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MHO General Funds Endowment Withdrawls

It sounds like a move is afoot to ask for changes to MHO rules so they match CHE rules about withdrawals for prizes. Don’t make me explain it …. read if you’re a House or Organization leader 🙂

http://bit.ly/2lUEvnO

Category: Meeting Hall Organizations (MHOs)
Topic: General Discussion

Date: 02/17/2017 08:39 PM CST
From: ROBERTSM8
Subj: MHO General Funds/Endowment
Good evening, MHO Officers and Members! As officers in the Order of the Sphere and Scythe, Rovvigen and I were discussing an issue earlier and sent the following email to Elysani, our beloved MHO Guru. It was a need we saw apparent. I’m sharing to see if other MHOs agree that this would be beneficial. If you have a thought as a representative of an MHO, either yay or nay, please share so we can discuss 🙂 I should say this email is edited/redacted for unimportant information to the general issue/discussion. I’m curiously interested to see if other MHOs see a benefit to this request or not!

Good evening, Elysani! We were discussing endowments and general funds this evening. CHE Treasurers can withdraw funds from their endowments, but this is an option that MHOs do not have. Our idea is to have the funds available for withdrawal to award silver prizes or buy items to present as prizes at events as MHOs. Can you discuss with your superiors giving a few specific MHO officers the ability to withdraw silvers from the MHO general fund to use for silver prizes at events? Currently MHOs have to use a “slush fund”, which is basically an unused character on an MHO officers account. This seems counterintuitive to the MHO structure. We would much rather this be an official MHO function if possible. If not we will continue to use an alt character to hold slush funds but would like to see if you could speak to Wyrom and administrative staff about making silver withdrawals possible by Senior MHO officers from the MHO endowment. Thanks for considering, if the answer is no please just let me know so we can setup an alt to hold the slush fund. Thanks for all the hard work you have done for MHOs and we appreciate your hard work and dedication.

~Originally sent by Rovvigen, Elder seer of the Sphere and Scythe. Reposted by Mikalmas, High Priest of Gosaena for the order.


Date: 02/18/2017 02:59 PM CST
From: JARVISN
Subj: Re: MHO General Funds/Endowment
I may be mistaken, Rovvigen, but I don’t believe CHEs are allowed to withdraw monies from their Endowment Fund either. They do, however, have something that we as MHOs do not – an official General Fund that certain Officers can draw from. That would certainly be nice to have, and less cumbersome than keeping an alt around basically as a bank account holder.

-Noldi, Black Wolves Clan Second Chair


Date: 02/18/2017 06:22 PM CST
From: MORENO
Subj: Re: MHO General Funds/Endowment
>>I may be mistaken, Rovvigen, but I don’t believe CHEs are allowed to withdraw monies from their Endowment Fund either. They do, however, have something that we as MHOs do not – an official General Fund that certain Officers can draw from. That would certainly be nice to have, and less cumbersome than keeping an alt around basically as a bank account holder.

Unless something has changed, CHEs only have 1 fund to draw from.

~ The girl behind Debia


You swing an invar-hilted serrated glaes falchion at an Ithzir seer!
Amazingly, the Ithzir seer manages to parry the attack with her staff!
The scintillating Debia swings an invar-hilted serrated glaes falchion at you


Date: 02/18/2017 06:27 PM CST
From: WLEONARD
Subj: Re: MHO General Funds/Endowment
If that is the Case then a General Fund or something comparable to that for MHOs would be nice to have, rather than using an alt character to hold funds for the MHOs to purchase prizes or give away silvers during events.


Date: 02/19/2017 03:07 PM CST
From: DAID
Subj: Re: MHO General Funds/Endowment
>I may be mistaken, Rovvigen, but I don’t believe CHEs are allowed to withdraw monies from their Endowment Fund either.

We do, but it’s not quite like what is written.

>CHE Treasurers can withdraw funds from their endowments, but this is an option that MHOs do not have. Our idea is to have the funds available for withdrawal to award silver prizes or buy items to present as prizes at events as MHOs.

Beacon Hall has never in recent history pulled silvers out of our bank to give out as prizes to people. Any event has silver prizes is provided by the event organizer, etc. I’m not even sure the rules allow a CHE to do this.

As for using the coins to buy prizes, we always ask the CHE guru for such expenditures for approval. I’m assuming if we didn’t need approval, Elidi would have told us we don’t need approval and it isn’t necessary to bother her every time.

Although I am not an officer in an MHO, anyway I’m fine with supporting this change. However, the initial post seems confused about the functionality of this ability, and it is not nearly as useful as you seem to think.


Date: 02/19/2017 03:26 PM CST
From: PEREGRINEFALCON
Subj: Re: MHO General Funds/Endowment
>> Beacon Hall has never in recent history pulled silvers out of our bank to give out as prizes to people. Any event has silver prizes is provided by the event organizer, etc. I’m not even sure the rules allow a CHE to do this.

White Haven regularly pulls silver from the house fund to use for prize money / to purchase prizes as needed. The funds are there to support the house and house events. When you buy prizes from the prize closet the funds come directly from the house fund as well.

Interestingly, I was Treasurer of White Haven for some time and the Endowment feature is disabled (at least for White Haven).

I believe the purpose of the (interest bearing) endowment fund is to build up a house funds for the MHO for if and when they do become a CHE. The CHE fund (you can deposit or withdraw) does not have an interest bearing feature. When you convert from a MHO to a CHE I suspect all of the endowment funds are then transferred into your CHE account for appropriate use in support of the house.

