Lochac Reeves Handbook

Page 9

The Reeves’

Handbook

for the Kingdom of Lochac

Authority / This handbook is issued under Clause IV.2 of the Laws of Lochac, as a written policy of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, by Cristoval, Chancellor.
Approval / This document was approved by:
·  the Crown of Lochac on <insert date>, and
·  the Seneschal of Lochac on <insert date>
·  the Corporate Treasurer of the SCAA on <insert date>
·  the Corporate Treasurer of the SCANZ on <insert date>
Variances / Except where in conflict with the Laws of Lochac or the Policies of the SCAA or SCNZ, the Chancellor may vary the rules in this handbook.
Such variations shall be in writing to the Seneschal of Lochac, and for a specified period. If the occupant of the position of Chancellor changes, any such variances must be reviewed.
Modifications / This handbook may be reissued in a new version with an updated approval as shown above.
Definitions / The following are definitions of key terms used in this handbook:
Council of the Purse / The Council of the Purse includes the Chancellor, Kingdom Seneschal, and the Crown.
SCA Ltd., SCAA / Refers to the Society for Creative Anachronism Ltd., which covers all Australian branches of the Kingdom of Lochac
SCANZ, SCA(NZ), Inc. / Refers to the Society for Creative Anachronism New Zealand, Inc., which covers all New Zealand branches of the Kingdom of Lochac.

Appointment of the reeve

Membership / All SCA officers are required to have a current SCA membership.
Not the
seneschal / The local seneschal may not also be the reeve.
Note: it is acceptable for the landed baron or baroness to double as reeve.
Warrants / The correct method for appointment of a branch reeve is by warrant from the Chancellor, with endorsement from:
·  the baron or baroness, in the case of a barony, or
·  the local seneschal, for a shire.
The warrant will generally be sent by email, with a copy to the endorsing officer.
The warrant will be for a period of two years. In certain circumstances, extensions can be given to this period.
Cantons / Reeves of subordinate branches such as cantons are appointed by the reeve of the supervising branch, eg the baronial reeve.
Colleges / See the Colleges topic.
Recommend-ations / The Chancellor appreciates recommendations for replacement reeves from the outgoing reeve.
Handover / When you leave the office of reeve, all books and records including correspondence are the property of the SCA. They must be turned over to your successor within 30 days of when you leave the office.
Note: if there is no successor, eg with a dissolved branch, the financial records must be handed to the SCAA or SCANZ Corporate Treasurer, with a copy to the Chancellor.

Financial records

Policy / Reeves shall maintain permanent books and records of the branch's financial activity.
Retention / All records must be retained for at least seven years.
Review / The Chancellor may review any branch’s financial records with 14 days’ notice, with the approval of the Kingdom Seneschal.
The Corporate Treasurers of the SCAA and SCANZ may review the records of branches within their remit, according to their respective Financial Policies.
Disclosure / Reeves shall make accounting records available to any member of the SCAA or SCANZ on request.
The member making such a request shall be responsible for all reasonable costs associated with the request, including photocopying and postage costs.
Audit / A member obtaining the accounting records of the association may, at the member's own expense, have these records audited by a registered company auditor, a firm of registered company auditors, or a person who is a member of the Australian Society of Certified Practising Accountants or the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Reporting

Annual
report / Each branch shall produce an annual or “Domesday” report summarising the branch’s financial accounts for the preceding year.
Quarterly
reports / All branches are required to report on the following calendar:
By end April / Financial quarter 1 January to 31 March
(NZ branches to provide annual Domesday report)
By end July / Financial quarter 1 April to 30 June
(Australian branches to provide annual Domesday report)
By end October / Financial quarter 1 July to 30 September
By end January / Financial quarter 1 October to 31 December
Note: these reporting dates are critical, to allow the Chancellor to compile the kingdom report within one month of these deadlines.
Templates / Templates for these reports are available from the Kingdom Exchequer website.
Use of these templates is mandatory.
Where to
report / Reports shall be emailed to the Chancellor, the local Seneschal, and the local Baron and Baroness where they exist.
Where the Chancellor has a Deputy appointed for a country, reports shall also be sent to that Deputy.
For cantons and other subordinate branches, a copy should also go to the reeve of the supervising branch.
Publishing / Copies of the annual report and quarterly reports shall be provided to the branch membership, published in the branch newsletter or sent to the branch email list.
Incipient
branches / Incipient branches without a bank account report through their supervising branch.
Incipient branches with a bank account report as for all other branches.

