portage mcc community assistance centre inc. annual … · thank you board members for your...

Portage MCC Community

Assistance Centre Inc.

2017 Annual Report

The Common Thread

Portage MCC Community Assistance Centre Inc. Annual Report

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Annual Meeting Program 1. Welcome

2. Report on Leadership Training: ............................ Sharon Morrison, FP Manager

3. Board Chairperson’s Report: ......................................................... Carl Klassen, Chair

4. Manager’s Report & Year in Review: .................................. Kevin Hamm, Manager

5. Treasurer’s Report/Presentation of Budget: ........... Corrine Ronald, Treasurer

6. Gift Certificate Draw & Refreshments

Thank you for attending our Annual Meeting and to all who

prepared the refreshments!


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Contents Annual Meeting Program......................................................................................................................... 2

Board Chairperson’s Report ..................................................................................................................... 4

Manager’s Report .................................................................................................................................... 5

Year in Review: Portage MCC Thrift Shop................................................................................................. 6

Year in Review: Portage MCC Furniture Plus .......................................................................................... 12

Furniture Plus Monthly Sales in 2017 (includes The Common Thread) ................................................ 14

Furniture Plus Sales Highlights from 2017 .......................................................................................... 14

Daily Sales (Furniture Plus and The Common Thread) ..................................................................... 14

Weekly Sales (Furniture Plus and The Common Thread) ................................................................. 15

Monthly Sales (Furniture Plus and The Common Thread) ................................................................ 15

The Common Thread: Beautiful Hands .................................................................................................. 15

Combined (all stores) Sales Highlights from 2017................................................................................... 17

Monthly Sales (January – December 2017) ........................................................................................ 17

Daily Sales ......................................................................................................................................... 17

Weekly Sales ..................................................................................................................................... 18

Monthly Sales .................................................................................................................................... 18

Miscellaneous Notes from 2017 ............................................................................................................ 18

Days of the Week by Sales (all stores combined) ................................................................................ 18

Days of the Week by Sales (Furniture Plus) ........................................................................................ 18

Saturdays .......................................................................................................................................... 18

Recipients of “Loans” ............................................................................................................................ 19

Recipients of Donations ......................................................................................................................... 19

Distribution of Aid and Unsaleable Items ............................................................................................... 19

Silent Auction Report............................................................................................................................. 19

New Volunteers & Staff ......................................................................................................................... 20

Fond Farewells ...................................................................................................................................... 20

Staff who completed their employment with us during 2017 ................................................................. 20

Treasurer’s Report ................................................................................................................................. 21

Budget for 2018 .................................................................................................................................... 22


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Board Chairperson’s Report Our Mission Statement states that Portage MCC Thrift Shop exists for the purpose of:

• Generating resources for MCC and the local community

• Providing the community with opportunities to serve in the name of Christ

• To donate items for re-use

• Making affordable goods available to those in need

The decisions that the Board makes need to be in line with our Mission Statement.

“Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), a worldwide ministry of Anabaptist Churches, shares

God’s love and compassion for all, in the name of Christ, by responding to basic human needs

and working for peace and justice. MCC envisions communities worldwide in right relationship

with God, one another, and creation.” (www.mcccanada.ca)

Our store receives generous support from our community. There are a lot of volunteers that

come from our community and a lot of donations arrive at our back door daily.

I want to acknowledge our Board members.

Corrine Ronald: Treasurer (and works with the bookkeeper Rhonda McCutcheon)

Percy Phillips: Secretary (writes the minutes)

Bev Friesen, Marianne Wall, Stan Wiebe and Jakob Lautenschlaeger: Members at Large. We

were sad to see Jakob resign. Thank you Board members for your dedication and all the work

that you do.

Furniture Plus continues to do well and is providing a unique service in our community. The

same can be said for The Common Thread. We are pleased to be able to provide our commu-

nity with such a large variety of services.

Our Manager, Kevin, attends the board meetings and reports to the board each month. I want

to thank Kevin, on behalf of the Board, for being in charge of our store(s). I commend him for

the great job he is doing. He deals with staff and volunteers, and keeps the place humming.

