Trebor Warcliffe Revised Budget Proposal

[Trebor Warcliffe]

https://picasaweb.google.com/1179757801 ... 2771921106

I’ve made some revisions to my original proposed budget as a result of feedback from the citizens of the CDS. Some of what you are about to read I just cut and paste from my original budget proposal post while other information is new.

In order to determine the projected revenue I used two different methods. The first method was by averaging the revenue for the previous 6 months. The second method was estimating 90 percent occupancy and averaging sales for the previous 6 months. Of course if we expand this term, a goal I hope to accomplish, than these figures will change as well as land expenses.

Since I’ve taken over the preparations of the financial statements the only entries in the Professional Fees are the salaries we pay for the civil service positions. Beginning in January salaries will be recorded under the account Salaries Expense. I’ve eliminated the Assistant Treasurer/Commerce Coordinator, which is the position I currently hold. Even if I am Chancellor I will continue to perform the Assistant Treasurer duty of producing the financial statements. I’ve also eliminated the RA Archivist position, we haven’t paid an RA Archivist this past term and in reality it’s an obligation an RA member takes upon themselves similar to an RA member being the LRA.

I still have in my budget a salary for the Covenant Enforcement Officer (CEO). As I’ve explained in the forums this position was created due to concerns from citizens that our covenants haven’t been followed. Now if you compare my first proposed budget to this budget you will notice cost cutting measures I’ve taken. I’ve combined the Caretaker and the Covenant Enforcement Officer as one position. I’ve eliminated the 3 support staff positions and brought back the Commerce Commissioner position just without the Assistant Treasurer attached to it.

I don’t want to ruffle any feathers or purposefully upset anyone but I do have to question why we are paying for a Content Archivist. I ask this because I have a hard time justifying the expense for the little amount of work it seems to entail. I may be incorrect on this point and if I am I apologize. The other 4 paid positions are considerably more time consuming and labor intensive than the CA and that is why I can justify the salaries they are given. I will also point out that any citizen who fills any of these positions is able to decline the actual salary. I know one candidate for Commerce Commissioner stated if they were to accept the position they didn’t want to be paid to do the job.

The website/web portal hosting cost is self-explanatory. As I pointed out in my first budget proposal I will not be renewing our contract with Radio Riel. I’ve reduced Other Advertising and Marketing from 7,500 to 5,000. Keep in mind this expense may be considerably lower than this amount but I have to allocate enough to be able to explore other options in this area such as advertising in an SL magazine that would be appropriate for our community. Advertising on the Second Life Marketplace and classifieds along with using the SL events calendar and being highlighted on the SL Destination Guide and Featured Events are all avenues that need to be utilized. I’d also like to explore placing info centers in other popular estates on the grid.

I’d like to provide a monthly subsidy to the New Guild to be used for maintenance and minor sim improvements. This money would be used for such things as extending walkways, street improvements such as new textures or street signs, seasonal landscaping, temporary set-ups like a rose garden or an ice sculpture display, different ideas to spruce up our common lands and make the community more attractive.

I’ve made some changes to the programs and events budget. The two major events for the CDS are Oktoberfest and Floralia and this past year our current Chancellor, Tor, has shown us great events can be held without spending a merchant ship full of gold. Under my term our only main event will be Floralia which I have allocated L$ 36,000. This expense is spread over the entire 6 months of the term.
Arria introduced an idea during the 15th term to help subsidize both financially and through the use of public land citizens hosting events of their own. I think this is a wonderful idea but I did reduce this amount from L$ 15,000 to L$ 10,000. The possibilities are endless; education seminars, hunts, fashion shows, parties, religious gatherings, festivals and celebrations. Financially the government would assist the citizen; the government wouldn’t be paying all expenses involved. I have increased Monthly Government Expense from L$ 5,000 to L$ 7,500. My reasoning behind this was the fact that many live entertainers charge at least L$ 5,000 for a performance which wouldn’t allow much else in our monthly event budget. Obviously some months we may spend less and others we may spend more but it should all average out in the end. My total advertising and marketing has been reduced from L$ 10,320 to L$ 7,820.

