Dues and Other Trivia (April 1994)

This post is part of a series of editorials written by Bert Walsh during his tenure as president and past president of the Shasta Historical Society. Readers are advised that his humor is often irreverent and rarely politically correct. 

Click here for the table of contents for the entire collection of his editorials.

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Once upon a time it seemed like we lived from payday to payday, and we owed more than we were worth. The good news was that we were not bothered too much by folks wanting help with worthy causes and neat business propositions. But just as soon as it became obvious that we could afford two kids and a dog, it seemed like every con artist and pest in the world moved in on us. I suppose this is why we have never discussed the Society's finances much. Life's a lot simpler if folks think you are poor. 

Every month Fred Becker puts together a four-page financial report. These are on file in the library if you like numbers. If you are willing to forego half and hour of crunching numbers, here's about what's happening: 

• Your dues pay for newsletters, programs, supplies, insurance, postage and members' copies of the Covered Wagon.
• Publication sales are paying the printing bill for new publications,
• To take care of big ticket items like Wayne's paycheck, scholarships, and historical markers, we have had income from two endowments for about a year and a half. These are set up so we cannot touch the principal. However, we can cut a fairly wide hog on the interest, which is paid once a year. To even out our cash flow, we park our annual income in interest-bearing mutual and money-market funds and draw off money from these as needed. 

After operating this way for about a year and a half, we have more $'s than when we started. So we are probably not as dumb as our newsletters might suggest. On the other hand, we should be spending more $'s and effort in support of our mission. We will be putting our 1994-1995 budget together pretty soon and want to include any projects you have in mind and are willing to put effort into. We don't lack for money, but we sure could use more unpaid talent.

I guess the most striking thing that has happened this month was the feedback we got from my mention of the Backwater Development Corporation. Several long-time Democrats suggested with some good humor that I give the G.O.P. equal exposure. Now the only reason I picked on President Bill was that I could identify with a good-looking hunk complete with a foxy wife and a liking for junk food. Identifying with George and Barbara Bush I'm afraid is just not in the cards--too much of a stretch.

But don't give up hope. I do believe that if we work on it, we can quite likely come up with a Ron and Nancy thing. They seem more like our kind of people. Once I get used to falling asleep at meetings and figure out that I'm married to "Mommie," I think that I can safely say that at no time did I attend a meeting with Colonel North. 

--BTW

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