This past year, Portage MCC has made several local donations. We held four full-day fundraisers

for the following charities, Big Brothers Big Sisters, First Presbyterian Church Soup Kitchen,

Youth for Christ/Portage, and Valley View Bible Camp each receiving $3,500. In addition, we

hosted two Community Charity Days with each of the following four charities receiving $1,000:


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Central Plains Cancer Care, Portage & Area Refugee Coalition, Prairie Pregnancy Support Cen-

tre, and Sunset Palliative Care.

We are grateful for all our volunteers. They are very significant to our facility and we would

gladly welcome more volunteers to our family! The purpose of our store is to raise funds that

MCC Manitoba and MCC Canada can use in worldwide ministry by responding to basic human

needs in the name of Christ.

God bless our volunteers and staff.

Submitted on behalf of the MCC Board: Carl Klassen, Board Chair

Manager’s Report As we prepare to celebrate 35 years, I am reminded of the song “Find Us Faithful”:

We're pilgrims on the journey

of the narrow road,

and those who've gone before us

line the way.

Cheering on the faithful,

encouraging the weary,

their lives a stirring testament

to God's sustaining grace.

Surrounded by so great

a cloud of witnesses,

let us run the race

not only for the prize,

but as those who've gone before us.

Let us leave to those behind us,

the heritage of faithfulness

passed on thru godly lives.

O may all who come behind us

find us faithful,

May the fire of our devotion

light their way.

May the footprints that we leave,

lead them to believe,

and the lives we live

inspire them to obey.

O may all who come behind us

find us faithful.

After all our hopes and dreams

have come and gone,

and our children sift thru all

we've left behind,

may the clues that they discover,

and the mem'ries they uncover,

become the light that leads them,

to the road we each must find.

God has bless us with hundreds of faithful volunteers who left behind footprints that speak to

God’s leading and faithfulness. May we continue to faithfully serve following their example!

Submitted by Kevin R. Hamm, General Manager


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Year in Review: Portage MCC Thrift Shop January: We welcomed Jordan Thiessen to our staff as

our first-ever Receiver/Technician Karis Wiebe took over responsibility for the Footwear Department, since former volunteers Pete & Martha Kehler were no longer able to continue in their long-serving role (Thanks, Pete & Mar-tha!) Major roof leakage was revealed above the Toy De-partment, requiring us to place buckets to catch the “rain” Despite a cold start and some harsh weather following, sales were up from previous Januarys. Thrift sales were up over 4% from the previous year.

Left: Look out below! A warm snap sent a “roof-berg” slid-ing down our shed (no one was buried in the avalanche)

Right: A valuable read! Volunteer Martha Harder

opened this book to discover

$70 in old bills!

February: Mild weather forced us to deal with the “spring thaw” a month or two early. The melting snow formed two huge pools directly south of the Thrift Shop. The City was called for help, but aid was slow (and incomplete) in com-ing. In order to provide safe (or for that matter, any) pas-sage for store personnel, donors and customers, calls were made to Portage Septic, who serviced our needs. This was our best February ever, with sales over $70,000, best-ing our previous record by almost $8,000. Thrift sales were up almost 4% from the previous year.


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March: Harsh weather caused a significant drop in sales during our first week. Combined sales on March 7th were a very modest $2,382.38, with the following day even lower at $1,914.28. • For International Women’s Day, 50% off coupons were handed out • Following the lead of Furni-ture Plus, Thrift Shop personnel began signing in/out when entering/leaving the building • Despite the weather, this was our best March ever, with total sales of over $80,000, besting our previous record for a March by just over $1,000. Thrift sales were down about 0.3% from the previ-ous year (Furniture Plus saw most of the sales growth).