Failure to report

Failure to
report / Under Kingdom Law, officers failing to report may be suspended by the Crown for the remainder of their reign, or removed from office.
Sanctions / Where branches fail to report, any of the following sanctions may be applied with the agreement of the Crown, until satisfactory reporting has been re-established.
·  visits by the Crown may be limited or ceased,
·  the branch may not host any events,
·  the branch may be suspended for up to one year, or
·  the branch may be placed in abeyance.

Bank accounts

Institution / Branch accounts shall be kept at a bank, or another reputable financial institution with written approval from the Chancellor.
Account
name / For Australian branches, bank accounts shall include:
·  the name of the national SCA organisation, ie Society for Creative Anachronism Ltd (for Australian branches) or Society for Creative Anachronism (NZ) Inc., AND
·  the name of the SCA branch (without “shire”, “barony of”, etc).
Note: “SCA” is an acceptable abbreviation in the bank account name.
Example: the New Zealand shire of Hobbiton might have an account called
“SCA (NZ) Inc. – Hobbiton”
Incipient
branches / Incipient branches may establish bank accounts with the approval of their supervising group.
Choice of signatories / Each branch shall have the reeve and seneschal as signatories on their account, plus at least one other signatory who:
·  is approved by the seneschal and the reeve, and
·  is a current member of the SCA; and
·  does not reside at the same place as another signatory
The selection and approval of signatories shall be minuted at an official Branch meeting.
Co-mingling / There shall be no co-mingling of Society funds with the funds of any individual or other non-SCA branch.
Secondary accounts / Branches may establish additional bank accounts for special purposes. Additional accounts must follow the same naming format as above, with the special purpose of the account added to the name.
If it is not possible to fulfil the special purpose or if there are residual funds, the funds shall be directed to the main account.
Investment accounts / Reserve funds may be invested in an investment account at the same bank.
Accounts at other financial institutions may be used instead, with the written permission of the Chancellor.

Banking

Deposits / Funds should be banked regularly. Cheques in particular should be banked as soon as possible, preferably within 30 days of receipt.
Note: if there is a delay in banking cheques, you should contact the person issuing the cheque, to avoid embarrassment and penalty fees.
Deposit
book / The bank will give you a deposit book. Always record cheques going in, and itemise cash as much as possible. This helps greatly when discrepancies arise.
If for any reason somebody deposits money without the deposit book, keep the deposit stub and paste this into the deposit book later.
Disbursements / Payments by reeves shall be made by cheque or Bpay.
Direct deposit to an external bank account is acceptable with written advice to the Chancellor.
Any other payment method is acceptable only with prior written approval of the Chancellor.
Two
signatures / All cheques issued by SCA branches must have two signatures.
Reconciliation / Reeves must reconcile records with bank statements, at least monthly.
·  Tick off cheques in the cheque book as they show in the statement

Expense Approvals

Policy / SCA funds may only be spent when properly approved.
Tax
exempt
purpose / No officer of any level has the power to authorise payments that do not support the Society's tax exempt purpose.
If the reasonableness of an expense is uncertain, the relevant Corporate Treasurer must be consulted prior to any commitment.
Minimum approval / At minimum, the branch seneschal and reeve must approve all expenditures.
If the seneschal or reeve is unavailable, the acting seneschal or reeve may issue the approval.
If there is a landed baron, baroness or baronial vicar, one of these may substitute for one approval.
Branches may add additional approval requirements, consistent with mundane, SCA and kingdom law.
Personal expenditure / No SCA funds shall be used for individual personal benefit.
Example: funds may not be spent on personal banners, though it would be acceptable for branches to produce a set of banners bearing the branch device and the various personal devices, if kept by the branch rather than the individual.
Example: funds may not be spent to provide free rattan, though it would be acceptable for a branch to buy a stock of rattan from which sticks are sold at cost or profit.
Receipts and Expenditure statements / All expenditure must be documented, preferably by receipts.
If receipts are not available, detailed statements of expenditure (which must be witnessed by the branch seneschal or reeve) must be provided to support all expenses.