When I posted my first budget I mistakenly included the expense for Oktoberfest which will not be taking place during my term that correction turned a loss of L$ 2,720 to a gain of L$ 3,280. With my newly remodeled budget our estimated monthly profit will be L$ 11,280 or US$ 45.12. Of course this could change based on new citizens joining us if and when we expand and the usual fluctuation in population that occurs in every community. A budget is an itemized summary of estimated or intended expenditures for a given period along with proposals for financing them. This is not a set-in-stone document but a realistic estimate on revenue and expenditures for the next term. Changes in income and expenses in either direction can affect a budget.

I’d also like to politely point out that until Tor became Chancellor on December 1st 2010 previous terms either had no budget at all or didn’t even prepare a budget until halfway through the term. In my research I could only find budgets for the 9th term, 12th and 13th term with the 13th having 3 separate budgets.

As always I welcome any questions, comments, or feedback on my proposed budget. It is my goal to have any issues resolved before the budget is officially presented to the RA for approval at their first meeting.

Thank you,

Trebor Warcliffe
soon to be sworn in as CDS Chancellor

[Patroklus Murakami]

Thanks for posting this Trebor and for considering input and amending your proposals. I'm very happy to see the importance you have placed on this aspect of the Chancellors role.

I will have to examine it carefully and then post further thoughts. As you know, my starting point is that the stipends for working for the community should go and I know at least one other RA member who holds similar views. I would prefer the events budget to be set at zero too but I expect to be in a minority on that and am happy to work towards a compromise.

[Bells Semyorka]

I'm in no way an accountant or financial guru, but I do have 5 years of RL banking experience specializing in consumer loans so perhaps I see this budget a bit differently than you do and I feel I should make some comment as a concerned citizen before the RA makes a decision and there is still time consider changes.

****Projected Income CDS is to receive******

I strongly think our financial situation should closely mirror what the expectations of a RL budget, especially since we are working with a source of currency that can be redeemed and turned into RL dollars.

I applaud you for using the figures of 90% occupancy for an estimation. This shows that you have high hopes that our community will retain it's current citizens and continue to grow; However I wouldn't want us to be over estimating CDS projected income and put us at a place where in the future we cannot sustain ourselves anymore.

I prefer to play it safe and look at this from a less optimistic angle. (Hope for the best, prepare for the worst) We should take an average of the most recent income CDS received after tier reduction to use this as a stable income flow.. The past six months have variables such as payment for AA and older land tier costs which could generate a potential false expectation of what income we would have as revenue rather using realistic goals. If we do consider the last six months figures we need to do understand that it could generate a false expectation of our projected gross monthly income.

the past six months of Total Revenu
(information available on portal site).
10-01-11 until 10-31-11 ------- $345,965
08-01-11 until 08-31-11-------- $273,821
07-01-11 until 07-31-11-------- $291,828
06-01-11 until 06-30-11--------- $384,734
05-01-11 until 05-31-11--------- $434,801
04-01-11 until 04-30-11--------- $254,502
Total figures $1,985,651
OP from AA for Aug (-33820) $1,951,831

Using the figures above I would estimate a revenue income of: $325,305

Although this figure is higher than what I would be comfortable with due to some fluctuation listed below.

***The Financial Report for September is opening to a dead link, it might provide a different projected income, but I am unable to determine this. Perhaps someone can take a look and fix this information. http://portal.slcds.info/wp-content/upl ... r_2011.pdf

*** From the total estimated amount of projected income I have made the following adjustment because of an over payment we were relieving from the AA sims (Link) http://forums.slcds.info/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3544
Aug---$33,820

*** Also During April, May and June our land tier was higher
and the numbers are reflecting a higher balance.

Personally, I would feel more comfortable using the last 4 months average since these figures were after the reduction of tier. This would provide us with a much safer and stable GMI (gross monthly income) or projected income that what we have. If we do intend to continue keeping our tier at a reduced rate and purchasing more sims and info hubs and hosting events. We need to Plan ahead for the future, protect our assets and be conservative with our figures for CDS's future. I think others have felt the same in the past. http://forums.slcds.info/viewtopic.php? ... ier#p17434

Using the last 4 months of Information I think the following would be a much safer figure to use. $295,859

**I used aug number twice to compensate for Sept numbers not being available.

*****Salaries******

I personally feel that the compensation for payment within our government is something we do in error and should be eliminated. (with the exception of Sudane)

Citizens that are elected in our governmental system are not provided with a monthly stipend which makes it unfair to those that do vs those that do not receive monthly financial compensation for their services. What makes one more justifiable to receive payment?

