Tom Olcott is the financial vice president of Local 802 and the supervisor of the union’s concert department

One of my duties as financial vice president is to assist in the production of the annual audit of the local’s finances and to report the results to the membership. The audit was completed and reviewed by our accountants, Gould, Kobrick & Schlapp, PC in late March. Their audit report is published in the printed May issue of Allegro. Bear in mind that this report is a snapshot of Local 802’s finances as of Dec. 31, 2015.

The Local 802 officers and the controller meet several times each year to create a budget. We always consider many factors. The most important are:

1. Our best assessment of the state of the music business and the projected flow of dues revenues.

2. A reasonable estimation of future union costs (upcoming negotiations, organizing campaigns, public relations and legal needs, personnel costs, building maintenance, etc.), based on prior experience.

3. Close observation of prior trends in our budgeting.

Our primary goal is always to ensure that Local 802 members’ money is spent responsibly. We apply our best data regarding the past and attempt to project to the future in an informed way. For a few years our budget has assumed a slight loss in Local 802 revenues, and we have tried to adjust expenses consistently with that assumption. Since that methodology has been applied by our estimable controller Cathy Camiolo, Local 802 has over-performed each budget projection. This is excellent performance for a labor union.

We report a small loss of $24,761 for 2015. This loss is very tiny compared to the entirety of our financial profile and also is remarkably close to amounts actually budgeted. Cathy’s Controller’s Report describes some of the causes for this small loss: a tougher year for investments than 2014, officer severance accruals, and extraordinary conference costs.

The audit shows that Local 802 is in a stable economic state. Considering the overall national economy, stability continues to be a form of success. Our small loss in 2015 is not cause for concern.