In my position of Honorary Treasurer, I would like to inform you on the finalised financial balance of 2009 (which ended on the 31th of December 2009), that proved to be in a slight deficit. This was largely due to the far greater than anticipated expenditure for EFSUMB at EUROSON 2009 (Edinburgh is an expensive city) and the considerably reduced income from this Congress. As a direct consequence of this, the Board will be invited to approve the Bylaw 1 changes and accompanying Appendix, to formalise the obligations between the host society and EFSUMB. EFSUMB office expenditure was also higher for the last three months of 2009, when the outgoing Secretary overlapped with the new Secretary for three months. Following comments at last year’s Board of Directors’ Meeting, EFSUMB has produced the 2009 budget, showing expenditure which of course is all in the Accounts, but might give a more general overview of EFSUMB income and expenditure.
Considering the structure of the past recent budgets and the budget of 2011, we can see that the most important financial support originates in the membership fees, and I believe that it is very important to try to maintain, even to increase the number of EFSUMB members. For 2010, at this moment, the EUROSON membership fee of 8 Euros has been paid by 14 countries. However, the earlier date for payment (necessitated by the August Congress date and the requirement of voting based on paid up Society membership) may be a cause of this situation. We trust that all National Societies will pay very soon. Future policies of EFSUMB must have as a main purpose to keep or maybe to increase the number of members, and we are happy that French Society of Ultrasound increased very much the number of her members, now EFSUMB over passing generously 20,000 members (our previous target).
EFSUMB is committed to looking at the cost effectiveness of its operations. This year there have been three Skype meetings in the Executive Bureau and one in the Education Committee, which have been useful and of course, without any cost to EFSUMB. The conclusion of all the members is that these meetings are useful, where there are specific issues to consider, but the personal interaction and with a full agenda, a face to face meeting is required. As in Edinburgh, Committees will meet in Copenhagen, saving time and money as most are present as invited speakers.
Regarding the budget of 2011, we have tried to build one in which the income will be at the same level with the costs, but this would be at the expense of the commitment to the record number of EUROSON Schools, the EUROSON Congress, the website and the European Course Book which EFSUMB regards as valuable tools for education. It is anticipated that the sales of the ECB will return the printing costs.
As a conclusion of the financial balance of the last years, I must inform you that EFSUMB still has a healthy financial status. It is important that we maintain sufficient funds to cover EFSUMB’s future commitments three years in advance – such as the Schools and Congresses, which we have contractual obligations to support, even if these events are unprofitable. More precise information about the accounted budget and on the budget of 2011 can be found on the EFSUMB website, www.efsumb.org.
Ioan Sporea, EFSUMB Honorary Treasurer
The 2009 EFSUMB accounts can be found online: http://www.efsumb.org/governance/2010acc.pdf
Ioan Sporea