Ive heard them be referred to as tokens of appreciation, not adding up to much, small and so on. No matter what kind of bow you wrap it in the bottom line is we are giving CDS funds away to individuals.

Our proposed budget as of right now is paying (at the current rate of conversion) $51.60 usd a month to citizens and $310 usd for the term. To me, That's a lot of change to be handing out to people for compensation or appreciation.

It's a privilege to be a part of our governmental system whether it's in RA, Executive or SC. We should have pride in our community and offer our help to make it a better place, not to receive governmental handouts. Those that volunteer their time, energy and services should do so with the expectation that it is to better CDS and in return themselves.

I'm suggesting a couple of ways to resolve this payment issue, I hope one is taken into consideration.

1) remove the stipends from the budget.
I understand that there is cost associated with volunteering that should not be paid by individuals. Texture uploading, **purchase of CDS equipment are the two things that come to mind right off the bat. I think it's necessary to provide a reimbursement for someone's expenses. I believe that a receipt should be created and given to the chancellor and include a full transaction history of the total cost. Also the chancellor should keep this reciept on file in the event the expense is called into question in the future.

**Purchase of CDS Equipment
I have been wondering how many Items CDS had paid for and have now lost over the years. Items that citizens purchased for a CDS event and were reimbursed with CDS funds and are still retained in the purchasing avatar's inventory. To me it seems like a waste of money and resources that we do not have these items which should be CDS property available for everyone. I suggest than a pseudoavatar is created much like rudeen, and is used to store all CDS Items from this point on. This avatar can carry all items in it's inventory and a catalog can be created with the contents and be made available for all residents to see. All residents would be able to use the items on this inventory as they need for an event, or to create CDS items. Also this avatar can be the main contact point for the marketplace, or any welcome basket that might be stored for cds. This avatar would need to be passed down to each chancellor that follows and the catalog updated to include each item. A catalog can be created easily by creating a web page on a blog with photos and description of each item.

2. Demand accountability.
If we are providing payment for services rendered to our citizens that volunteer we are essentially providing a job to citizens. We should treat it as a job and ask for proof of services rendered on a monthly basis. We should also list each person that is receiving funds on the portal under the executive team. They should have a job description and salary listed so each resident in CDS is able to know who to contact in the event they have an issue that falls under their jurisdiction.

**************************************************
For me personally I would volunteer to help CDS without any financial compensation besides reimbursement. The biggest and most rewarding thing that I could receive as a citizen is to be CREDITED for my ideas and contributions. A thank you or acknowledgment that is sincere and not clouded in arrogance far outweighs monetary value in my eyes.

**************************************************

*****Marketing*****
$20 usd a month and $120 usd term???

1) which magazines are you considering to be appropriate for our community? How often do they have issues? How many readers? How will we measure the success of the advertisement we place? How long will we run an add for before decided if it's successful or not successful?
if we invest X are we going to get X+ , if we don't receive our initial investment we are losing money.

2) Information on the SL destination guide: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_ ... _Guide_FAQ

it does NOT require any money to be listed in the SL destination guide. Only effort and suggestion.

3) Information on Classifieds: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Engl ... a-p/700049

A classified can be placed for as little as 30L a week and using the DESCRIPTIONS we can tailor our search field. the description should include key words about our community. Democracy, Law, Government, Community, Land sales and so on. Do a search for these keywords in the Second Life search and see who is listed first. How much money are we planning on spending for a classified advertisement?

