[treasurers] Welcome, and introductions

[Jimmy Wales]

On 12/11/11 12:22 AM, Thierry Coudray wrote:
> I would feel more comfortable with this very specific list, if all those
> who have signed up, give their real name and more informations on their
> background ...

My real name is Jimmy Wales. :)  I'm the founder of the Wikimedia 
Foundation, and an honorary member of at least some chapters.

I have a strong background in finance, though not so much in 
accounting/auditing, having completed a master's degree in Finance at 
the University of Alabama in 1989 and done all the course work (but not 
the dissertation) for a PhD in Finance from Indiana University.  As a 
part of all that, of course I studied accounting extensively and spent a 
lot of time looking at balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow 
statements.

I'm on this list primarily because I think it is IMPORTANT.  We can look 
at the importance in two ways - the positive and the negative.  Just to 
get it out of the way, I will take the negative first.

The single biggest risk that I see to the financial sustainability of 
our movement as a whole is our highly distributed structure of chapters, 
and in particular the very high risk of a possible financial scandal at 
one of the chapters bringing global headlines and causing people to fear 
giving money to any of us.

We are on a track such that we will have over 100 chapters at some 
point, some small, some large. Some will be in jurisdictions with strong 
traditions of accounting and accountability, and some will be in more 
loose jurisdictions.  Some will have a lot of money, some will only have 
a little money.

The treasurers of the chapters therefore have a grave responsibility to 
protect the movement by implementing the best possible controls and 
practices as quickly as possible and at all times.

On the positive side, avoidance of scandal is not the only thing this is 
about, of course!  Good financial management will ensure that money is 
well-spent, that when volunteers need funding for something, the 
chapters will have the money and be there to supply it.  Good financial 
management will give the transparency to allow the chapters to have the 
trust of their local editing community, rather than being viewed with 
suspicion as a bunch of people just trying to make money off of 
Wikipedia or whatever.

On this list I will mostly be here to cheer you on, and to learn about 
the status of things in your chapters.  In the past there has been 
tension between the Foundation and the Chapters relating to money 
issues, and that's obviously going to happen more in the future.  I hope 
that by being here I can help to keep those tensions to a minimum.

--Jimbo