Discussion of whether MWSA should change our policy of free ads for members to paid ads only at the current discounted rate.
-Ad management is very time consuming for the Editor
-Most members do not take advantage of the free ad option
-Ad quality varies greatly
-Our discounted rates are very reasonable and can help offset layout/design expenses
-Val committed to be Dispatches Editor for one year, and that concludes in September
Financial Management Plan (Treasurer, Bookkeeping, and Bank)
Hugh has announced that he’s not planning to continue as treasurer past his current term. He’s also noted the costs of QuickBooks (they’re now only offering an annual subscription payment plan (even for the desktop version). These two facts lead to required actions on our part.
Treasurer. Make sure we’re recruiting a new treasurer. Rob Lofthouse has expressed an interest.
Bookkeeping Software. Given the costs for QB — roughly $1000/year — and the limited number of transactions we need to track due to check writing, we MAY want to consider another bookkeeping software or system.
Bank. If Hugh’s leaving, we need to consider changing banks. As we’ll no longer be tied to Hugh’s home address.Maybe we need to consider an online-only bank as a replacement that might work no matter where our treasurer lives.
Tracking system for required reports
Hugh discovered we hadn’t filed required annual report with Pennsylvania for many years—potentially threatening our non-profit status. This is a long-standing problem with MWSA management, and we must do better.
Report/Due to/Due by/Position or person in charge
I will create a spreadsheet to track this type of information—likely incorporating this into our portfolio document in this section of the website. Will probably have to wait until I return from vacation (May 2).
On Thursday, April 3, 2025 at 01:10:03 PM EDT, Hugh Simpson <hsimpson@simpsonlaw.org> wrote:
Received a notice from InCorp ( Registered Agent) regarding updating credit card information. Logged in and since 2016 MWSA has been out of compliance with the State of Pennsylvania except in 2022 Joe Epley filed a report.
I jumped in and filed for 2025.
What will become problematic, I believe next year if MWSA does not file a report the organization will be out of compliance which creates a whole new set of circumstances…none good and probably cost $$ to regain “good standing”. I attached a “how to” guide and really easy to do which is essentially updating President, Treasurer, and Secretary.
Probably need to assign this function to a specific “”billet” as people come and go from their leadership roles. I would say assign to “Secretary”.
Did call InCorp to ask why we hadn’t received a notice…their answer “we receive mail as registered agent”. Nothing more nothing less. $129 per year.
See what I saw below.
Entity Name
Due Date
Starts
Ends
Status
Annual Report Due
Military Writers Society of America (158927) [PA-DNPC]
04/30/2016
PAST DUE: Item due 04/30/2016
Annual Report Due
Military Writers Society of America (158927) [PA-DNPC]
04/30/2017
PAST DUE: Item due 04/30/2017
Annual Report Due
Military Writers Society of America (158927) [PA-DNPC]
04/30/2018
PAST DUE: Item due 04/30/2018
Annual Report Due
Military Writers Society of America (158927) [PA-DNPC]
04/30/2019
PAST DUE: Item due 04/30/2019
Annual Report Due
Military Writers Society of America (158927) [PA-DNPC]
04/30/2020
PAST DUE: Item due 04/30/2020
Annual Report Due
Military Writers Society of America (158927) [PA-DNPC]
04/30/2021
PAST DUE: Item due 04/30/2021
Annual Report Due
Military Writers Society of America (158927) [PA-DNPC]
04/30/2023
04/27/2022
04/27/2022
PAST DUE: Item due 04/30/2023
Annual Report Due
Military Writers Society of America (158927) [PA-DNPC]
04/30/2024
PAST DUE: Item due 04/30/2024
Annual Report Due
Military Writers Society of America (158927) [PA-DNPC]
06/30/2025
Item due 06/30/2025
Annual Report Due
Military Writers Society of America (158927) [PA-DNPC]
06/30/2026
Item due 06/30/2026
Organizational Briefing/Welcome Packet
It would be nice to have an organizational briefing PDF file that would serve two purposes:
Hand out to new members, welcoming them and providing a brief overview of our mission, programs, benefits, leadership, website, etc.
Same info, but for marketing/introductory purposes. Handouts for ambassadors
Recommendations
I’d recommend one document, stored on our admin page, visible to all on the website, and downloadable.
I can update our Wild Apricot welcome emails with a link to the document.
We should formalize keeping the document updated at least annually and certainly with every new administration.
2025 Conference
Update for May Board Meeting
Outstanding issues:
Methodology for reserving extra nights at hotel
Food at reception
Agenda (process and inputs)
Any other help Rob needs (volunteers to help during conf)
Cost Update: the lunch conundrum
Costs keep rising. We thought San Diego was an aberration, but it’s more like “the new normal.”