4) I provided a suggestion on how to market to the SL marketplace above, BTW it's free to list items and sell. an advertisement is slightly different. https://marketplace.secondlife.com/listing_guidelines

there is no cost involved unless you are selling things for Lindens and then LL takes a portion 0 sale items are free to the merchant and the consumer. If you were planning on taking out an ad in the slmarket place there is a list of prices in the link. the largest advertisement they offer is a 30 day homepage offer for 2,899. This ad is seen on the homepage, but is also jumbled and lost under the large amount of ads listed. I shop the marketplace a lot, and to be honest I never look at the ads and often scroll to the items Im searching for.

**************************************************
these are just my personal ideas and advice I would like to see added, changed or considered to the budget this term as a citizen. If by chance an idea of mine is used I be really happy. Thank you for reading and considering

Bells Semyorka

*my post has been edited because of a few errors I caught on a second reading. I'm not perfect in grammar and spelling and often make mistakes. "

[cleopatraxigalia]

Great post Bells!

But I have to disagree with you on one point. I am completely opposed to any salaries for chancellor appointed officials. Not even with the "out " of letting them tell us what they did for the money each month. If someone is willing to voluteer to perform a duty I am not okay with paying a different person to do that duty because they are "chosen " by the current chancellor. I know we have done this in the recent past, that doesnt make it right.

[cleopatraxigalia]

Trebor, I agree with Pat here, no events budget.

Not without Transparency Accountability and Competency .. not the way you are asking for this money . For example, I asked you inworld for specifics about how the Florialia money you have set aside for us will be spent. This is one of the events you have asked CDS to pay for during your term.

Your answer was things like, well its less than Sonja spent, or less than last year's Octoberfest. But thats the question. How is this money going to be spent. .........Exactly. Or are you just asking for money and you will spend it as you see fit?

See I think a budget should start from zero and we should then allow for the specific expense to be shown as required. And then you want to get ideas on how to do the line items of the total Florialia expense done in a cheaper way.. for example, maybe one of our resident live musicians or singers or DJs , will volunteer for one of the events you are asking us to pay for. Or a merchant will donate one of the items. ?? Maybe someone already has what you are proposing to buy and will loan it to us? Who will know if its the most efficient use of funds if we dont know what they are for.. .

So for Floralia, I ask you again Trebor.

You ask for approximately $145.00 us dollars to be spent on a "festival" .. and why does your team specifically need that money ?? Each and ever linden? $36,000L is a lot of money to spend especially when we dont know exactly what it is for and what we get for it.

That it was done in the past is not good enough for me.

I urge the RA not to approve incomplete budgets based on blind estimates, and call for a : "Zero Based Budget".

[Trebor Warcliffe]

Bells,

Thank you for your feedback. Historically the CDS has maintained a rather high occupancy rate although there have been periods of vacancy like we experienced earlier this year. I do need to point out a mistake in your calculations of the past six months of total revenue. The “OP from AA for Aug (-33820) had already been calculated and is recognized in the total revenue amount of $273,821. So you would actually use your figure of $1,985,651 which gives us estimated monthly revenue of $330,941.

Total Revenue for the month of September was $278,604. So here would be the amounts of the past six months.
10-01-11 until 10-31-11 ----------$345,965
09-01-11 until 09-31-11 ----------$278,604
08-01-11 until 08-31-11 ----------$273,821
07-01-11 until 07-31-11 ----------$291,828
06-01-11 until 06-30-11 ----------$384,734
05-01-11 until 05-31-11 ----------$434,801
Total amount $2,009,753
Estimated monthly revenue of: $334,958

Also keep in mind that the total revenue figures you and I have used include tier revenue, land sales, tip jars and miscellaneous revenue. Using the 90% occupancy rate and only including the potential land tier revenue, not taking into account land sales, tip jars, or miscellaneous revenue. At 100% occupancy the CDS would collect $344,968. At 90% occupancy the CDS would collect $310,471. I remind you that this is only for tier revenue and doesn’t include land sales revenue. Our year-to-date Land Sales Revenues was $204,523 or an average of $20,452 per month.

So if we take my projected income of $335,000 and your projected income of $295,859 and average those out we come up with $315,429. I can feel comfortable lowering our projected revenue to $315,000 a $20,000 reduction.

