As your Secretary Treasurer it’s my fiduciary duty to ensure you that the goals of our Local are in line with the financial responsibility of our members. When we took office in June of 2009, President Boccardy gave me clear directives that our number one responsibility was to ensure that we balanced the budget. We inherited a Local that was in a deficit of $146,066.00 in 2008, and which was projected to have a higher deficit of $200,000.00 in 2009. Within six months of President Boccardy’s leadership we were able to reduce the deficit to $38,940.
2009- New Administration Financial Achievement
President Boccardy reduced the President’s salary by $35.000.00
We paid off a year of arrearage to the SEIU State Council
We paid off arrearage to the Greater Boston Labor Council
President Boccardy was able to reduce the Executive Boards annual stipends by 50% to $26,400.00. The board consisted of (18 members), Trustees (3 members) and the Officers (3 members).
He also made attendance mandatory in order to receive stipend to cover gas and tolls
2010 - Local Achieves a Budget Surplus of $284,424.00
In December 2009 we presented to the board a balanced budget. As a result of some aggressive decisions we were able to:
Join the SEIU International Share Service Organization to process our dues and accounts payable
Renegotiated all our leases which included telephone, copier and all our software fees
We also eliminated The Education Director & the full-time Secretary Treasurer position. The Secretary Treasurer position is still an Officer position within the Local receiving a stipend.
We were able to budget moving expenses from the Schraft Building to our new office at 52 Roland Street which is more cost effective. Due to the construction delay our October 2010 moving date was pushed to January 2011. As a result of the delay moving expenses for budgeted year 2010 were approved by the board to carry forward to budget year 2011.
2011 Budget Year
The three month construction delay carried over $60,000 for moving expenses from budget year 2010 to budget year 2011. As a result of the delay which was out of our control we are anticipating a slight increase in the budget for budget year 2011.
I have been contacted by several members who have been given the false impression that we are in a dire deficit. This information is incorrect. As I can assure you the facts are that we are a sustainable union with approximately 9,000 members. In October of 2011 we started our dues recovery & Dues Equality Program which will help us recoup over $30,000 for budget year 2012. We have also discovered that over 100 of our local members are not paying dues. We are currently in the process of working with our leaders to rectify this situation.
As you can see from the figures outlined above we have a balanced budget and a plan to rectify any losses. We have been able to save money and plan appropriately for the upcoming budget year.
Sincerely
Secretary Treasurer