Board of Auditors
Pittsfield Town Office
April 17, 2017 10:00 AM

MINUTES

Present: Martha Beyersdorf, Erica Hurd, Sue Wuerthele
​​Call to Order: 10:00 AM

Sue Wuerthele was elected as the Chairperson after being nominated by Erica Hurd and seconded by Martha Beyersdorf.

Town Report Discussion:
We agreed to come up with a list of email addresses for those organizations who provide information for the Town Report.  In October or November, we will email all these organizations and notify them that we will only accept Word or Excel documents.

The deadline for information for the 2017 Town Report will be January 15, 2018 at the latest.

A suggested theme for the 2017 Town Report is to continue the “Community” concept.  At this year’s picnic, we will have a box for people to submit answers to the question “What brought you to PIttsfield/why do you live in Pittsfield?”  These will be incorporated into the Town Report.  In an effort to encourage participation by children, we will have a place to color pictures, which will be added to the Town Report.  Lastly, we discussed the possibility of having a drone take aerial pictures of Pittsfield to include in the Town Report.

Budget:
We have already used approximately half of our 2017 budgeted amount for salaries.  We anticipate that the time necessary for the Town Report at the end of this year will be reduced because of changes made for the 2016 Town Report but will monitor the time closely.

Audit Quarterly Municipal Accounts:
January, February and March - We detailed the month of February for the General account and all three months for the School, Highway, Cemetery, and Miscellaneous accounts.  No discrepancies were noted.

Next Meeting:
Monday, July 17 at 10:00 AM Audit of Town Financials (April, May and June)

Adjourn: 11:50 AM
Recorded by Sue Wuerthele ___________________________
Approved by:
___________________________ Date __________________

___________________________ Date __________________

​Board of Auditors
Pittsfield Town Office
December 6, 2016  10:00 AM

MINUTES

Present: Martha Beyersdorf, Erica Hurd, Sue Wuerthele

Call to Order: 10:00 AM

Approved Minutes from 11/22/16 Meeting

Agenda Modifications:
Budget: We reviewed the write up that Sue had done to justify the proposed Auditors’ salary increase and the number of booklets printed last year.  After discussion, we decided to modify the budget Martha had developed for the salaries to reflect the $2500.00 as discussed at our last meeting.  For the Town Report Printing budget line, we will add $250.00 for postage and retain the $1700.00 for the actual printing.  We also agreed that Sue will contact Spaulding Press to initiate a contract for the same printing cost for two years with a guarantee of no more than a 5% increase the third year.

Town Report Work Session:
Photos: Martha will contact Pat Fuster to invite her to the next meeting to assist us in looking for old pictures in the Town Hall.  Erica will contact Deb Picarello to see what old pictures she may have.

Reports: We discussed and finalized the process of copying, renaming and editing reports we receive that will be incorporated into the Town Report.  A step-by-step process document will be created.

Questions: Martha will contact Park House and the VT Association of Conservation Districts - Rural Fire Protection Program to ask for Word documents rather than the pdfs that have been sent.  She will also contact Capstone regarding the timing of their report.  If pdfs come in the future, Martha will contact the organization to request a Word doc.

Next Meetings:
Monday, December 12 at 10:00 am Town Report work session
Monday, December 19 at 7:00 pm Audit of Town Financials
Wednesday, December 21 at 7:00 pm Town Report work session
Monday, January 9 at 7:00 pm Town Report work session
Tuesday, January 17 at 7:00 Audit of Town Financials
Monday, January 23 at 7:00 pm Town Report work session
Monday, January 30 at 7:00 Town Report work session
Adjourn: 12:20 AM

Recorded by Sue Wuerthele
Approved by:
E. J. Hurd, Martha L. Beyersdorf Date: December 19, 2016

​Board of Auditors
Pittsfield Town Office
November 22, 2016  10:00 AM

MINUTES

Present: Martha Beyersdorf, Sue Wuerthele

Call to Order: 10:00 AM

Approved Minutes from 11/14/16 Meeting

Agenda Modifications:
How to set up reports (fonts, justifying, etc.): We tentatively set standards for the report to use Arial 12 point justified for the text and use Arial 14 point bold for headings. The headings will be centered unless a logo is included, in which case they will be left justified.
  
