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After operating for three years on an ad hoc expense basis,
the officers and board decided it was necessary to draw up an itemized budget for 1996. The
effort led to several long and sometimes contentious (in a friendly sort of way, of course) board
meetings this Fall. Finally, however, at the December meeting, a budget for 1996 was approved
by the board. The approved budget is presented below.
AAOS BUDGET, 1996
(Approved 12/11/95)
EXPENDITURES
BUDGETED
Meeting room rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$365.00
Incorporation fee (Oct. 1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Liability insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .180.00
Orchid Association Memberships
AOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40.00
Mid-America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .700.00
Newsletter and mailings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,000.00
Library. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250.00
Show Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250.00
Hospitality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Membership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50.00
Publicity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.00
Memorabilia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400.00
Office supplies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.00
Virus test supplies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375.00
Miscellaneous. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300.00
Subtotal, Expenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$4,480.00
'96 AAOS Show Expenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1400.00
TOTAL EXPENSES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,880.00
INCOME
Membership dues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$1,600.00
Raffles & Auction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,500.00
Miscellaneous. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130.00
Memorabilia sales. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600.00
Virus testing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700.00
Subtotal, Income . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$4,530.00
'96 AAOS Show Income . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1525.00
TOTAL INCOME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$6,055.00
NET CHANGE IN
AAOS TREASURY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175.00
Several things should be noted by all members. First, major expenses of the society are for these newsletters, and the expenses for our fine programs. The board felt that these are the two features of our society that attract and keep members, and that this is money well spent. Note also that the major sources of income are the membership dues, and the monthly silent auction & raffle. Thus, if we want to keep up the quality of the newsletter and the programs without a substantial increase in dues, it behooves all of us to support the auction and raffle by keeping a steady supply of good plants coming, as well as putting your bids in (don't be afraid to bid up your fellow members) and buying lots of raffle tickets.
Three brand new activities planned for 1996 are on the budget, and will contribute significantly to the projected balance. They are our planned 1996 AAOS Orchid Show in April, production and sale of memorabilia (lapel pins, T-shirts, mugs, etc.), and virus testing. Our able show chairman, Alex Challis, will be writing more about the show plans on these pages. For memorabilia, our planned first project is to design and produce a lapel pin that every member will want to wear to proudly display his or her affiliation with AAOS. We project having these pins available by about mid-March, but in any case before the April show. The virus testing is a new plan developed by your President and Vice-president. Last Fall, President Bailie, as keeper of the Matthaei Orchid collection, and I, as an experienced biochemist, combined our skills to try to survey Matthaei's orchid collection for virus, using commercially-available ELISA (that's a fancy acronym meaning we use antibodies to detect the presence of the virus) test kits for the two most common and troublesome orchid viruses. The tests worked quite well, so we're almost ready to offer testing to club members at considerably less cost and trouble than would be incurred by sending samples to a commercial laboratory. More on this will appear in the next newsletter.
Finally, note that the budget is just about balanced with the help of a little "miscellaneous" income. This includes outright donations to the society (other than plants for the auction or raffle). If you feel you're getting more than $15 benefit in a year from the society, please feel free to donate a little extra with your dues, or anytime. Remember, donations can be tax-deductable. If every member donated just one extra dollar during the year, the $130 miscellaneous income would be realized.--Harry Winter, Vice-president