eFlash! 2015-08

2015 AGM — Annual General Meeting / AGA 2015 — Assemblée générale annuelle

Treasurer’s Report / Rapport Du Trésorier

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The CEC’s financial situation at the close of the 2014–15 fiscal year is detailed in the 2014–15 Financial Report. Once again, I am happy to report a healthy end-of-year report, with a small surplus.

Year-End Financial Report

Page two (2) of the Financial Report provides an overview of the revenues and expenses for the 2014–15 fiscal year, organizes in various categories. The most important sources of revenue are, as has been the case for many years, the Canada Council for the Arts’ Writing & Publishing section, SOCAN Foundation (Core Funding) and membership dues. The main expenses are the salaries for the CEC’s administrative team, and Professional Fees, which are for contracted work such as Guest Editors, translation and the CEC’s accountant.

Total revenues ($40 033) minus total expenses ($38 770) leave a surplus of $1263 for the 2014–15 fiscal year. For several years the CEC has been able to set aside a small sum to build its Capital Fund (currently at $7159), which would serve in times of particular fiscal circumstances to allow the CEC to rebalance itself, and effectively survive short-term financial problems that might arise.

Page one (1) explains the financials of the 2014–15 fiscal year and the CEC’s financial situation as of 31 May 2015. Looking at the summary at the bottom of the page, we see that the CEC’s total Assets ($19 465 in the bank, with no outstanding revenues) minus Liabilities ($12 306 in accounts payable but not yet spent as of 31 May 2015) gives a Net Asset of $7159. Accounts payable this year consist of money allocated for eContact! professional fees (translation and Guest Editors) and the website upgrade (mentioned in the President’s Report), as well as money set aside for an upgrade to SONUS.

The financial situation of the CEC for the 2015–16 fiscal year is summarized in the Annex found on page three (3) of the Financial Report. Net Assets plus the remaining payment due for the SOCAN Foundation 2015 Core Funding grant plus the recently confirmed Canada Council Writing & Publishing grant leave the CEC with a “working balance” of $29 209 for the fiscal year in course.

Institutional Income Sources

The CEC continues to receive SOCAN Foundation support in the form of an annual Core Funding grant (as of 2016 the Core Funding programme is integrated in their Operational Grants programme). This is spread across various projects and administrative tasks as needed. We are happy to announce that the amount awarded for 2015 was raised to $12 500. Since 2005, our first year of support through this programme, the amount awarded each year has matched or been increased in relation to the previous year, with an overall average of a 10% annual increase. The SOCAN Foundation’s Rick MacMillan is retiring this year and the CEC would like to thank him for the enthusiasm he has shown towards the CEC and its various activities in his role as the Foundation’s Manager. We wish him all the best in his future pursuits.

The Writing & Publishing section of the Canada Council for the Arts (CCA) has supported eContact! since its first volume. Funding in the amount of $15 800 has been awarded to the CEC for the 2015–16 fiscal year for the publication of issues 18.1–18.4. However, this amount is down 20% from the previous year and came with a “second warning”, meaning if certain criteria are not corrected, there is a risk that Canada Council funding for the journal could be cut altogether.

The main concern of the jury — and the deciding factor in their decision — was that the website was not accessible to the public. Although they had access to the beta version of the site that was approximately 95% functional at the time, this point was judged very harshly. The launch of the site has encountered some delays that (as of the AGM) have already been taken care of or are being diligently dealt with. While the launch of the new site on September 10 will already address the major issues that contributed to this warning, the CEC’s administration is also working on plans to address two other concerns the jury had: insufficient fees for the authors and excessive dependence on the Canada Council for the journal’s financial existence. On the positive side, the jury did recognize the importance of the upgrade and applauded the vastly improved design and use of colour and white space in the presentation, as well as the on-going support of young composers and the extensive use of high-quality sound files.

As mentioned, we are already working carefully to rectify this situation and to bring the journal in line with the Canada Council’s standards.

Shawn Pinchbeck
Treasurer of the CEC
Toronto, Thursday, 20 August 2015