In regards to salaries I feel it is irresponsible for one citizen to decide whether or not the government is going to pay for civil service positions. Personally I’d rather see the budget approved with the salaries included and than a petition made to the RA to eliminate salaries if that is what the consensus of the citizens decides. Also if I am expected to eliminate salaries why am I not eliminating all salaries, Sudane included. No disrespect to Sudane but if we’re eliminating all salaries than we should be eliminating all salaries. So against my better judgment I will take the initiative and eliminate the salaries in my budget. If this is in violation of a Code of Law or a Section of our Constitution please inform me of my error in judgment and I will correct it.

Feedback for your suggestions to resolve the payment issue.

1. I don’t see any problem with reimbursing a citizen for a purchase made on behalf of the CDS as long as it is discussed with the Chancellor before the purchase is made. I wouldn’t want someone purchasing carnival booths for $50,000 on their own without consulting the Chancellor and then expecting reimbursement.

2. Purchase of CDS Equipment – I also have thought about this issue. I believe you’d have to make contact with the Content Archivist for this information as I believe this is a part of their job duties. Also I think, I’m not positive, that Tor had our current CA make an avatar for this very purpose but I don’t know the particulars of this situation.

3. Demand accountability – no argument here

Marketing – I quote from Dictionary.com a budget is “an estimate, often itemized, of expected income and expense for a given period in the future.” As I stated in my above post I want to explore other advertising alternatives. Exploring would entail conducting research on my own, obtaining feedback from other members of my team, and obtaining feedback from citizens. The amount used as my estimated expense is based on the historical amount used in our community in the past. With hard work between all of us our actual advertising may be considerably less than what I’m estimating and a better return on the dollar than we have had in the past.

So here is the link for my third budget proposal which reflects my $20,000 reduction in projected revenue and the complete elimination of professional fees.

https://picasaweb.google.com/1179757801 ... 1710296642

[Callipygian]

Trebor, I agree with Pat here, no events budget.

... For example, I asked you inworld for specifics about how the Florialia money you have set aside for us will be spent. This is one of the events you have asked CDS to pay for during your term.

Your answer was things like, well its less than Sonja spent, or less than last year's Octoberfest. But thats the question. How is this money going to be spent. .........Exactly. Or are you just asking for money and you will spend it as you see fit?

See I think a budget should start from zero and we should then allow for the specific expense to be shown as required. And then you want to get ideas on how to do the line items of the total Florialia expense done in a cheaper way.. for example, maybe one of our resident live musicians or singers or DJs , will volunteer for one of the events you are asking us to pay for. Or a merchant will donate one of the items. ?? Maybe someone already has what you are proposing to buy and will loan it to us? Who will know if its the most efficient use of funds if we dont know what they are for.. .

So for Floralia, I ask you again Trebor.

You ask for approximately $145.00 us dollars to be spent on a "festival" .. and why does your team specifically need that money ?? Each and ever linden? $36,000L is a lot of money to spend especially when we dont know exactly what it is for and what we get for it.

That it was done in the past is not good enough for me.

I urge the RA not to approve incomplete budgets based on blind estimates, and call for a : "Zero Based Budget".

Cleo, in my opinion what you are asking is unreasonable. Budgets, by their nature, are partly exact figures regarding items or activities that one knows to be factual and partly estimates (or assigned amounts) of the cost of activities or purchases that are variable. So for example the yearly budget of my company will show 12 x $2,250 = $27,000 for rental of office space since that is a fixed cost, guaranteed by the lease. Under Marketing - media however it will show an amount that has been calculated based on previous costs, expected income, and any other relevant variables. It might even break down the total by category - television, radio, print, but it does not break it down to 'Joe Smith Design: $422.50 -build christmas display in lobby that will be used for the photo shoot for the print ads running on Dec 1 and 2nd.' Since the design department hasn't even designed that display yet, and the marketing department hasn't even decided what specifics they are promoting in the ad, and on and on - those sorts of variables are one of the reasons *why* a budget establishes the total amounts that the departments must work within.

What you are asking Trebor to do is plan a full event including dates, activities, and performers. You are asking him to discuss pricing and contracts with performers, identify all the volunteers who will make the event happen, envision and provide prices for whatever builds and activities he has planned, and ensure that all of those prices will be current at the time of the event. Really.

