Fall 2003 Issue

Minutes of LGVMA's Annual Meeting

LGVMA’s Annual Meeting was held July 19, 2003, in Denver, CO, in con-junction with the AVMA Convention. Dr. Tim Withers presided over the meeting as Acting President in the absence of the President, Dr. Sara White. The first order of business was the discussion of the independent financial review mandated by member vote previously.

Dr. Withers quoted from the report by the accounting firm of Snyder, Cohn, Collyer, Hamilton & Associates, P.C., which stated, "Based on our review, we are not aware of any material modifications that should be made to the accompanying financial statements in order for them to be in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles."

Dr. Mel Vassey then explained the process and the costs involved in obtaining the financial review and put forward a motion to rescind the previous motion requiring an independent CPA audit every three years. The alternative motion would create a standing financial review committee to review the financial statements annually - said committee being chaired by a board member with no signatory authority over the accounts and including at least two non-board members. The motion carried unanimously.

Dr. Withers then presented preliminary findings of the 2003 LGVMA Membership survey which had a response rate of 65%. The respondents were 46% female, 54% male - fairly close to the makeup of the profession at large. Respondents also were very in favor of seeing LGVMA be an advocate for LGBT issues, with 97% ranking this issue as either "very important" or "important." 90% also ranked as "very important" or "important" the LGVMA Scholarship Fund. Some frequent comments were the need for LGVMA to increase our general visibility, to lobby AVMA for inclusion of domestic partners in health insurance, and to lobby for sexual orientation to be included in nondiscrimination policies.

Dr. Vassey presented the Secretary’s report with the minutes from the 2002 meeting in Nashville. Dr. Joe "Chip" Wells then presented the Treasurer’s bReport, reporting total LGVMA assets of $20,843.49, with $1,155.75 in the General Fund, $1,200.00 in Restricted Funds, $18,429.74 in the Reserve Fund, and $58 in merchandise inventory (LGVMA t-shirts). Dr. Withers reported 116 paid members at that time, but noted that re-newal forms were delayed this year pending the financial review.

In new business, the membership approved the 2004 proposed operating budget that had been sent to membership in the Good News newsletter prior to the meeting. Dr. Withers also discussed a proposed advertising plan to increase awareness of LGVMA, which was approved by the membership. Also approved was a proposal to create a non-voting Technician Representative position on the Board, in order to address the concerns of technician members better.

Dr. Vassey then announced the recipients of the 2003 LGVMA Scholarship: Tamara Majeski of Washington State University and Jeffrey Berkshire of Atlantic Veterinary College. Jeffrey was additionally nominated and approved to serve as student representative for the remainder of the current term, as previous student rep Tara Estra had graduated from Cornell in May.

The final order of business at the meeting was the presentation of nominations for the 2003 LGVMA Achievement Awards. The nominees (later approved by vote of the Board) were Dr. Joe "Chip" Wells for his diligent and tireless service as LGVMA Treasurer since 1994, and Dr. Karen Hull for her contributions as webmaster for the WWW.LGVMA.ORG website.

Anatomy of a Financial Review

The recent member-mandated financial review was a fairly involved process and the subject of considerable debate amongst Board members, so we felt it important to give the membership some insight into what this process entailed.

Initial attempts at contacting random accounting firms in the DC area, where LGVMA is incorporated, were fruitless, as the firms gave estimates of $5000-6000 for a full audit and none of the firms contacted did any work with non-profit organizations. LGVMA is incorporated as a non-profit organization in the District of Columbia, but because our operating budget and assets are so small we are not required to file with the IRS and do not currently have federal non-profit status.

This initial round of inquiries led to investigation into our options to satisfy member concerns without spending nearly a quarter of the organization’s total assets. We found that there are three general levels of financial review: compilation, which is merely the production of a balance sheet or organizational finances; compilation & review, which is the production of a balance sheet accompanied by a statement as to whether or not generally accepted accounting principles were being met; and a full audit, which is a thorough accounting of all cash flow into and out of the organization and pinpointing of any irregularities therewith.

