ORIENTEERING AUSTRALIA
OA Finances in 2008 and beyond Blair Trewin - Director (Finance)
O
rienteering Australia has a near-balanced budget for 2008, with a deficit of $1200 forecast for the year. This marks the rebuilding of OA’s financial position over the period since 2005, when we had to absorb the shock of losing $60,000 annually in Sport Development funding from the Australian Sports Commission. In 2007 we had a surplus of about $7,000. The ‘real’ budget position was not quite as rosy as that due to timing issues, but if one considered 2007 programs against the budget (irrespective of when the money was actually spent or received), the loss was only a few thousand dollars despite two large one-off hits – the loss of half a year’s event levy income due to the deferral of the due date from December to January, and the writing off of several thousand dollars’ worth of redundant uniforms (despite the energetic efforts of some to sell off the stock).
The most significant medium-term issue at present is the future of Sports Commission support after the expiry of the current funding agreement in mid-2009. It is also plausible that we could incur unexpected expenditure – especially if we find ourselves in any legal battles – although to offset that, in most recent years the final result has been better than the budget, mainly because some planned programs were not implemented in time. ‘The Australian Orienteer’ magazine, whose finances function separately from OA’s, also appears to be in a reasonably sound financial position, with a slight surplus budgeted in 2008. A move to a new printer has significantly decreased printing costs, which may flow through in due course.
OA’s budget is now near-balanced for the three years from 2008 to 2010. We are currently projecting a deficit of $18,000 for 2011 but that includes some reasonably pessimistic assumptions (as well as factoring in the lower levy income resulting from one of our major carnivals – Easter – being in WA). OA typically turns over around $250,000 per year. About half our spending goes towards high performance activities of various kinds – supporting international teams ($72,500 in the 2008 budget, including $40,000 for WOC, $15,000 for JWOC, and $15,000 for MTBO WOC), the High Performance Manager ($25,000) and other high performance development ($19,300). However, about 35% of our income ($86,000 in 2008) is Sports Commission funding specifically tied to High Performance, so the proportion of funds drawn from the States which goes towards High Performance activities is quite small. Other major items of OA expenditure include insurance ($30,000, mostly paid by States), the OA Executive Officer ($21,000), general administration including office rental ($13,500), the annual Conference ($8,000), IOF affiliation and event levies ($7,800) and supporting attendance at IOF meetings ($7,500). Apart from the Australian Sports Commission grants, OA gets most of its funds from state associations in some form or other. The State Registration Fee (divided between the States on the basis of their proportion of national membership over the last five years) will raise $69,700, and event levies are forecast to raise another $44,500. (The latter figure fluctuates around $40,000 depending on where major events take place and their attendance, but will be quite high in coming years because of WMOC 2009 and increased attendance at events associated with WMOC). We receive about $11,000 per year in sponsorship (through Silva for the National Orienteering League and the insurance commission arrangement with Ansvar) and donations through the Sports Foundation, whilst remaining income is mostly drawn from the badge scheme and interest. Whilst OA’s finances are reasonably sound for the present, the potential still exists for us to receive external shocks. JUNE 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 45