— Robert aka Faulkil

A powerful whirlpool is suddenly overtaken by a windy vortex!


Date: 02/19/2017 05:21 PM CST
From: DAID
Subj: Re: MHO General Funds/Endowment
>White Haven regularly pulls silver from the house fund to use for prize money / to purchase prizes as needed. The funds are there to support the house and house events. When you buy prizes from the prize closet the funds come directly from the house fund as well.

Yes, but the prices and items for prize closets are already approved.

Of course, the coins are there to benefit the house. I was only reflecting that in my experience it’s not quite a free to spend the coins however you like, but a slosh fund would be and thus in fact has a distinct advantage.

>The CHE fund (you can deposit or withdraw) does not have an interest bearing feature

That’s right, not any more.


Date: 02/19/2017 05:45 PM CST
From: VANKRASN39
Subj: Re: MHO General Funds/Endowment
there is no rule saying you must have GM approval to withdraw CHE general funds. How to spend House funds is for each team of officers to decide. There are behavioral rules to prevent abuse


Date: 02/19/2017 11:16 PM CST
From: GS4-ELYSANI
Subj: Re: MHO General Funds/Endowment
I figured I’d answer here first since I haven’t had a chance to send out a direct e-mail!

I’ll have to check with the powers-that-be, but you are correct that MHOs currently do not have a feature that allows withdrawals from the endowment, outside of prize list purchases made by officers. I’d have to have someone look at the specific code for MHO endowments, but if this is something that can be tweaked, all MHOs will have to designate a treasurer as they would be the only person (like CHEs) able to access the funding for the organization.

One huge issue is that in all honesty, the turnover for MHO officers is much much higher than for CHEs. While I hope that we all can trust one another and foster open communication among officers, I cannot guarantee the safety of said endowments if someone were to say, withdraw everything and leave the group/game. Granted, that could occur even now with the alt accounts and slush funds, but I assume the majority of silvers are deposited into the endowment.

I apologize that I can’t give you a definitive “yes” or “no” answer yet, but let me see what I can do on my end.

Guru of MHO Things.
MHO ALL THE THINGS: https://sites.google.com/site/gs4mho/home

*Please e-mail me if you have any MHO related questions or concerns!*


Date: 02/20/2017 10:45 AM CST
From: WLEONARD
Subj: Re: MHO General Funds/Endowment
I have no problem with designating a Treasurer for the MHO funds if that were to be the case. I understand the concern with lack of communication within a MHO and/or having someone withdrawal all funds from the endowment and running off. I guess this will cause MHOs to pick their officers more carefully.

I know I have communicated with a few other MHOs, one of which being Fenogs Regulars, saying they would like this ability as well for giving away silvers as prizes and or purchasing prizes to give away from silvers collected and put in the endowment.

I understand not being able to give a definite yes or no and there is no need to apologize for that. You do amazing work with all the MHOs and we appreciate the hard work and effort you put in. Thank you for at least considering this option and talking to the powers-that-be

Much Gratitude

Elder Seer Rovvigen Aniket


Date: 02/20/2017 11:00 AM CST
From: WLEONARD
Subj: Re: MHO General Funds/Endowment
I thought they stopped the process of converting MHOs to CHEs?


Date: 02/20/2017 08:09 PM CST
From: LUNATUNES
Subj: Re: MHO General Funds/Endowment
>>I thought they stopped the process of converting MHOs to CHEs?

There is not a standard “process” for this, really. They opened up a slot for a new CHE to be chartered a few years ago, wherein MHOs were invited to apply and one of them was selected. At this time there are no plans to open up a CHE chartering slot (as of our last open meeting with Elidi, like, last week, where this topic serendipitously came up).

/seo, wheels and skulls department/


Date: 02/21/2017 11:55 AM CST
From: JARVISN
Subj: Re: MHO General Funds/Endowment
OK, well, now I’m thoroughly confused (which isn’t all that unusual).

According to the CHE info currently posted on play.net, each House has an untouchable Endowment which earns interest, said interest deposited monthly in that House’s General Fund. The General Fund is used to pay House overhead (taxes, etc) and support House activities and events. Is this no longer he case?

The Endowment Fund for each MHO cannot be accessed directly, but expenses like criers, closet prizes, food carts, etc are drawn from the Endowment. Does an MHO Endowment earn interest? I don’t think I’ve read this anywhere official.

~Noldi


Date: 02/21/2017 05:27 PM CST
From: FIREPHOENIX
Subj: Re: MHO General Funds/Endowment
CHEs got all of their endowment turned off because it was generating income. We just have general funds that get drawn from. Nothing accrues interest any longer. It ended around 1998.


Date: 02/21/2017 07:58 PM CST
From: LUNATUNES
Subj: Re: MHO General Funds/Endowment
>>According to the CHE info currently posted on play.net

Play.net should mostly be considered legacy information and is seldom, if ever, updated. Current information on the game is on the wiki, https://gswiki.play.net/Main_Page … though, there is not comprehensive information on the CHE overall structure and governance there that I can find.

>>The Endowment Fund for each MHO cannot be accessed directly, but expenses like criers, closet prizes, food carts, etc are drawn from the Endowment. Does an MHO Endowment earn interest? I don’t think I’ve read this anywhere official.

No, MHOs earn no interest.

/seo, wheels and skulls department/

 

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