TOC: Sue will start to work on revising the Table of Contents once Martha sends her an electronic copy of last year’s report.

Proposals from Spaulding: Patty has received emails from Dave Smedy at Spaulding Press and Sue called him to understand the pricing quotes.  If we just use a colored cover and all black and white content in the report, it will cost $1209.52 (same as last year’s price).  If we use colored pictures in the content, the price will be $1399.00 for the estimated 28 pages that we told him.  Note that this is not based on the number of colored pictures.  If there is any color on a page, even one line, it is considered colored.  If we have more than 28 colored pages, the cost will increase and it will decrease if we have less than 28 colored pages.  Spaulding has also offered to do a two year contract for the same price and will generate a more formal document if we decide to do that.  This topic will be discussed at a future meeting.

Letters requesting reports: Martha reported that letters have gone to town organizations requesting their annual, financial and property reports.  The due dates are 12/15 for annual and property reports and 1/12/17 for financial reports.

Organizing documents: Martha created two new folders in the Auditors’ Google drive for Minutes and Agendas from the Auditors’ Meetings.  She will work on transferring these documents from her drive to these folders.

Checklist for Town Report Documents: We reviewed the checklist that Sue had created to keep track of entries for the town report and whether they have been received.  Several changes were noted and Sue will make these for the next meeting.
Town Report/Town Meeting Timeline: We reviewed the 2016 Town Report/Town Meeting timeline with Patty and made changes for this year’s Report and Meeting.  Patty will update the document.

School Board Reports: Martha will contact Kris Sperber regarding the reports needed for the School Board entries in the Town Report.

Town Report Working Sessions: We agreed that we will produce a list of the sessions we are holding to work on the Town Report but will not do agendas or minutes for these sessions.

Town Report 2016:
Google issues: We are still working on the best way to move documents from one folder to another and will continue to discuss this at the next meeting.  We did decide to leave the extensions on documents when we move them (.doc, .docx, etc.)

What works/what doesn’t: We are still working on this (see above).

Email issues: None at this time.

Add new material: The VT Department of Health report was added to the drafts folder.

Historical Society photos: Tabled for the next meeting.

Budget 2017: We discussed the budget and looked at the hours reported by Martha and Erica for last year’s Town Report generation.  Based on the fact that there are three auditors working on the Report this year and the increase in wages, we will submit a budget of $2500.00 for wages in 2017.  The figure for printing the Town Report will be discussed at the next meeting.  Sue will write up notes for justification of the salary increase.

Annual Statement (of the Auditors): Sue will revise the Statement of the Auditors to change the font, justify the text and remove the parentheses from around the years after each of our names.

Next Meetings: 
December 6 at 10:00 am
December 12 at 10:00 am (if needed)
December 19 at 7:00 pm
January 16 or 17 (TBD)

Adjourn: 11:40 AM

Recorded by Sue Wuerthele
Approved by Martha L. Beyersdorf, Erica J. Hurd   Date:  December 6, 2016

​Board of Auditors
Pittsfield Town Office
November 14, 2016, 1:00 PM

MINUTES

Present: Martha Beyersdorf, Erica Hurd, Sue Wuerthele

Call to Order - 1:15 PM

Approved Minutes from 10/18/2016 and 10/25/2016 Meetings

Agenda Modifications:The procedures for the quarterly audits of the municipal accounts were reviewed and accepted.  Erica will remove the word “Draft” from the title and add the text for approvals at the end of the document.