AV costs ($3069) will add just under $50 to the cost of every registration fee.
Hotel adds 12.85% tax PLUS a 25% service charge = 37.85%! (Contract)
The buffet lunch initially planned for Friday will add about $80 to each full conference fee.
Resultant registration fees: $345 full, $195 half, $145 banquet-only
SOLUTIONS:
a. Not host any lunch, leading to a roughly $265 per person full conf fee, or
b. Have a full conference (with lunch) fee of $345 or a non-lunch full or half conference fee of $265.Plus/Minus
It’s better to have everyone sit together for lunch, but it costs a LOT!
It MIGHT be better to forgo lunch altogether because if we do both, there will be an “in” and “out” group during lunch, and we don’t want to encourage that type of division. The alternative is that everyone is on their own for ALL meals except the banquet.
We’ll discuss the relative merits of these two options during the meeting. We need to make a good faith effort to set fees to meet our costs!
VOTE:
Full with lunch—full is $345
Full without lunch—$265 (includes everything else)
Offer both—both of the above
FYI: HALF is normally everything AFTER the sit-down lunch.
Location and Date
UPDATE (12/9): Poll results (25 participants)
Location tally
Nashville 9 45% (Jim can’t attend here)
Dallas 7 35%
Kansas City 4 20 % (Rob lives nearby and has offered to help with planning)
UPDATE (11/26/24). Only four board members provided input to our methodology, so we’re moving ahead with a poll to ask for input.
Only those who plan to attend (plus “maybes”) will be asked to vote.
We’ll ask for input on content, cost, and activities during the conference and MWSA programs and benefits (open to all).
We’ll take member input to fix and approve the location during our Dec 11 board meeting.
San Diego, so now mid or east
We traditionally alternate West of Mississippi, East of MS, central US
San Diego, CA
New London, CT
New Orleans, LA
Virtual (Covid)
“
Albuquerque, NM (joint w SWW)
Charleston, SC
San Antonio, TX
Top 3 from conf survey: Nashville, Kansas City, Dallas
In the conference survey spreadsheet below, click on “Location Tally” (at the bottom of the spreadsheet) to see the results from San Diego attendees.
Vote by membership on location and/or date
If we’re soliciting input on the date, I’d ask for a date range: i.e., end of Sept, or mid-Oct, or early November, etc.)
Date range constrained by awards schedule—earlier than mid-September tough-to-impossible. December is too busy. Also, need to allow time for travel planning for awards finalists.
We need to nail down the location and date soon to allow planning
My preference is to have our membership vote by the end of THIS MONTH (November), approve in our Dec 11 meeting, and announce after approval.
Organizer? Cathcart if no one else wants to run it.
2024 Conference Survey
Budget
2024 Recap
Dues Income
Conference Income
12/6 Finance Committee Meeting
We agreed to annual deficits of $2000 to as much as $4000-5000 to whittle down the current $48k cash on hand. We further agreed on a target cash cushion of between $10k and $20k. $20k target.
We also agreed to stop segregating funds into separate programs, awards, and operations accounts. While those budget categories will, in effect, be maintained via our budget spreadsheet, we’ll no longer have to transfer funds between accounts to make necessary payments. We’ll also stop keeping the running totals of each account separately. As a result, from now on, the treasurer will report overall cash on hand (not broken down by the three accounts).
Regarding the 2025 conference, we:
Agreed to a new budget line item of “support to conferences” (paid via general funds instead of conference registration fees)
Included under this new line item (total estimated $2699):
Hotel subsidies to board members working during the conference from general funds (estimated at $1500).
$250 for a videographer during the awards banquet
A possible subsidy to conference presenters. We agreed that if we could figure out a practical way of providing a 10% subsidy of registration fees (approx. cost $413), we’d present more accurate numbers and methodology to the board for their consideration and approval.
$500 to cover any excess conference costs not covered/anticipated by the total income from registration fees.
The reimbursement for the hotel and conference fee to the awards director (s) was not included in the new line item because this expense is listed as part of the awards budget (and covered by awards submission fees).
Committee members will scrub existing line items in current budget spreadsheet. Hugh will align QuickBooks with these categories.
Action Items (for the above FinComm meeting)
Budget Spreadsheet
Agree to spreadsheet format
one for the finance committee and board, another for public/membership
Ways to address deficit spending
Ways to address “robust” cash on hand… i.e., deficit spending!
Create 2025 budget plan and submit for board vote by the 11 Dec meeting.