walker lamkin

(he/him/his)

Candidate for Treasurer

General Questions

One of the duties of the Treasurer is to create a projected budget of the year. How do you plan to collect the necessary information to create an annual projected budget?

The first thing I would do if possible is to sit down with Vina, the current UVSAGC Treasurer, and look over her budgets from her term for a starting point of reference. After looking over her budgets as well as GC’s current balances, I would then look at the breakdown of how much money we’ve spent. This includes events such as Talent Auction, Leadership Retreat, Cabinet Connect, Summit, UVSAGC Merch, potentially BR Night Market, and newly created events such as GC Olympics and the Pickleball Tournament. These numbers would help me find any wiggle room or improvements that could be made within said budgets. With all of those factors in mind, I would then discuss with the Executive Board a proposed budget to see if there are any improvements or changes to be made before settling on a projected annual budget.

As a nonprofit, UVSA Gulf Coast must keep very detailed records of all purchases and deposits. What measures would you take to protect the assets of the organization (hence our nonprofit status) and also yourself?

To protect the assets of UVSAGC and myself, I would keep a very precise record of all transactions and movement of money. This would be done through a paper trail and a digital copy of the paper trail, in the occurrence of damage to the physical copies. If possible, I would also like to keep a backup drive of all finances in case something happened to the online and paper records. To protect UVSAGC’s non-profit status, I would meet with the Board of Directors on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis based on the volume of events approaching or occurring at the time. This would ensure that everyone involved with UVSAGC’s finances stay on the same page, and all necessary actions such as taxes and non-profit compliances stay up to date.

Consider this scenario: After going over treasury records, you find an unusual surplus/deficit of funds in the Gulf Coast bank account. How do you approach this?

No matter if it’s a surplus or deficit of funds, anything not fiscally correct would need to be examined immediately. I would start by looking back at all recent transactions within the bank account to make sure that no unauthorized users made any movement within our funds and that I did not execute any mistakes in our records. Following that would be a conversation with the Executive Board and Board of Directors to see if they made any money  without letting me know. If there are no direct or clear answers or solutions, I would sift through all transactions and talk to everyone with access to the bank account to get a final answer and solution.

Are you familiar with any accounting software, data keeping software, or POS systems (for example, Excel, Quick Books, etc.)?

During my term as VSOUL’s Treasurer from 2022-2023, I primarily used Google Sheets with some small usage of Excel to keep accurate records of finances, transactions, andI have very basic experience with Quickbooks. I would be open and willing to learn any forms of accounting software I’m not familiar with to best help UVSAGC’s finances!  

How do you plan to engage treasurers within the Gulf Coast?
From my experience, I find that the most all treasurers engage within the region is solely at Leadership Retreat, where we are together for about an hour or two discussing the basics any treasurer should know and possible ways to gain revenue for our local VSAs. One thing I find could be beneficial would be monthly or bi-monthly workshops on how to use different accounting softwares, brainstorm unique fundraising opportunities, and give the time for the treasurers to discuss amongst themselves and help each other when it’s needed. I would also be open to answering any questions or providing any one on one help to the treasurers that needed it.

How would you determine which events are financially feasible? How about which events are “worth” funding?

To determine which events are feasible compared to the events that are “worth” the cost, there are the main factors I would look at. Cost to host, cost of supplies, cost of entry, and the profit to loss margin from the previous events. For large events such as Talent Auction, Leadership Retreat, Cabinet Connect, and GCA’s, those would be the primary events as those have our largest turnout and give back the most to the leaders and members of UVSAGC. After going through those, the events that would be worth funding are ones that everyone enjoys, which helps create a tighter bond between the local VSA’s to UVSAGC. This includes events such as GC Olympics and depending on the turnout, the GC Pickleball Tournament. There will always be events that may seem tight financially to run, but there is always the chance that an event is “worth” the cost associated with it.

What do you believe would be your biggest challenge as Treasurer?

My biggest challenge as Treasurer would be ensuring that we are getting the most out of the resources around us. While I had success with that during my previous and current year on VSOUL’s Executive Board, I know that transitioning to USVAGC will be a jump and it’s something that I need to prepare myself for. Connections with businesses, other non-profits, local VSA’s, and others can really help transition UVSAGC to that next level that I want it to reach