Town Report 2016:
Photos: Erica made a list of photos to be taken from the ones we had indicated in the Town’s copy of A Glimpse of the Past  Pittsfield, Vermont at the last meeting.  She will shoot the “now” pictures of these photos by January 15, 2017.  At our next meeting, we will search the Town Hall to see if any of the “before” pictures are available.  Once the photos are done, Erica will move them into the Pictures folder in Google Docs.

Reports received to date: The Town Clerk forwards any reports she receives via email to the Auditors’ email address (pittsfieldauditors@gmail.com).  Once in this mailbox, Erica will copy the documents and put them into the Drafts-1 folder in Google Docs.  We will each move a copy of the document into the Edited-2 folder in Google Docs and change the name to add our first initial to the end of the document name (i.e. M, E, S) so we know who is reviewing and editing the document.  Once a document is ready for review, the auditor who has worked on it will share it (through Google Docs) with the other auditors.  Once it has been approved, the auditor who did the initial editing will copy the final version into the Final-3 folder.  This is where the Town Report document will be assembled.  Note that when editing a document, “Suggesting” should be turned on each time so that the changes are tracked/shown.

Best way to do Emails > Google Docs > Access: We are still determining how to best copy/move documents in Google Docs because of naming issues.  This will be discussed at the next meeting.

Send out requests to organizations: Martha will send out notices to request financial and annual reports.

Schedule Next Meetings:
November 22 at 10:00 am
December 6 at 10:00 am
December 12 at 10:00 am (if needed)
December 19 at 7:00 pm (previously scheduled)

Adjourn - 3:30 PM

Recorded by Sue Wuerthele ___________________________
Approved by:
___________________________ Date __________________

___________________________ Date __________________

​Town of Pittsfield
Board of Auditors
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
10:00am

AGENDA - MINUTES

Present: Martha Beyersdorf, Erica Hurd, Sue Wuerthele

Call to Order - 10 AM

Approve 10/18/16 Minutes - Tabled

Agenda Modifications - Pat Fuster expressed interest in assisting with the town report and has old Swiss Farm Picture and Parmenter. There are other historical pictures at the post office that we will look at as well.

Town Report 2016
   Idea for theme - Front Cover will be Then & Now in Edwardian Script/Arial Unicode MS. Pictures and journal entries, to be later determined, from past and present to be compiled and inserted throughout the town report. We looked through Historical Society book to get ideas for pictures.
   Dedication this year? - No
      Honor 20+ Town Officers Photo (contact Wendy for okay) and narrative - Martha has picture, This information will be placed at the bottom of front page under front cover description.
   Any changes to format, font, etc. - Alphabetize all Official titles listed after Town Treasurer on elected and appointed pages.
      Take a look at other town’s reports - We saw other town’s Auditors reports have additional information/ recommendations and we may add more to report this year. 

Schedule next meeting - Nov 14 at 1 PM

Adjourn - 12 PM

Recorded by Erica Hurd
Approved on November 14, 2016
​by: Sue N. Wuerthele, Martha L. Beyersdorf

Board of Auditors' Meeting
Pittsfield Town Office
October 18, 2016, 3:00 p.m.
MINUTES
Present:  Martha Beyersdorf, Erica Hurd, Sue Wuerthele  
Call to Order - 3:26 pm
Approved Minutes from 7/12/16
Agenda Modifications - Meeting was pushed back from 10 am to 3 pm.
Martha presented mailers from RC Brayshaw & Co and Jet Service Envelope/Accura Printing soliciting town report printing. We may review at a later time and have set them aside for now.  
On 10/14/16, Martha sent a letter to the Selectboard Secretary requesting that the Auditors take over the duty of mailing out the annual request letters for the town report. No response yet.
On Monday, October 17, Erica attended the last Historical Society Meeting of the year and shared info about the Historical theme suggested for this year’s town report. She will be meeting with Dot Williamson to take some pictures of the marked historical sites.

