Let me begin to address these suggestions and to attempt to expound upon my understanding of our reserve account. Let me say that I am thankful for your concerns, even if at times they are critical, as it assures me our membership still has a pulse. The goal of this initial account was to provide the organization with enough reserve funds to support one year's annual budget. The philosophy was and is that if we were to lose the support of our sponsors, or if any other unplanned fiscal catastophy were to occur we would have a window of at least one-year to evaluate our potential options. That's it, no vast right wing fiscal conspiracy, just financially prudent leaders trying to protect the future of our organization.
Many organizations maintain an operating reserve account for the very same reasons.
We have not reached the initial goal for these funds, which was to equal at least one years-operating budget. However, with continued growth at a conservative level we will be there soon. After much thought and discussion, I recommended to the budget committee that we identify a reasonable amount of our earnings from the reserve and use this money to provide regional training. This should provide each region with new training opportunities to offer at regional meetings. It is my plan to help revitalize involvement at the regional level by annually providing new training opportunities with these funds.