Treasurer's Report
by Neal Thorpe

The good news is that our Association keeps on growing, and thanks to our wonderful supporters continued to keep pace in 2003 with the tremendous change in our operations. As every SCA member surely knows, our fulltime Executive Director is now into her second year. Betsy Daley is on top of everything in her second-floor office in the Locktender’s House. It’s a bare-bones office indeed, sporting a second-hand desk and the essentials in the way of computers, copiers and filing cabinets. When she has a meeting, it’s around the old deal table in the house’s kitchen. Nevertheless, she’s on top of everything: construction projects, cash flow, membership, networking with people from Harrisburg to Norristown, and moving along exciting plans for new programs and events.

Two years ago we managed on operating receipts of $23,000 and expenses of $21,000. But the volume of operations had become much too large for volunteers to keep up with. As we reported in 2002, The William Penn Foundation came through with a wonderful two-year grant of $60,000, restricted to helping support a fulltime executive director. We started drawing on that grant when Betsy took office in September of that year. By last year, our first full year with a payroll, operating expenses shot up to $78,000. The William Penn Foundation’s grant provided $31,667 of that, but we members, through our dues, contributions and programs, raised $58,333 on our own hook, for total operating receipts of $90,000. That’s quite a jump up from a mere two years ago. We met our expenses, with a bit of the William Penn grant left over in the bank towards 2004’s payroll.

Highlights of the year were record dues and contributions from renewing members, plus a record 87 new members, for a record membership of 356; and 52 new business sponsors, for a record total of 88 sponsors. In all, contributions from individuals and businesses amounted to a round $20,000. We also had a very successful silent auction as a new fundraiser, made possible by Toll Brothers, Inc., one of our valuable new sponsors. To all our members who renewed so faithfully, who contributed so generously, and who volunteered the time and energy to our enterprises, from Canal Day to Open House programs, that made them outstanding successes in 2003, thank you!

2003 was a good year on the grant front, too. Progress on our restoration projects is reported elsewhere in this newsletter. Most of the big items are being paid for piecemeal by various state grants awarded some years ago. These grants reimburse us as the projects proceed. But we were awarded three up-front cash grants in 2003: $25,000 for our new indoor restrooms from the Department of Community Economic Development, arranged for by our State Senator Bob Thompson; $10,000 from The Arcadia Foundation, also for the restrooms; and $500 from Lockheed Corporation for a much-needed sign at the foot of the canal. In addition, a member who has been outstandingly generous in the past, this year provided $8,745 for landscaping the grounds of the Locktender’s House.

There’s a message buried in all these figures: In 2004 we gotta keep going and growing!

Formal 2003 figures:
The formal financial statement for 2003 that SCA prepares for our CPA’s financial review is a dense spreadsheet covering six pages, and is available for any member to look at. Simply make an appointment with Betsy. The government, our grantors and our CPA all require SCA, a non-profit, to provide a very detailed accounting of its charitable donations.

The detailed statement provides an accounting of both our operations and our capital projects. The table below is a drastically condensed version of the figures for operations only, designed to fit on a newsletter page.