Important Lessons to Share
By AV Board member Joe Evinger
My career has always involved business management, financial analysis and budgeting, in both banking and public transportation.
Post-retirement, I wanted to give back to the East Bay community in some fashion. However, social work, important as it is, is neither my area of expertise nor my greatest interest, while public and non-profit finance are. Thus, I have found my niche: board financial work - first with La Cheim Behavioral Health, Schools and Residential Therapeutic Services, then North Oakland Village (NOV), and now Ashby Village.
Having put in nearly eight years as NOV Treasurer and board officer, I thought I was ready to step down from treasurer duties for non-profits. But the Ashby Village merger came along at the perfect time, giving me the opportunity to remain active as a Board member while supporting our Treasurer, Janet Howley.
The most important financial lesson I learned as a board member is “Wants are unlimited but funding to pay for them is not”, even though it may seem so in good times.
My first such board member experience was with an internet start-up company that very nearly failed. This experience and subsequent board work have taught me to be ready for the hard times, as unfortunately they all too often do occur. To be ready involves strategic planning, budgeting, and accurate, timely reporting to the director and board members. When new ideas are proposed, someone has to say, “Where does the money come from to pay for this? Can we afford to do this? Is it the best use of our money?” This is where the financial group comes in. Doing this is not always a popular job but a board cannot govern effectively without timely and accurate financial information, projections, and guidance.
Enough of the professorial stuff. I love to bring humor into the otherwise dry world of accounting, financial reporting and financial control. Two framed documents hung on my office wall at BART headquarters. One simply said:
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Numbers are your friends.
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The other was this chart, by which I lived:
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THE EVINGER
DECISION SQUARE
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Mathematically Correct Answer
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Mathematically Wrong Answer
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What the boss wants to hear
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1. Best case.
Go for it.
Claim the glory.
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2. You now own your wrong answer forever.
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What the boss doesn’t want to hear
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3. Triple-check your work. Your job depends on it.
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4. You are FIRED!
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My advice: Stay out of the second and fourth quadrants.
Previously, Joe served on the board at a high-tech startup and at La Cheim Schools and Psychological Services. He most recently served as Board member and Treasurer of North Oakland Village. Joe brings more than 40 years experience in budgeting, financial analysis and auditing, as well as a career in financial management and consulting. He retired as Deputy Executive Manager of Budget and Business Management for the Bay Area Rapid Transit District and later was a financial consultant to BART from 2005 to 2013. He was also past president of BART Supervisory and Professional Association, now affiliated with AFSCME.