Updates on WIA - July 2017

[VK4ADC]

From WIA News for 30 July 2017:

Hello listeners, this is Greg VK2GPK, one of the relatively “new” directors of  the WIA. 

 In our first 60 days as a majority new board, we have been coming up to speed on the various facets of the WIA’s operation, improving board decision transparency, opening up the committee volunteer process and implementing a new board governance structure. Some of these changes are already visible, such as publishing board minutes for the monthly board meetings, now advertising volunteer vacancies on Seek Volunteer website, or the policy of no directors leading or chairing operational committees. However, other changes will become more apparent over time as we focus on the higher priority issues. As the saying goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. Your constructive input is always  welcome. 

 I would also remind WIA members that we ARE a volunteer organisation, a true DIY (Do it yourself) operation and we always need your help and time to keep  this respected 100 year plus organisation viable in its role of focal advocate protecting the rights and RF spectrum of the Radio Amateur cohort. So look for the volunteer roles as they come up. With apologies to the late JFK, Don’t ask what the WIA can do for you, ask what you can do for the WIA! 

 We definitely have some real challenges to deal with over the coming months, which we are approaching with appropriate caution to ensure we have done the research, informed members and considered the impacts, the feedback and the implications of the various improvement options. I will touch on one of the major challenges a little later.

 On board governance, we have adopted corporate best-practice approach based on the ASX governance guidelines and have constituted two board sub-committees. These committees are Audit & Risk sub-committee and the Strategy sub-committee.

 So I wanted to explain how these Sub-committees differ from the operational committees as they operate as an extension of the board,have the delegated authority of the board, and exist solely to assist the board manage the organisation.  These governance sub-committees are the only committees to be led by board members and include a minimum of two board members (for continuity) and volunteers with relevant expertise. The board does not abdicate any board responsibility to the sub-committees, they are simply to assist the board to meet its fiduciary obligations and provide extra input by sharing some of the board work-load.  We have yet to call for volunteers for these particular sub-committees, following finalisation of the terms-of-reference for each committee.

 I think there has been some confusion seen in some social media comments about the sub-committees, especially in that they are chaired by a board member which seemed to conflict with the board platform of not having operational committees chaired by board members. Hopefully I have explained how board sub committees are quite distinct from the operational committees and are only concerned with the effective running of the WIA board. One other thing I should mention is that the Terms of Reference will state that any volunteers on the board sub-committees must be truly independent and cannot have other volunteer roles within the WIA to avoid any perception, real or perceived, of conflict of interest. 

 I am now going to talk about the WIA financial situation. Bear with me, as this is very important. The WIA has limited financial resources, about 80 - 85% of its revenue comes from the 4200 or so members through membership fees. The rest comes from fees for exams and licence management, sales of WIA books (such as the Callbook), some minor advertising sales from AR magazine and some admin cost recovery from ACMA.  

 This revenue amounts to just on $500,000 dollars a year – which to an individual member sounds a lot, but there are large expenses in running the WIA. These were documented in the last WIA financial report (FY2016-2017).

 The largest expense is the 11 editions a year of the AR magazine, closely followed by the two full time office staff.  Just these two expenses alone account for two-thirds of the expenses of the WIA last year.  Last year AR magazine cost over $180,000 and the office around $120,000. So, $300,000 dollar and we haven’t included the costs of keeping the office open – electricity, rates, many insurance policies now required. Then there are the part-time book keeper costs (usually one day a week), accountant fees and auditor fees. Plus a multitude of smaller amounts. 

 Why am I mentioning this – because the WIA is running at loss, and has been for the previous two years. Its expenses exceed its revenue by about $50,000 a year. Over the last two years the WIA has used $90,000 dollars of its prior cash reserves to maintain its operation as a going concern – this obviously cannot continue as we are on about a five-year runway toward insolvency if this is not corrected – and it will be! Unless we can increase membership by around 10-15%, around 500 new members there is no alternative to cutting expenses, and almost certainly, some services.

 Reviewing the audited financial results from last year the new board has found no evidence of systemic expense abuse or fraud. The social media claims of WIA funded director overseas trips are just that, baseless claims. In fact, total director expenses for last year were around $3000 dollars of legitimate WIA specific expenses or well less than 1% of revenue. These expenses include WIA required director training course fees at around $600 per director. As volunteer directors, we cover our own travel and out-of-pocket expenses. 

 The root-cause of the losses is that expenses have risen significantly faster than revenue over the 5 or 6 years. There are only two fixes, but they are not mutually exclusive - increase revenue or cut expenses. 

 Looking at office expenses first, following a recent on-site review by three directors a few weeks ago, the is no practical scope to to reduce the office staff below 2 FTE (Full time equivalent). In fact, these staff are over-committed and only just coping with the administration work load. In the past the office operated with a minimum of three full-time staff –  that would be a more sustainable staff complement to cope with the workload peaks, leave, illness etc. To assist the current staff we have dropped the phone contact hours from 6 to 5 hours a day, a small change admittedly, to allow them more time to do the admin tasks. It would help, as much as is possible, if members wishing to contact the WIA use email as it is more efficient in the use of their time, especially if they have to refer a query to a volunteer member for resolution.

 Looking at the AR magazine, potentially the “elephant in the room”, its printing and production costs have risen from $120K a few years ago to $180K last year.  The option of ceasing production of the hard-copy is not seen as a first-course of action, as we gain a lot of exposure to future amateurs form the hard-copy in newsagents and the majority of members we have asked prefer the hard-copy version – although there is a higher rate of preference for the digital version with younger members. But in the absence of new revenue,we have to get the costs back to the prior levels.  The publication team have been asked to identify cost savings, and they have, but not to the level that would be achieved by say reducing the 11 editions a year to 6. 

 We have made no decision as yet on reducing the number of editions, but we wanted the membership to understand and share our struggle with keeping the WIA viable. And we need more volunteers – so keep an eye for new roles!

 Thanks for listening, Greg VK2GPK.