Treasurer's Report, July 2000
from IVU News Oct 2000

by David Pye

The five year summary, available on the IVU web site, is intended to give a clearer picture of IVU accounts and how they have evolved over recent years. The accounts are complicated by the Thailand conference income and expenditure which passed through both the sterling and dollar accounts. For clarity, both these accounts have been combined and displayed as sterling.

The Thailand conference accounts have already been published separately and showed a modest profit of £751. IVU has since paid this over as a donation to the Thai Vegetarian Union. The Thailand conference gave a highly significant boost to membership subscriptions increasing the income from £1575 in 97/8 to nearly £6000 in 98/9. This has since fallen in 99/00 to £3,100 hut clearly indicates the boosting affect an international conferene has on membership subscriptions. Donations also showed an increase in conference year.

Only the 95/6 accounts have been audited, the 96/7 and 97/8 accounts are still with the auditors, during these years records are incomplete and are still being pieced together. The 98/9 and 99/00 records are complete and will be audited after the 96/98 accounts are finished. Auditing costs have risen as the work load has increased and our (vegetarian) auditors, Drake a nd Co. have advised us that they will need to
start charging £150 to cover their costs. This is still a bargain compared tu what IVU would have to pay on the open market for auditing.

IVU has £36,549 invested in a Lloyds TSB offshore investment fund although dividend income from this
investment has slowed to £2668 in 99/00 as interest rates have reduced. The current value of this investment is £41,995.

IVU News production has increased to £2,120 for one issue in 1999. The magazine has become more sophisticated and "glossy" and is now reaching a larger membership than before.

The incredibly popular IVU website cost only £1,292 in 99/00. Income from advertising is starting to come in and is set to rise significantly over the next year.

The total value of our assets has risen from £53,328 in March 1996 to £69,189 at the end of March 2000. The financial future for IVU is generally good with membership set to increase again in the 2000 conference year. I feel confident that IVU can continue to promote vegetarianism in the new millennium with the assurance that we have a continuing sound financial basis to support our work.