Floralia and Octoberfest are traditional events in CDS, related to the themes and history of the sims. The use of

'you have asked CDS to pay for during this term'

,

one of the events you are asking us to pay for

,and

are you just asking for money and you will spend it as you see fit?

implies some personal attachment to an activity that every Chancellor is expected to perform. You are also ignoring the community aspect of holding such events ' The notice goes out that it's time to plan Floralia, those who are interested in making it happen form a committee. They start to plan, they come up with activities, desired performers and so on, and personally I applaud establishing a budgeted amount for that group to know they need to work within.

So I think it's unreasonable to ask any Chancellor to itemize every item of every event in his proposed budget - the time that would take to do it correctly would have no budget in place for most of the term. A breakdown of X dollars for live acts, Y dollars for activity builds, Z dollars for promotion or whatever would be a reasonable request - but even that ties the hands of those planning the event - if a live performer says 'Ill do a free show' can they then use the money saved on other activities? I think it a better idea to trust our citizens to spend CDS money prudently, and give them the freedom to plan and assign their budget as they see fit.

Speaking of planning, I also think that a Chancellor planning and contracting a traditional community event alone is inappropriate. I am sure there are a number of new citizens eager to participate in the planning and execution of such an event - it's a great opportunity for them to get involved in a fun aspect of CDS alongside long-term citizens. Handing them a list of what is already planned, scheduled and booked and set in the budget isn't exactly a welcoming and inclusive way to get them involved.

I've typed all of this to share my thoughts with others, because frankly Cleo, I think you know all of this already. I believe you subscribe to a 'you are either with me or against me' approach to your activity here Cleo. Since Trebor was not your candidate of choice, he falls into the 'against me' category. That attitude will only foster further conflict and division in CDS Cleo, so why not try working with people who may not share your views, that you may not even like but who have a love of the CDS in common with you.

As an example of that kudos to Bells,for offering her knowledge and ideas regarding the budget in a detailed and constructive way. There are a number of her comments I do not agree with but I applaud her desire to contribute in a positive way.

Calli

[Bromo Ivory]

I'd be fine with a total event budget. But having a breakdown of costs and how the money is spent ahead of time might give everyone an appreciation of what it takes.

Also, I think afterwards for an event, a review of what was spent would be helpful to understand how good we are at estimates.

Because, and here is where I agree and disagree with Cleo - perhaps we are not spending ENOUGH on these events? Maybe we can't hire the performers we'd really like to, or can't do the build for the place we would really prefer...

Just saying. Scrutiny cuts both ways.

[Trebor Warcliffe]

Calli,

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I've been experincing this for days now, mostly in-world and it feels good to have someone step up and reaffirm what I've been saying.

Bromo,

I have no problem providing a breakdown of costs and how the money will be spent when we are in the actual planning stage of the event. Also the information you request in regards to what was spent for an event is already available. In the monthly financial statements there is a page titled "Request for Payment." In regards to events the way it usually works is the Chancellor pays the expenses for the event out of his/her pocket and than requests a reimbursement from the Treasurer which is shown on the Request for Payment paper.

I'd also like to point out that I would seek either government and/or citizen input if an opportunity arose where a particular event or activity that would greatly benefit the community presented itself to us that was beyond our budget. I think I've shown since I've been here how serious I take the financial matters of the CDS.

Thank you,
Trebor Warcliffe

[cleopatraxigalia]

I dont think it is unreasonable at all to know.. exactly why The Chancellor budgeted $140 dollars for Florialia.. and if it is based on the last event we had, a break down now of the line item of every single cost that was spent last year, I would like to see.

We have been seeking this information since he started posting budgets, asking questions of past expenses and the rationale for future ones, and we are not finding the answers.

I have been asking Trebor for days, in response to him wanting me to serve on his team, detailed questions about his budget , to no avail, with answers that don't satisfy my questions. His answers are typically based on past expenses, for which some of the details remain out of sight to me and others who are seeking them.

Exactly why do we need sums for items in the budget , and also what exactly we spent in the recent past (because thats where the numbers appear to come from per inquiries to Trebor )or will plan to spend money on government monthly events and marketing and advertising.

