USCF STILL DOWN $81K FOR FISCAL YEAR

USCF's financial statements for January showed a modest gain of $8015, reducing the loss for the fiscal year to $81,091 after eight months.  The federation continues to run well ahead of budget, though, as a $135,503 loss had been budgeted for the first eight months.

I asked Executive Director Frank Niro (who is back at work and says he feels better than ever) whether the remaining four months were likely to put the year in the black.  He expressed confidence that they would, pointing out that surpluses were budgeted for the remainder of the year, with March and May expected to be especially strong (over $50,000 each).  If USCF does manage to come out ahead, it will be the first fiscal year in which this has happened since 1995-6.

January was USCF's first experience with its higher dues structure.  It is hard to know what to expect, as some of the dues that would have been paid in January were collected in December instead, from those beating the dues raise.  $173,950 in dues income was budgeted for January, but the actual amount received was much better: $215,522.  This was almost as much as the January 2002 total of $220,416, when no one had an incentive to renew or join early.  And regular one year memberships actually took in more in 1/03 than 1/02, $76642 to $73297.  All this sounds encouraging for a month expected to be weak, but a truer test will come as the year progresses.

Here is an eight month summary, with cents omitted:

US Chess Federation
Summary Income Statement Operations
For the Eight Months ended January 31, 2003

REVENUES                                               This Year       Last Year       Budget
MEMBERSHIP REVENUE                   $1,447,503     $1,301,831    $1,351,955
NET SALES REVENUE                           1,765,984       1,140,089      1,581,600
MAGAZINE REVENUE                              207,860          189,420         170,000
OTHER SERVICES REVENUE                   70,990            69,668           68,000
TOURNAMENT REVENUE                       224,323              4,124        178,546
OTHER REVENUE                                        55,658            30,289           54,400

TOTAL REVENUE                                  $3,772,320     $2,735,423    $3,404,502   
COST OF SALES                                       1,120,166          553,513         956,774

GROSS MARGIN                                    $2,652,154     $2,181,910    $2,447,728

OPERATING EXPENSES
MAGAZINE EXPENSES                          $ 504,412        $ 441,276     $ 479,880
BOOKS & EQUIPMENT EXPENSES        234,726          146,806        215,327
WEB SERVICE EXPENSES                          49,495            59,857          27,550
PROMOTIONS EXPENSES                          80,258            69,795          82,666
TOURNAMENT EXPENSES                       155,406            35,763        147,272
PERSONNEL EXPENSES                         1,115,430          952,779     1,031,086
GENERAL & ADMIN EXPENSES             226,259          296,371         229,000
OVERHEAD EXPENSES                             326,406          334,104         344,969

TOTAL OPERATING EXPENSES          $2,733,246    $2,359,352    $2,583,231

NET INCOME (LOSS)                                ($81,091)     ($177,442)    ($135,503)

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