After some debate, the Board decided that a compilation & review would best meet member concerns without entailing quite the level of expense of a full audit. The next step was finding an accounting firm to take on the job. Because LGVMA is incorporated in the DC area and all of our accounting records are physically located in DC, it was decided to focus on that area to locate a firm that dealt with non-profit organizations. A list of six firms was compiled from the Greater Washington Society of CPA’s website and all firms were contacted via e-mail describing our organization and soliciting information on estimated costs of a financial review.

Of the six firms contacted, only two responded. One, after review of a current balance sheet, indicated that her firm did not deal with such small organizations and said that the level of financial activity in our accounts "must be minimal enough to review the checkbook to satisfy those who feel they need to review something." Although the Board was generally in agreement on this point, we decided that we were ultimately bound by member resolution to proceed with the review.

The other firm to respond - Snyder, Cohn, Collyer, Hamilton & Associates - also felt that this level of review was not really necessary for such a small organization but indicated a willingness to take on the job if the Board wished. The cost for a compilation & review was estimated at $2000-2500. Some suggestions were also made to increase transparency and introduce greater checks & balances in the financial operating procedures, which the Board plans to implement.

Although the cost was approximately 10% of LGVMA’s total assets, a fact that was a source of considerable debate amongst the Board members, we decided ultimately that the reserve funds could cover the expense and that we had an obligation to meet the mandate of the membership to pursue this course. Snyder, Cohn was contracted to perform the review, with the summary findings reported in the minutes previously in this newsletter. A copy of the financial review is available upon request.

As was also mentioned in the minutes, the Board is forming a standing Financial Review Committee to review organizational finances on an annual basis. This committee needs at least two non-Board members, so if you are a non-Board member and would be interested in serving on this committee, please contact us at lgvma@lgvma.org.

In the recent membership survey, 98% of our members indicated they have e-mail. This summer, we started a new e-mail list using Yahoo! Groups. The list is only available to current members of LGVMA and we’re hoping it will facilitate more communication among the "rank-and-file."

You can sign up to receive messages via e-mail (either individual e-mails or in a "daily digest") format or you can view the messages on the Yahoo! Group website. Eventually, we’re hoping to grow this group to include as many LGVMA members as possible. In time, this group could be a valuable method for LGVMA members to network, arrange for functions at various meetings, share ideas, etc.

To sign up, send an e-mail to LGVMA-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Dr. Tim Withers will be administering the group so if you have any questions, you can also contact him at wwith@aol.com.

It’s a boy! LGVMA member Dr. Michael McGuill and partner Jonathan Scott announced the arrival of their son, Luis Fernando McGuill-Scott, who was born in Sasquili, Ecuador on March 2, 2003, and arrived at his new home in Boston on August 3, 2003. This is the first ever birth announcement for Good News, but more are eagerly anticipated!

Congratulations also to LGVMA member Dr. Vic Spain, who recently became the director of the epidemiology unit of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. In that position, he also serves as the city’s Bioterrorism and Communicable Disease Epidemiologist.

This summer, we gained two new members....and two new members of the Board. Jeffrey Berkshire was appointed as Student Representative to complete the term of Tara Estra who graduated from Cornell University(congratulations Tara!) and Mike Patrick, CVT was appointed to the new position of Technician Representative to the board.

Jeffrey is a second year student at the Atlantic Veterinary College at Prince Edward Island, Canada and Mike is a long-time active member of the Florida Veterinary Technician Association. Jeffrey has been working to set-up a network of student LGVMA members, including the creation of formal student chapters at as many colleges as possible, with hopes of creating a permanent presence at as many veterinary colleges as possible. Mike is interested in helping us reach out to more technicians and technical assistants. We welcome Jeffrey and Mike on board - they can both be contacted via the LGVMA website.