Audit Quarterly Municipal accounts
   July, August, September - We detailed the month of July for all accounts and spot checked August, September. A procedures list was created to streamline the process and guide, will be finalize at next audit. (See draft on page two)  
Schedule meeting for Town Report ‘16 - October 25 at 10 AM
Other Issues, if any
Schedule next Auditor meeting - December 19 at 7 PM - October and Nov
Adjourn - 5:20 PM

Recorded by Erica Hurd 
Approved on November 14, 2016, by:  Sue N. Wuerthele and Martha L. Beyersdorf​

Procedures for Quarterly Audit 
Detail                                                                                                          
(Highway & Cemetery = Work Orders. General Fund = ICS Transfers)  

• Review work orders against check detail reports & check in red.
  
• Deposits - review bank statements against detail deposit report
  
• Review GF transfers to DDA sweep found on ICS monthly statement
  
• Review all accounts for one month each quarter
  
• Current Balance on bank statement + ICS = Cleared balance amount on reconciliation detail on GF 
  
• Stamp top of Mascoma statement, circle auditor, date and sign.

Basic Review

• School, Highway and Cemetery accounts will be detailed each month due to size
  
• Confirm work order reviews for one month each quarter?
  
• Stamp top of Mascoma statement, circle auditor, date and sign.

Minutes of the Board of Auditors' Meeting
Pittsfield Town Office
July 12, 2016

Call to Order - 10:12 am

Present:  Martha Beyersdorf, Erica Hurd, Sue Wuerthele and Patty Haskins.  

Approve Minutes from last meeting - Updated changes and reprinted. Martha read the minutes from 4/19/16. Martha made a motion to accept the minutes, Sue seconded.

Agenda Modifications - Due to time & budget constraints, we tabled working on ideas to incorporate in town report and looking at other town reports for ideas and focused on the audit process. 
We received and tried out the new stamp. 
We were alerted by Patty to a discrepancy on page 27, of this years’ report, receipts and general fund totals were reversed and don’t add up.
As a result, we discussed taking over the responsibility from the Select board secretary of generating and sending letters to town organizations requesting year end bookkeeping, so not to have 3rd party involvement. Martha will contact Tyna Gallagher. This would streamline the process and give us the ability to specify our needs. Included with this letter will be the previous year’s report with any correction requests. We also want to specify that an editable file be emailed or a hard copy along with the check register be submitted. No PDFs or thumb drives will be accepted from here on out. 

Audit Quarterly Municipal accounts
   April, May, June - Martha worked on School and Road Commissioner accounts and Sue and Erica worked on General Fund accts. Sue and Erica were quite detailed in their audit, and needed help from Martha to finish.

Other Issues, if any - During the audit, Sue and Erica were somewhat frustrated with their process. They discovered it is very time consuming if all accounts are detailed. The Board discussed that spot checking is all that should be done and decided in the future to choose one different account each quarter for a one month detailed audit.  

Schedule next meeting -  October 18, 2016

Adjourn - 12:12 p.m.

Recorded by Erica Hurd 
Approved by:
Sue Wuerthele                Date:  October 18, 2016
Martha L. Beyersdorf     Date:  October 18, 2016

​4/19/16     BOARD OF AUDITORS MINUTES
Present:  Martha Beyersdorf, Erica Hurd, Sue Wuerthele and Patty Haskins.  

Meeting Called to order @ 10:03 AM.

Approved Minutes – Erica read the last approved minutes from 2/15/16 to bring Sue up to speed with where we left off after completing the Town Report.

Agenda Modifications – We welcomed Sue Wuerthele as the new Auditor. 

Auditor Duties for Pittsfield – Patty walked us through the process, bank accounts and forms that the School Board, Highway, Cemetery and General Fund use to receive funds and pay bills.  She made us aware that the School Board works within a fiscal year starting July 1, as opposed the town working within a calendar year starting January 1.

Review discuss materials from workshop to see what best serves Pittsfield - On March 29, we all attended an Auditor workshop in Montpelier to educate us on laws, responsibilities and duties of an Auditor. At that time, it became clear that we are responsible to meet more than just one day in January, as done previously. We are responsible to audit accounts on an ongoing basis, present the results in the Town report and create the Town Report. 

