Floyd Zula, Chair
fzula@fullerton.edu
Tel:  714/278-2366
Fax:  714/278-7497

1.  In early March Floyd Zula was appointed to the Finance Committee by Grace Reid.

2.  In June and early July Grace Reid opted to bow out of the chairship of the Finance Committee, but to remain as a member, because of a variety of communication problems, including the e-mail system being used at the Birmingham Museum of Art.  Karen McKenzie appointed Floyd Zula to step into the chairship on July 20th.  Over the course of the next month there was a transfer of files and other committee documents.

3.  Throughout the fall there was a good deal of maneuvering involving Barnett and Company, ARLIS/NA's brokerage firm for its endowed accounts, and other members of the ARLIS Executive Board.  By and large the Finance Committee and its chair remained on the margins of these activities and outside the information exchange that occurred between the ARLIS/NA Executive Board and the Barnett firm.  Ostensibly there appeared to be some concern about the stock trades, which generate the revenues for the Barnett firm, and to be some Board concern about the maintenance of maximum liquidity in the uncertain circumstances surrounding the shifts of management firms for ARLIS/NA.  In December 2000 there was a withdrawal of $46,025.00 from the Society's endowed funds that caught the Finance Committee by surprise [this was later explained by the Treasurer].

4.  While the formation of the ARLIS Board Advisory Group on January 24, 2001, consisting of Ted Goodman, President-Elect, Trudy Jacoby, Treasurer; and Leslie Abrams, Western Regional Representative, does fall outside the calendar year 2000, its formation seems to speak to a number of the concerns, which were broached in the third paragraph of this report.  The Group has been charged with:  (1) reviewing the Society’s experience with financial advisors to date and making a recommendation on the Society’s future relationship with financial advisors; (2) analyzing the results of the investment strategy to date and making recommendations towards a future investment policy for the Society; and (3) finally reviewing the charge of the Finance Committee.

5.  Since October, the chair of the Finance Committee has regularly faxed the monthly financial reports received from the Barnett firm (who appear to function under the larger umbrella of the Charles Schwab firm) to our management firm in Ottawa.

Floyd Zula
Co-Coordinator, Acquisitions and Database Services and Art Bibliographer
Pollak Library, California State University, Fullerton
Chair, Finance Committee, 2000-2001