thoughts about the importance of greeters and enculturation and I myself have had a big fireside chat with Jess about the diminishing demonstration of culture. This is the committee where I see RCs and Founders (many people may be both) being really important.
- Having a Nominating Committee when choosing and electing Board and committee members has not been formally proposed or discussed anywhere to date. It is mentioned in the Prolegis Advice June 2018 but only as an option not a recommendation.

One that stands out to me, separate to the finance committee is an - Audit Committee - in the Operations Entity

Perhaps we could see your thoughts about their specific duties? A CLG needs to be independently audited. An ACNC registered charity needs to be audited, is the suggestion that this will be the prime role of the Audit Committee - to stay on top of the ACNC requirements and to do that work?

Another standing committee for Inclusion in the Operations Entity's Committee's section could be an 'After Burn Report Committee'.

This has traditionally been Comms but I imagine a subcommittee might be a good way of getting the thing done. Perhaps in our forthcoming consultation with Ops we ask whether a dedicated sub-committee would be beneficial - having an RC and a delegate from each department could be a great way for teams to be accountable for their reports being submitted and ensuring the report has everything it needs to satisfy BM.

Not sure why we are polling for Cultural Entity Committees in the Operation Entity 'Committee' area.

Its certainly nice to see how they appear side by side though to keeping the work separated between the two is probably more desirable.

Noted. Prop has been changed to action this. A separate one for Cultural will be posted.

Please note in the Ops committee in the poll above the Country & Indigenous Sustainability CommitteeSite Safety Committee appear on the same line and need to be separated.

fixed

Where does a 'Dispute Resolution Committee' for the Operations Entity fall into the schema?

Conduct and Care

I write this noting that Sam has objected to us putting forward any committees at this time, but also personally believe that we are working with a known quantity, that needs to be ready to function immediately upon registration. If the new ops entity is going to assume control of the annual event for 2021, offering a suggested framework to improve the current state seems prudent.

I would expect that the incoming committee of management would be free to change the organisation's working structure to suit its needs, and I expect the legal team to take the intentions expressed here and translate them into appropriately flexible clauses. We also are yet to consult Ops but we need something to show them.

These standing committees could be an appendix or supporting document. The responsibilities and needs are not going to change that much for Ops. It is not a blank slate it is a restructure.