AGM - Treasurer's Report

Treasurer's Report - Ben Kilby

VAPS has had a strong financial year, increasing income from $23,487 in 2017 to $45,558 in 2018 and profit from $2882 in 2017 to $6344 in 2018.

All areas of our finances have received a boost, with: 

• income from membership increasing from $8822 in 2017 to $10,959 in 2018, showing solid growth in membership
• income from VAPS training increasing  $4498 in 2017 to $7406 in 2018, mainly due to the fact that we were able to run an Advanced Practice course in 2018
• income from events increasing from $2274 in 2017 to $8149 to 2018, mainly due to new philosothons and the fact that we ran a conference in 2018 (but not in 2017)

Our events made up 50% of our income, and we have seen them as sustainable features of our association. In 2018, we were able to sustainably run our junior philosothons and our biennial conference. Our secondary philosothon was more than sustainable, allowing us room to provide subsidies for disadvantaged or regional/rural schools to attend in the future. However, our forums were less sustainable. The first one only just made a profit and the second forum made a loss. This is due to having to pay high fees for a venue in 2018, which is an area to address going forward.

We received a grant from the Victorian Department of Education for $9608 per year to support regional and rural schools to participate in philosophical practices, including schools and teachers attending any of our events. We only managed to spend $1582 of this grant, and 100% of that was on teachers attending the conference. As this grant continues into 2019, we need to look at new ways of inviting regional and rural schools into the fold.