October 31, 2018 - April 30, 2019 Treasury Shortfall

According to the Club  Cruceros  Bylaws within 10 days of the close of the fiscal year, a financial review  is conducted. Findings of the review  are presented  to the Board of Directors for approval and then reported at the next General Membership Meeting. This year's review  was presented  at the May 13, 2019, Board meeting and then again at the May 21 General Membership meeting. This year the Financial Review Committee consisted of Kimberly  Lafferty-Stonier,  Leanne  Lawrence and Patsy  Verhoeven. 

On May 5 the Financial Review Committee received everything necessary to do  the review from treasurer  Quana  Charlton. The committee counted the cash on hand.  Quana  was not certain of the number of funds received on November 8 at turnover, so the committee obtained the cash at turnover from Sandy. 

On May 8 the committee determined there were enough discrepancies in its findings to call for a deeper investigation. Entries on the treasurer's monthly reports to the Board were inconsistent with receipts and vouchers and records were incomplete or difficult to decipher. As a result, the committee went through each month’s file recording all documented income and expenses for the six-month period on spreadsheets. There were entries on the monthly treasurer reports to the Board without supporting documentation in the files. The spreadsheets include only documented income and expenses from receipts, vouchers, handwritten notes and emails in the files. The committee used the treasurer's monthly reports to the board for the coffee income on the spreadsheets as there was no other documentation.

The Financial Review Committee showed a deficit of 139,907.90 pesos or $7,323.76 USD.

The committee made the following recommendations in its report:

1. In the absence of a volunteer with the proper qualifications, the Club should pay a qualified bookkeeper to keep its financial records.
2. The safe should never be opened or cash recounted without at least 2 people present.
3. Cash should be stored in the safe in numbered envelopes and initialed by those involved.
4. Income from coffee and merchandise should be put into the safe on a weekly basis. The treasurer should keep a minimal amount of petty cash.
5. If cash in the safe must be counted, or for review it should never leave the Marina de La Paz facility. Cash is brought from the safe up to the Vista Room, counted and returned to the safe.
6. We need better management of our coffee hosts and better forms supplied to them.
7. No cash advances should be given to members for the purchase of supplies without prior Board approval (as per our bylaws).
8. Larger and more secure money and membership drop boxes should be constructed for the coffee room.
9. Membership applications should be included in the monthly membership report to the treasurer.
10. The Club treasury records file cabinet should be moved to the bodega and kept locked. Only the treasurer and Commodore should have keys.

During an executive session on May 13, the new 2019-2020 Board of Directors adopted all of the Financial Review Committee's suggestions. The Board also removed Bill Holbrook and Quana Charlton from any financial activities for the club until further notice.

During the week after the May 13 meeting, Quana Charlton resigned from the position of 2019-2020 treasurer and Commodore Teri Hagen appointed Kimberly Lafferty-Stonier as interim treasurer.

On May 21 at the General Membership Meeting the Financial Review Committee presented it's report. Quana and Bill were given a chance to speak to the membership with regards to the shortfall. A discussion with questions and answers followed. During the meeting Past Commodore Bill Holbrook resigned. Read a copy of the minutes here.

Please read the following letters and statements from Club members:

• Sandy Elterich s/v Masquerade - 2015 - 2018 Treasurer
• Rich Boren s/v Third Day - Club Member
• Allyson van Os s/v Virginia Reel - Rear Commodore
• Linda Keigher - Club Secretary
• Kimberley Lafferty - Stonier s/v Irish Diplomacy - Club Treasurer
• Bill Holbrook s/v Wandering Puffin - Former Past Commodore
• Quana Charlton - Former Treasurer
• Leanne Lawrence s/v Stealaway - Vice Commodore
• Byron MacDonald s/v Bella Sirena - Club Member

We welcome your input! If you would like your statement, suggestion or comment on this page email the Club at crucerosdelapaz@gmail.com.

A Message From Commodore Teri Hagen

When I agreed to run for Commodore this year I never would have guessed the upheaval that would involve.

A shortfall of over 139 thousand pesos in a six month period is devastating to me, to our club members and to Club Cruceros. The combined volunteer time to accrue that amount is staggering.... a lot more than 6 months of work was done to acquire those funds. It sickens me to realize the disregard to our Club and its mission statement it took to abscond with those monies. 

There is no proof of who took the money. We know only that two persons could be responsible. Bill Holbrook was the only one who had access to the safe. Quana Charlton took monies to her home without verifying the amount before and after returning it to the club. In short, the practices used to deal with our club money were not up to standards befitting our club. There were too many opportunities for error or for loss.

So, what can we do now? First of all, Bill Holbrook and Quana Charlton were informed they could NO LONGER touch club money.  A new Treasurer was appointed and confirmed by the club membership. 

Transparent practices for dealing with money were immediately put into place. 

1. The biggest change from last year will be that all money will be counted verified and signed for each and every time by two parties.
2. The money in the safe will be counted by two parties once a month.  
3. New forms are being created for ease in keeping track, reporting and reimbursement of any club funds.
4. Coffee hosts are given more concise guidelines for reporting money collected during coffee.
5. Membership application forms will be turned in with the money each month.
6. Cash advances will be by board approval only.

 I am happy to announce that all these practices are in working order right now. It’s really all just common sense, things we have done in the past, but have unfortunately let slip.

Club Cruceros was started as a social club, we are so very much more than that now! We are not a "For Profit" club, even though we sometimes have a lot of cash in our "bank". Just think what we could have done with $7,000 USD for the club and La Paz.
I speak for this year’s board in saying we are ALL committed to making sure something like this does not happen this year. We will make changes to our Bylaws and Standard Operating Procedures for guidelines so this does not happen ever again. 

Unfortunately, something like this incident shines poorly on the club as a whole. I hope that you will join us in supporting Club Cruceros and our efforts to get past this big bump in our road! We welcome any comments and suggestions for how to make our Club work smoothly and help to make our members pleased to be a part of Club Cruceros.

Teri Hagen
Club Cruceros Commodore

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