Hi Tomer,

I'll actually add some to what Sebastian wrote on a particular point:

Le 24/02/2012 16:50, Sebastian Moleski a écrit :

On 23.02.2012 20:25, Tomer Ashur wrote:

4. Given that you have a paid staff person to handle the day-to-day
financial activities, what does your treasurer do?

The Treasurer's job is mostly to work with Pavel on the financial
aspects of annual plan and of the annual report. She's also tasked to be
the voice of caution and concern (as any good Treasurer is) during board
deliberations.

I have been treasurer of Wikimedia France twice, in 2006 and 2009. I am now treasurer of Wikimedia Deutschland. To give you an idea, WMFR had a budget of about 5000 EUR in 2006, for a donation revenue of 20 000 EUR, and 75 000 EUR in 2009, for a revenue of about 200 000 EUR. WMDE has a budget of about 3 Million EUR.

At Wikimedia France, I was alone doing the treasurer work, and I must say that 2009 was a difficult year for me as a volunteer, because it was much harder to keep up than in 2006, obviously.
In a way, being the treasurer of a 3 million EUR organisation is much easier than being that of a 75 000 EUR organisation, because indeed, you have staff doing the ground work.

It is, however, at least to me, much more challenging, as well as rewarding and interesting.
Challenging because the annual planning is just way bigger in scope and thus brings with it more responsibilities both in the making of it and the overseeing of it being implemented. Rewarding and interesting because the impact is greater of course, but also because I enjoy strategic planning more than I do sheer accounting, and strategy is what my role today entails.

I find my work at Wikimedia France, however, has helped me immensely in understanding better how a Wikimedia organisation works on the financial level, what challenges it faces and what opportunites are there to grab. Being the treasurer of a fast growing organisation at two different points in time has also taught me a lot about transparency, accountability and financial audit (the French legal financial frame is extremely demanding for an organisation that raises more than 150 000 EUR), which I bring with me to Wikimedia Deutschland.

But if you have the choice, go for the 3 million organisation, it's much easier combing through financial reports made by professionals than trying to issue one yourself that looks professional ;).

Cheers,

Delphine

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