We felt it was best to meet for approximately two hours quarterly to audit accounts. We will also gather information pertaining to the theme of the Town Report throughout the year so not to create undo stress at the end of the year, which had been the case in the past. We voted to incorporate the use of a Town Auditors Stamp and continue to use red ink to reflect our work. Martha will create and purchase this item with a company used in the past for such items.

Audit 1st Quarter Financials – Martha audited Cemetery and all General Fund accounts. Sue and Erica audited School and Highway accounts. We will switch accounts next quarter so we are all familiar will all accounts.  

Town Report 2016 follow up
    -continue with ideas to incorporate in report – Time did not permit
    -look at town reports from other towns – Time did not permit

Schedule next meeting – July 12, 2016 at 10 am. 

Other Business- Currently the Auditors budget is $1500. As of 4/18/16, we have exhausted $1444.80. This budget will be reviewed at years’ end.
​
Adjourn – 12:10 PM
Recorded by Erica Hurd
Approved on July 12, 2016 by Sue N. Wuerthele and Martha L. Beyersdorf

2/15/16     BOARD OF AUDITORS MINUTES
Present:  Martha Beyersdorf, Erica Hurd and Patty Haskins. 
Meeting Called to order @ 9:14 AM.
Approved Minutes - No minutes to report.
Agenda Modifications –Worked full day to finalize report on 2/1.
New Business
1. Town Report
a. Review & Over all thoughts – Good Readability. We notice a number of pages out of focus-may have been the result of copying PDFs into the report then changing document to PDF. We will consult Spaulding Press.
b. Ideas for next year - Explore Google Docs to save steps in sharing, creating and converting documents.  -Involve Local Photographers & Artists for cover & pictures,  -Gravestones from Civil War,      -What makes Pittsfield Pittsfield?  -Historical buildings-Brown House, Casa Bella, CV Oil, Wilson/Cook House,Village Green Apartments. Colton Farm (Erica to contact Tammy or Ron Colton), Hawk House, Bonins, Oldest House, House next to Garaffalos.  -Diary Entries -Angeline Morrill born in late 1800s, woman who lived in Haskins house (Erica called Susie Martin to borrow from Historical Society), -Old Barns. Decided to go with Diary entries and Historical Buildings.
c. Label & Stamp town reports – Completed. We each took a pile to hand deliver by 2/20. We saved almost $300 in postage. Postage was $2.08 a piece.
d. Other Concerns- Use less paper. Utilize notebook with hard copies to edit 3x before adding to mockup.
2. Review of financial audits procedure
a. Note to include check books with Financials for review.
b. Other Concerns- Need an Auditor position filled. Martha will call Sue Wuerthele, Anne/Steve Bourgerson and Karen Waterworth.
Next meeting – TBD. Adjourn – 11:45 PM
Recorded by Erica Hurd 
Approved by:
Martha L. Beyersdorf   Date 2/23/16
EJ Hurd  Date 2/23/16
​

​1/25/16     BOARD OF AUDITORS MINUTES
Present:  Martha Beyersdorf, Erica Hurd and Patty Haskins.  
Meeting Called to order @ 10:40 AM.
Approved Minutes of January 19, 2016 meeting with motion by Martha and 2nd by Erica.  Gave to Patty. 
Agenda Modifications –Martha took home Roger Clark Memorial Library financials to audit, found a discrepancy in Dec. events and no CD statement to compare. She left Eunice a message. Erica left a message with Marion as well.
Town Report – proofed reports and determined what was missing or still being worked on before inserting in the mock report for final review.
Next meeting – TBD. We will meet one or two more times to finalize report before going to printers on Fri Jan 29. 
Adjourn – 1:15 PM
Recorded by Erica Hurd 
Approved by:
Martha Beyersdorf   Date: February 1, 2016
EJ Hurd Date: February 1, 2016