For example , 5K a month was a past expense for radio advertising that I believe from deep analysis was a great waste of funds, yet this ammount is carried over as the ammount we need for advertising ? Trebor says he cut that expense, but is not telling us why he still needs five K for advertising. Do we have no idea of what we will spend that on?? and why do we need $7500 L a month for government events ? I dont know what these are.. do I not have a right to know? that is only a little over $30 dollars a month, or $360 dollars a year. I only want to know what it is for and also what it has been spent on in the past.

I dont think having an idea of what these are for before they are approved is an unreasonable question. If Trebor is basing this on past expenditures tell us what they are and why they need to continue, if its on things that are new, tell us what they are .

We have a right to know !

And to Calli< for your nice post : Thank you for agreeing with me that the planning should include the citizens, I agree. We apparently just disagree on timeing. This citizen input and detail item lines...... could all have taken place already instead of arguing why we shouldnt do it or dont need to dig into the past and know exactly what has been spent.

I am still looking for the detail list of expenses for the last Florialia.

FYI, per Arria, the RA has a FULL MONTH to consider your budget Trebor,so I think we have plenty of time to look at and for details. this make you go hmmmmmmmmmmmmm?? I do not see the need for the haste.

Sorry if i seem too nosy but I think everyone has a right to know and should care.

Calli, to your post to me earlier..
I find it offensive that you would make a claim about my character, intentions or approaches. Who I voted for has no importance to the questions and information I am posting. (the elections are over) I have worked VERY closely with Trebor and Tor in repopulating CDS. I also have spent a lot of time recently discussing things regarding budgeting and salaries with him and he is trying to recruit me as a member of his staff. I am asking him lots of questions about his executive team and budget to decide my answer to him . I showed my love for CDS by spending over a month recruiting new citizens, we all have our own ways of contributing.

Please stick to the issues.

[Callipygian]

...

Calli, to your post to me earlier..
I find it offensive that you would make a claim about my character, intentions or approaches. Who I voted for has no importance to the questions and information I am posting. (the elections are over) I have worked VERY closely with Trebor and Tor in repopulating CDS. I also have spent a lot of time recently discussing things regarding budgeting and salaries with him and he is trying to recruit me as a member of his staff. I am asking him lots of questions about his executive team and budget to decide my answer to him . I showed my love for CDS by spending over a month recruiting new citizens, we all have our own ways of contributing.

Please stick to the issues.

Let's see if I can respond to this post before you delete it Cleo. I made no claims other than stating my personal opinion, and if you find that offensive Cleo, so be it. I also did not comment on whom you voted for, since I cannot know that and have no desire to. I commented on the candidate I felt you campaigned for. If I am mistaken and you did not suggest Trebor's opponent was a better choice, or display her campaign signs or promote her for the position, then yes, I am mistaken and apologize for that.

You and I will continue to disagree on the level of detail a budget requires to be acceptable. The final decision on that will rest with the RA, and I hope they will give their input early so that CDS *has* a budget in place early in the term.

I congratulate Trebor on seeking as broad a representation of ideas and skills as possible on his team and I admire his patience as he goes through the process of community consultation.

I congratulated you long ago on your real estate brokering skills Cleo, so I'll just agree that yes, we all have our own ways of contributing. As for sticking to the issues - I believe that the tone and content of the dialogue around many of the various 'issues' in CDS right now is an issue in and of itself. Another point we will agree to disagree on I expect.

Calli

[Trebor Warcliffe]

Cleo,

Ever since 2008 Sudane has published on the web portal the monthly financial statements of the CDS where every single linden is accounted for. I have to say I’m rather shocked that you weren’t aware of this because if you were than you would find “the detail list of expenses for the last Florialia” can be found on the web portal, under the last tab CDS Treasurer opens up the page for Financial Reports. If you go to June 2011 and then turn to page 6 you will find what you’ve been looking so hard for.