April: Water continued to seep through the ceiling this month, even when it wasn’t raining! (It seemed that water would build up and eventually work its way through weak-nesses in the roof.) We managed to get through without major inconvenience, but customers did have to navigate buckets at times, and we have ended up with some signifi-cant water stains on the ceiling. This was the month we finally put a stop to the practice of placing books on the floor in the back Book/Toy aisle—it had become too much of a safety hazard to be allowed to continue On the 17th we held a Potluck Lunch for volunteers and staff Brent Froese and the PCI Carpentry class began the process of designing and constructing new Fitting Rooms Shortly af-ter it was announced that the Reitman's clothing store would be closing down in Portage la Prairie, we were of-fered (at no cost) their clothing fixtures, hangers & manne-quins, the only stipulation being that we do the pick-up. We managed to do so with the help of volunteers and Board members, and have since significantly upgraded our Clothing Department (with more changes to come)! This was a great blessing, and will provide us with some major cost savings down the road (we won’t be purchasing hang-ers and fixtures for some time)! E.F. Moon performed a proper levelling of our parking lot. It took several loads of new gravel, but the lot finally seems to be able to handle water drainage properly again. This was our best April ever: total sales were $82,321.79, with combined average sales of $4,116.09/day, an 11.7% increase from 2016. Thrift sales were down 5.3% from the previous year (Furni-ture Plus saw a huge increase at the same time).


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Left: Volunteer Norman Caddoo built new shelves out of palettes in the shed.

Right: Yum!

“What’s The Scoop” provided several bags

of free samples of ice cream sandwiches!

May: The roof finally was resurfaced by Urecoat in early May, bringing to a welcome end of “indoor rain” On the 11th, volunteer Ryan Martens set up a sales table of our Fair Trade products at PCI Alicia Bueckert was hired as Summer Cashier/Receiver after volunteering with us for several weeks Construction on the new Fitting Rooms moved along, with pieces of the former “Convention Cor-ner” used as a temporary barricade Two fundraising days were held in May: Valley View Bible Camp’s inaugural event on May 2nd was a good success, with sales of $7,723.87. Youth For Christ/Portage’s sixth fundraising day on the 30th was their biggest ever (and our 2nd-biggest ever sales day of any kind) at $8,089.22. YFC hosted a barbeque behind the Thrift Shop, raising additional funds for their ministry This was our best May ever in terms of sales, once again fueled by Furniture Plus transactions. To-tal sales for the two stores were $90,827.07, with total av-erage sales of $4,128.50/day, an 18% increase from 2016. Thrift sales were up 11.7% from the previous year.

Left: VVBC Director Michael Bergen accepts a cheque from Portage MCC.

Right: YFC staff member

Jon Giesbrecht cooks up hot dogs

for the “backyard” BBQ!


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June: Painting of the new Fitting Rooms and adjacent walls was done by volunteer Don St. Goddard DC Security came and replaced the hinge on our front door (it was so worn out that it was hardly closing) On the 27th we held our third First Presbyterian Church Soup Kitchen Day, with sales of $6,217.63 (their highest total); leading up to the event, at both stores we helped collect food for the Soup Kitchen. June saw our highest-ever sales for the month, a 4.8% increase from 2016. Thrift sales were up slightly (0.7%) from the previous year.

Left: Soup Kitchen donations donated by customers, staff and volunteers.

Right: Margaret Dunn

of First Presbyterian Church Soup Kitchen

accepts our donation

July: Our Volunteer Appreciation Supper was held at Her-man Prior on the 10th. Darryl Loewen, new MCC MB Execu-tive Director was our guest speaker, with 120 volunteers, board, staff, and families present Portage & District Arts Centre donated several display units, which we picked up with the help of Foxx Realty’s moving truck On the 25th we held a “Christmas in July” sale The new MCC Thrift logo began being used in our store In July we opened our new Fitting Rooms, to the delight of our customers While Thrift sales were down 7.4% from 2016 and overall July sales were down 3.2%, daily sales were up 1.6%.


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August: On the 1st we held our sixth fundraising day for Big Brothers Big Sisters with sales of $7,286.54 (their 2nd high-est total) In August the dishwasher gave up the ghost af-ter nearly 10 years’ service. Cobbe’s removed the old one and installed a new model purchased from Dino’s. A fire drill was held on the 21st, with volunteers quickly and care-fully vacating the store in less than 3 minutes On the 29th we held our first of two Community Charity Days for Cen-tral Plains Cancer Services and Sunset Palliative Care; sales were a record-breaking $8,050.18 August sales were up 10.1% from 2016, with Thrift sales up 6%.

