Finance Committee (FC) Report to the 2017 AGM
Membership
Ivy Fangyu Lin (McGill '17) – Chair, Matthew Yeung (UBC '19), Jihyun Han (Manitoba '18), Nada Tabbara (Western ’17), Jennifer Branch (Western ’18), Monique Bouchard (Secretariat) – staff support
Activities
Since the last AGM, the FC has completed the following tasks:
- Had 17 committee meetings through the Zoom platform, and created a Quip folder to organize all FC documents and minutes.
- Obtained quotes for Federation of Canadian Dentistry Student Associations (FCDSA) backpacks for all incoming first year students.
- Added a FCDSA Sponsorship Initiative Form on the FCDSA website in collaboration with the External Communications Committee to allow dental students to request FCDSA’s help in obtaining sponsorship for their associations’ events.
- Created e-mail templates to approach potential sponsors for both the FCDSA in general and specifically for the Canadian Dental Student Conference (CDSC).
- Established a Finance Committee e-mail (financecommittee@fcdsa.ca) to be used to contact potential sponsors and to ensure continuity within the committee.
- Compiled a list of potential sponsors.
- Met with organizers of the IDSC and obtained their draft budget, sponsorship package and list of sponsors as reference.
- Created a new comprehensive sponsorship package specifically for the CDSC, including details of the event and clear sponsorship levels (included in the 2017 AGM resources).
- Obtained contact information of potential sponsors through research, calls and attendance to the Ontario Dental Association Annual Spring Meeting and the Journées dentaires internationales du Québec.
- Contacted 70+ potential sponsors by phone and e-mail.
- Involved all council members in the process of contacting sponsors.
- Discussed options of installing a membership fee for the FCDSA.
- Set a $100,000 sponsorship goal for the CDSC.
Results
2016 Financial Report
- The 2016 Financial Report shows a year-end surplus of $2,232.02. Assets, including cash, accounts receivable and prepaid expenses, total $18,447.18.
- The 2016 AGM was sponsored by CDSPI and came in under budget by $8,221.01. CDSPI agreed that the FCDSA can use $8,200 of that amount for the 2018 CDSC hotel reservation deposit.
- NDEB continues to provide funding to allow two members of the Executive to attend to NDEB Annual Meeting in October of each year. This is part of an agreement between FCDSA and NDEB.
- This year, FCDSA could not fund the attendance of one of its members to the ASDA Annual Session due to the prioritization of budget allocation to the CDSC.
- The CDA invited one FCDSA representative to their Annual General Meeting held in April, providing funding for related travel and accommodation expenses.
- Most other governance-related activities, including Executive and other committee meetings/activities, and administration is run through the FCDSA Secretariat which is located at the CDA Head Office in Ottawa and supported through the sponsorship in kind provided by the CDA.
- A proposed resolution for the approval for the 2016 Financial Report is included at the end of this report
2016-2017 Activities Results
- The most reasonable backpack quote received was from High Sierra at the cost of $15,000$ for 500 backpacks. However, the order could not have been made due to the prioritization of budget allocation to the CDSC.
- One sponsorship request has been received through the FCDSA Sponsorship Initiative website form from a dental student. However, the request could not have been fulfilled due to the prioritization of budget allocation to the CDSC.
- So far, the sponsorship campaign for the Canadian Dental Student Conference has secured $17,700 towards the $100,000 goal. Many potential sponsors that have been contacted are still undecided.
- CDSPI generously agreed to sponsor the 2017 AGM to the amount of $28,750. ACFD has committed approximately $5,780 to fund the Council Planning Session day.
- As reported above, CDSPI has contributed $8,200 toward the 2018 CDSC. Discussions with CDSPI concerning further sponsorship are ongoing, but the permission to contact banks has been given. The FC will begin contacting major banks before the AGM.
- The 2017 AGM held in conjunction with ACFD and the organization of the CDSC required an increased amount of time dedicated by the Secretariat which was not included in the allotted CDA staff time.
- Viable options to collect a membership fee from all dental students have not been found, since not all votes in all 10 dental schools to install the fee will pass. A proposition has been made that students from associations that have not passed the fee can pay the membership fee individually on a voluntary basis.
Summary and Reflection
Gathering sponsorship for the CDSC has taken the bulk of the work from the FC this year due to the limited time left before the event. Calling the sponsors was found to be the best way to find the right person to contact in each company and to introduce the FCDSA and the CDSC before following up by e-mail. The five members of the committee have spent a lot of effort and time into contacting sponsors, but finding time to call sponsors was difficult due to dental student’s busy schedule during business hours. The FC has reached out for help from the rest of the council members, but no concrete results were yielded.
Many sponsors have been contacted throughout the year and many have raised their concerns regarding the lack of details of the conference, which the FC worked to address in conjunction with the CDSC committee. The new sponsorship package targeted specifically towards the CDSC has been hugely helpful in detailing the event and avoiding confusion. A method allowing the CDSC and Finance committees to work closer together, or even in combination until the CDSC, needs to be developed.
70+ companies and organizations have been contacted, but included many smaller companies and companies unrelated to dentistry. Some major dental companies have not yet responded and some are yet to be contacted. The summer of 2017 is a crucial time to finalize these contacts in order to reach the set goal of $100,000. All new sponsors as well as sponsors that will be reassigned to the new members of the Finance Committee are to be contacted through the new FC e-mail address to increase professionalism and to ensure continuity.
Due to the dedication of almost all the work towards sponsorship for the CDSC, a sustainable financial model for the FCDSA is lacking and still needs to be developed.
Next Steps
- Finish initial contact with new sponsors, with a focus on the larger companies and banks.
- Follow up with large companies that are still undecided.
- Follow up with sponsors that have already been secured to ensure that they are kept informed of the progression of the event organization.
- Develop a method to work closer together with the CDSC Committee.
- Consider holding the AGM at the CDSC in 2018 to save on AGM costs.
- Select a method to collect a membership fee for the FCDSA.
- Revise the time dedication by the Secretariat and develop methods for the FCDSA to become more independent from the Secretariat to avoid surpassing the allotted CDA staff time.
- Continue working to develop a sustainable financial model.
Proposed Resolutions
- BE IT RESOLVED that the Financial Statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016 be accepted as presented.
- BE IT RESOLVED that the Activity Plan for the revised activity plan for 2017 and the proposed activity plan for 2018 be approved as presented.
- BE IT RESOLVED that the revised FCDSA Travel Expense Policy be approved as presented.