The current economic climate highlights the need for responsible and prudent financial management like never before. It has also demonstrated AMSA’s need to plan and prepare for the long-term rather than only looking ahead to the next executive handover. Our vision is for financial stability and our team has a range of corporate board, management, sponsorship experience and a concrete plan to make this a reality.

Financial stability and prosperity in the medium to long term, over the next 5 to 10 years, is something that must be planned for, and this must take into account the whole spectrum of what AMSA does and how it operates. This includes all of its events, sponsors and other revenue sources as well as costs and liabilities. Our guiding principle in formulating such a plan is to give future executives and Councils financial security and peace of mind, whilst allowing for discretionary funds to carry out new projects and initiatives.

Importantly, our team brings an extensive knowledge of the internal management and financial arrangements of AMSA. It is based on this experience, as well as independent auditing and professional advice, that we will introduce a corporate Board model split from the executive that will allow us to retain institutional knowledge and introduce a longer term perspective to AMSA’s financial management and planning. Our proposed board would be made up of the President, Immediate Past President, an independent lawyer, accountant and a prominent community figure and as such, there would be minimal turnover year-to-year. The goals of this Board would be to ensure the long term health and stability of AMSA by developing external relationships, providing support, advice and guidance to the executives and provide a degree of independent oversight over their activities. While the Board will have minimal input into the day-to-day management of the Association, such a model will benefit us in the long run and bring AMSA more into line with corporate best practice.

On the revenue side, AMSA still relies heavily on sponsorship. To get the most value from what we already offer, we will revalue everything in our sponsorship prospectus to better reflect what sponsors actually want – eliminating unused items and increasing the value of the most popular items. This is a simple, but effective way of maximising value for both AMSA and its sponsors.

We will also negotiate, where appropriate, multi-year deals with sponsors rather than single-year agreements. This provides us with a modicum of financial stability going forward, and means that future Marketing & Sponsorship Officers have more time to seek out new partners. Furthermore, based on feedback from current sponsors, we will base our agreements on financial rather than calendar years. This will mean that Marketing & Sponsorship Officers aren’t renegotiating contracts in their first month of office, and better align us with our sponsors’ timetables and budget planning rather than just picking up what’s left at the end of the year.

Our plan also involves pursuing available grants through Government and other public-sector foundations. AMSA has had mixed success in this respect; many of its previous applications for grant funding have been declined on the basis of inadequate planning and notice. We have already identified a number of potential grants with the Department of Health and Ageing, AusAID, the Myer Foundation and others which we will tie to specific events rather than operational costs (as this is most likely to maximise our chances). This is a potentially lucrative source of additional funding, and timely, well-prepared applications are the key to success.

Curtailing costs is also important, and we have identified a number of expenses which we will limit through stricter budgetary and expenditure guidelines, such as transport and communication bills. A line by line review of spending will also identify potential savings in other areas like secretarial and stationary costs. Furthermore, our executive would entirely negate the significant costs associated with handover and relocation of the executive, which runs into many thousands of dollars.