Now I will point out a mistake I made after I posted the first of my three budgets. My first budget I had accidently budgeted for Floralia and Oktoberfest based on the average amount spent on both events previously this year. The mistake was made when I split the L$12,000 in half and allocated L$6,000 per month for Floralia. This is an overestimate because we didn’t spend the same amount of money for each event. We spent L$26,500 for Floralia and L$33,500 for Oktoberfest.

I will kindly point out to you that without an RA approved budget no expenses can be paid, including our monthly fees to Linden Labs. In essence the finance side of our community ceases to exist.

I have been asking Trebor for days, in response to him wanting me to serve on his team, detailed questions about his budget , to no avail, with answers that don't satisfy my questions. His answers are typically based on past expenses, for which some of the details remain out of sight to me and others who are seeking them.

I didn’t realize we were making the gist of private conversations public but that’s fine with me because I have nothing to hide. My term will be one of transparency just like you like it.

I also have spent a lot of time recently discussing things regarding budgeting and salaries with him and he is trying to recruit me as a member of his staff. I am asking him lots of questions about his executive team and budget to decide my answer to him.

There’s a big difference between recruiting someone and offering an individual a position on their staff. Just like there is a difference between asking someone to set a parcel up for sale and ordering them to put up a parcel for sale now because it’s their job and they work for the people. Just like there is a big difference between someone saying I accept a position or saying the employer has to bend and do things on the employee’s terms.

Someone recommended I look up the term shadow cabinet as it pertains to the UK. I found the definition at yourdictionary.com “in the British Parliament, those members of the opposition party who function as unofficial counterparts to the cabinet ministers of the party in power.” Sounds to me like someone suggesting that if one person isn’t on another person’s team than this is what they’ll have to look forward to.

I’m sorry Cleo I’m getting off topic here, where was I. I need to have my staff in place soon and I believe I offered you the position on Monday. I understand you need to seriously consider my offer before you can accept or decline it and I can certainly respect that so I’ll give you until 3:00pm SLT today December 1st to decide. Also the position is for one individual not two.

[Sudane Erato]

Also, I think afterwards for an event, a review of what was spent would be helpful to understand how good we are at estimates.

By an act of the RA several years ago, the Treasurer was required to report every single expenditure in detail that was made, other than tier, which stays the same from month to month. You will find those EXACT expenditures listed on the last page of each financial report. They are really very clear. Please... and I refer not specifically to Bromo here... spend some more time with the financial reports before you get all worked up over how our money was spent and the bases for estimate of future expenses. The info is there, easily readable, easily understandable.

Sudane...............................

[cleopatraxigalia]

So, last years florialia , this is what i see ??

5,000 L Callipyan no explanation
9,500 L Unity Productions pet karu.. a play
12,000L 2 live musician.

To me this adds up to 26500 L ........totol expenditures credited to floralia last year..So when I see what you want to spend this term.. this is a variance, a proposed increase in expenditure of $9500 L for this one event! You budget 36000L for Florialia this year. You propose a 35 percent increase for this event alone.

This is the kind of thing I wanted you to explain to me Trebor. Why are we increasing the budget over last year for this, and I dont even know what five K of it is for.. or why we cannot get music at a better rate, since now we have live musicians .. at least five who live in CDS. And maybe all our models and the person who owns a event company who lives in CDS now can do a play. Maybe I asked too many hard questions. but I thought they were reasonable. I am sorry it frustrated you.

[Bells Semyorka]

I was also unaware of where I could find the previous financial reports until Sudane posted the link for me in another post. It seems that since the people above are looking for the information the best thing to do is provide the link and a screen shot of the Florialia payments from 2011. The detailed list of the budget is found on page 6 of every financial report.

Link to the portal CDS Treasurer Infomation- Financial Reports http://portal.slcds.info/index.php/cds-treasurer/

**Perhaps we should also include this bit of information to new citizens because until Sudane pointed where it was I was searching the forums looking for them. I had seen trebor's financial summary http://forums.slcds.info/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3544 under the General Discussion and developed the conclusion the information was stored there or under another forum location such as the Executive Branch Announcements since I had seen previous Chancellors list budget information in this section. There was never any link that would suggest the information would be listed in another spot. If we are not provided with the link how are we supposed to know?

June 2011 page 6 Florialia