Head of Finance- March & April

All praise is to Allah SWT, we thank him, and we seek his help and guidance, with the best of prayers and purest of salutations on his prophet Muhammad SAW, the mercy gifted to all mankind.

Indeed there is none that is praiseworthy except Allah, all that is good is from him, while all that is evil is from within ourselves.

For the first time since taking on the responsibility of Head of Finance in June, I can really see FOSIS reaching its financial aim for the year, and perhaps surpassing it. I can for the first time say without any uncertainty - by the will of Allah almighty, FOSIS will be completely out of debt by Annual Conference 2010.

Furthermore, as an assurance for future FOSIS generations, on recommendation from the Finance Committee, the NEC has decided to set up a reserve account with the target of maintaining a substantial sum of money as a buffer, to ensure the organisation doesn't fall into debt again.

Over the past 2 months, National and regional projects have been taking place; Speakers Tours, the Media conference, Leadership Training, NUS Conference presence, and much more. Alhamdulilah due to the immense effort of the Finance Committee, the National Executive and the whole of Team FOSIS, when looking back at this year so far, I can only smile - in comparison to previous FOSIS years we have not had a reduction in the number of projects or events, however there is a substantial increase in financial planning which is very evident in the outcome of our projects - the vast majority of projects have broken-even and the percentage of projects causing losses has dramatically decreased.

One can only thank Allah SWT for this great blessing, and an important way of thanking him Almighty is maintaining this new culture we have learnt over the past few years - the hard way - to ensure we use the resources we have to the best of our ability, while maintaining resources for future FOSIS generations.

I think every single member of Team FOSIS should give themselves a pat on the back, and remain motivated to achieve the best iA.

As the Finance Committee radically changes from a debt management committee to that of more long-term planning and as it beings initiating projects of its own, I expect interest will increase in joining the undermanned committee *hint*hint*, especially with interesting projects in the pipe-line such one that aims to sponsor and invest in ISoc events to create a long-term source of income for ISoc events and FOSIS events at the same time!

Sounds impossible? Why don't you join to find out more...

As always, please feel free to contact me on head.finance@fosis.org.uk for questions, comments or criticism.

JAK
WS

Obada Sawalha
Head of Finance