eFlash! 2024-09

2024 AGM — Annual General Meeting / AGA 2024 — Assemblée générale annuelle

Treasurer’s Report / Rapport du Trésorier

Index & Agenda | President’s Report

Financial Report for the 2023—24 Fiscal Year

The audio recording of this year’s AGM is available here in M4A format. (56:50)

[29:10] The following is a report on the CEC’s financial situation at the end of the 2023—24 fiscal year with a perspective on the current fiscal year, 2024—25.

Please refer to the Financial Report in the documents provided to members prior to the AGM.

Overview of the CEC’s Financial Situation

Assets and Liabilities

On the first page, the assets and liabilities for the 2023—24 fiscal year are summarized:

• Assets (Actifs) — the total of available funds in the CEC’s main bank account, placement account (funds for JTTP Thematic Awards) and PayPal plus Accounts Due is $27,125;
• Liabilities (Passif) the total liabilities from Accounts Payable plus donations earmarked for JTTP awards (through 2025) plus grants received in advance are $22,296;
• Assets minus Liabilities leave a Net Asset of $4830.

Accounts Due consist of membership dues owing (projected to be recovered) and a small balance for membership payments remaining on PayPal at the end of the fiscal year.

Accounts Payable consist of professional fees owed to the CEC’s translator and accountant, and production costs related to the JTTP 2023 concert in Liepaja (Latvia) in April 2024.

Revenues and Expenses

[31:28] The second page offers an overview of revenues and expenses (by category). Primary sources of revenue were the SOCAN Foundation, membership dues and private donations (for JTTP). Principal expenses were subcontracting (administrative salaries) and professional fees (programming, grant-writing assistance, accounting, translation, JTTP prize money), with smaller office- and communications-related expenses.

The difference in total revenues ($42,162) and total expenses ($43,703) means that the CEC’s expenses exceeded its revenues by $1541 for the last fiscal year.

Financial Forecast

[32:20] The third page is an annex, providing informal and simplified summaries and projections. The first table reflects what was described above. The second table shows the projected funds and revenues available to the CEC for the current fiscal year: Net Assets plus the confirmed Annual Operations grant, plus projected membership fees and JTTP donations leave the CEC with a “working balance” of $43,230.

Revenue Sources

Institutional

[21:52] SOCAN Foundation. The CEC submitted its second three-year Annual Operations funding application to the SOCAN Foundation in 2023 for the years 2024 through 2026. For the past four years, increasing operating costs were balanced out by annual increases in operational funding. The multi-year funding model now seems to be in question due, ostensibly, to structural changes at SOCAN, which have impacted the funding programmes administered by the SOCAN Foundation. The CEC has not received an increase in funding this year and will be informed of the amount the Foundation will allocate for the CEC’s 2025 operational budget only at the end of 2024; and for 2026 only at the end of 2025. This funding source (now renamed Core Funding Assistance) has since 2005 comprised a crucial part of the financial support needed for the CEC’s various projects and initiatives, and for its day-to-day activities. Additionally, the stability offered by the relatively recent move to a multi-year funding model was extremely helpful to the CEC’s long-term planning. The CEC thanks the SOCAN Foundation for their over 20 years of support, and looks forward to working with them in the future as the new funding structure becomes clearer moving forward.

Canada Council for the Arts. The CEC will be submitting project funding applications to the Canada Council for the Arts for upcoming initiatives, such as a tour for the 25th anniversary of the CEC’s coordination of JTTP and for proposed community outreach activities. As more of that gets in place we will send updates to our members in the bi-monthly online newsletter, eFlash!, which you should all receive notice of via email.

Other

[34:50] The JTTP prize packages are the result of private donations and materials solicited from institutional and individual partners in Canada and abroad. In 2021, under Kevin Austin’s initiative, the first four JTTP Thematic Awards were launched. From 2021 through 2025, the awards are foundationally supported through a generous donation from Kevin, with further contributions since 2021 from Martin Gotfrit. Kevin has not only renewed his commitment to support these awards for another five years, but in 2024 he also initiated another three awards and is funding those as well through the next five years.

We send a huge thanks out to all our partners for the wonderful prize packages the CEC is able to offer the JTTP winners (the value of which is over $3300), in addition to the cash prizes offered to winners and thematic award recipients (total value of $2800 1[1. Corrected (from $1900) to account for the three new thematic awards.]).

A further donation from Kevin Austin has helped the CEC subsidize, so to speak, the backdues of a number of members whose balance owing had grown in recent years. A portion of the donation was also used to invite a handful of new or past members back by offering them a complimentary CEC membership for one year. In numbers: 13 brand new members, 10 renewals of ex-members, 8 members’ backdues covered and 4 members chose to decline the offer and instead pay the four to six years’ backdues they owed. Inevitably, in the process of “cleaning up the books”, a few members stepped down for various reasons, but this initiative has nevertheless helped stabilize and strengthen the CEC membership, with around a 10% increase in numbers compared to a year and a half ago.

On that note, I would like to gently remind those members who have not yet paid their membership dues for 2024—25 to do so at their earliest convenience. Membership dues are another important component of the CEC’s revenues and therefore also help the CEC maintain the quality and scope the community expects from us in all our endeavours. 2[2. If you are not unsure of your membership status, please contact our administration to clear things up.]

On behalf of the CEC members, the Board and Administration, I thank Kevin Austin for his continued, generous spirit. We also thank all our partners and donors that make up the JTTP prize package that gets sent to us for the winning composers, and nearly 40 years ago, in 1986, it was Kevin Austin along with Jean-François Denis who set the legal and organizational framework in place that led to the founding of the CEC. It is generous contributions that keep our organization moving forward and relevant.

Outlook

[29:10] On behalf of the Board of Directors, I present a financial report that is slightly in the red (by $1541). Our continued SOCAN Foundation funding, with some programme changes, should maintain stability and sustainability for our future operations and programmes, with an outlook to hopefully grow funding for our future outreach projects from the Canada Council.

On a positive note, our membership continues to grow, providing another stable source that helps to fund our various endeavours, despite being slightly over budget this year (it is not by an unsurmountable amount), and we’ll keep a close eye on our expenses and revenues for next year, in order to get back into the black.

Shawn Pinchbeck
Treasurer of the CEC
Viljandi, 28 August 2024