Event finances

Event
budgets / Event stewards are encouraged to submit a prior budget to be approved by the seneschal and reeve, often done with the advice of a shire or baronial council.
Often the reeve issues a “float”, a cash advance – see separate topic.
If no budget has been approved, any cheques for the event will require individual approval by seneschal and reeve.
Event
reports / Stewards are requested to use the standard event reporting form available from the Exchequer website.
Reporting
period / Event financial reports and funds must be submitted to the reeve within 30 days of the event.
If an event financial report cannot be finalised within 30 days an interim report must be produced, with additional interim reports every 30 days thereafter until a final report can be produced.

Cash

Approvals / Cash advances must be approved beforehand, in the same way as expenditures.
Reconciliation / Cash advances are treated as a receivable item until they are reconciled by presentation of receipts and/or cash totalling the amount of the advance.
Reconciliation of cash advances must occur within 30 days of the advance or the event for which an advance is made, whichever is the latter.
Security / Adequate cash controls and security must be in place at any event where money is collected in the name of the SCA. Implementation of cash controls and security is the responsibility of the reeve and the event steward.
Loss of cash, either from an event or from an individual, should be treated as theft and the reeve, seneschal and B&B (if applicable) should be notified.
Stolen cash should be reported to the police and a copy of the report provided to the Reeve.

Crown events

Budget / The Council of the Purse approves a budget in accepting any bids to run Crown events.
Reporting / The event steward of each Crown event shall submit a final financial report to the Chancellor within two months of the holding of the event.
If the report is not received in this time, the branch may not hold any official events until the Chancellor receives a satisfactory report.
Levies / Kingdom events are required to collect and forward event membership fees and kingdom levies as for any other event.
Profit / The profit from each Crown event shall be divided as 50% to the Kingdom and 50% to the hosting branch.
The event steward shall arrange to make payment for the Kingdom share of the profits within two months of the event being held. This payment may be made by cheque or direct deposit, by arrangement with the Chancellor.
Loss / If the event makes a loss, 50% of the loss on approved budgeted items only shall be borne by the Kingdom with 50% borne by the hosting branch.
If the loss is as a result of expenditure outside of the approved budget, then the whole of the loss shall be borne by the hosting branch.

Event memberships and kingdom levies

Policy / Each branch in the Kingdom of Lochac shall contribute to corporate and kingdom funds.
Event memberships / For every event held, every attendee shall be a full member of the SCA or shall take an event membership for the duration of that event.
For an event membership, $2 shall be collected from every person over the age of 18 years attending the event, who is not already a full member of the SCA, unless their entry cost to the event is zero.
(This definition is subject to revision by the SCAA and SCANZ.)
Kingdom
levy / For every event held, $1 shall be collected from every person over the age of 18 years attending the event, unless their entry cost to the event is zero.
Event
definition / The word "event" means any in-garb event meeting the requirements of Corpora II.A, and excludes regular activities such as monthly or weekly fighter practices, branch business meetings, informal classes, etc, as per Corpora II.B.
Note: If there is doubt as to whether an activity is an "event" according to this definition, then the decision shall be made by the Kingdom Seneschal.
Remittance / At the end of every quarter (September, December, March, June), the funds collected by the branch for both event memberships and kingdom levies shall be remitted to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Branches in Australia are required to calculate their amounts and remit funds in Australian dollars. Branches in New Zealand are required to calculate their amounts and remit funds in New Zealand dollars (on a dollar for dollar basis).
Where the Chancellor of the Exchequer has a Deputy appointed for a country, remittances shall go to that person instead.

Taxation obligations