Left: A fish named “Frank” was donated and then quickly bought by former staff member Lettie Lee.

Right: Central Plains Cancer Services and

Sunset Palliative Care receive their cheques

September: The old Fitting Rooms were finally dismantled this month, thanks to the help of volunteers Steven Byers, Jake Hamm, and Jurian Neudorf Counterfeit! A fake $50 bill was mistakenly accepted and subsequently passed on to the RCMP We had Shaw install a second telephone line, allowing us to have a second call answered (on the same number) when the first line is busy Our final fund-raising day was held on the 26th: Our second “Community Charity Day” was with Portage & Area Refugee Coalition and Prairie Pregnancy Support Centre, each having their first fundraiser with us. Sales were a somewhat modest

$6,748.74 (having it a day before many government cheques were issued likely had an impact). September sales were down 3.3% from 2016. Thrift sales were down 4.6%

Left: Jurian & Steven tearing ‘em down!

Right: Portage & Area Refugee Coalition chair Auna Brown

receives their cheque


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October: Volunteers & staff gathered on the 2nd for a Soup & Pie potluck meal, which was well attended Dan Cum-ming was hired as a Receiver through a wage subsidy pro-gram The old, leaking, and noisy air compressor in the workshop was replaced with a new, much quieter model Three Christmas setup days were held: on the 21st (Furni-ture Plus only), the 28th and 30th October sales were up 2.2% from 2016; Thrift sales were up 1.2%. October daily sales were our second-highest ever at $4,638.70. Three times in October Tuesday sales were over $6,600.

November: On the 8th, former volunteer and past Board member Brenda Krahn was hired as a part-time Adminis-trative Assistant A new “Pop Culture” cabinet was added to tap into the “comic con” market Our first-ever Ladies Shopping Night was held on the 27th from 7-9 PM, in sup-port of Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Portage Family Abuse Prevention Centre set up a display and re-ceived $505 for the tickets sold. MCC MB’s Abuse Re-sponse and Prevention Program received $2,449.26 for the evening’s sales November sales were down 1.5% from 2016 (it should be noted that last November sales had jumped 18.5%). Thrift sales were down 0.2%.

December: On the 11th, our annual Volunteer Christmas Party was held. Approximately 65 volunteers joined us for the meal. Volunteers received candy canes with $10 gift certificates attached as a gesture of appreciation. De-cember sales were up 12.5% from 2016. Compared to last December, Thrift sales were up 9.3%. The week of Nov. 28 - Dec. 2 (which included Ladies Shopping Night) had our best-ever sales for a week at $28,187.57. During the Christmas break, Jason Farand of Klean King stripped and waxed the front floors. In the meantime, our cleaners James & Bobbi Peters waxed all of the available floors in the back of the store.


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Year in Review: Portage MCC Furniture Plus January/February: The new year saw new shelving in the storage room, painting by volunteer Norman Caddoo, and upgraded lighting in the “bunker” by volunteer Ed Enns Pet Supplies were moved over from the Thrift Shop Volunteers and staff at Furniture Plus were the first to begin signing in/out as we began to keep track of personnel in the building for safety purposes On February 27th we held our Annual Meeting at Furniture Plus Furniture Plus sales were up over

$2,000 for a 15% increase over January; February was our best ever, carried mainly by surging sales at Furniture Plus. Sales were up substantially to $15,307.50, an amazing 54% increase.

Left: A warm snap resulted in some water leaking from the roof near the customer en-trance.

Right: Volunteers Alverna & Ruth continued to attract

admirers of their handiwork while working near the front entrance.

March/April: Norman Caddoo repaired tiles in March, and also levelled our ramp in the back On March 15th Alison, Carla & Sharon went on a Learning Tour to Kildonan MCC and the MCC Furniture stores in Winnipeg Despite the weather, this was our best March ever, again helped by increased sales at Furniture Plus. Sales were up just over 6% from 2016. Average daily sales at Furniture Plus in April were $968/day; sales were up 31.5%.


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May/June: Some of the donated shelving from Reitman’s was put up at Furniture Plus, giving a new home for small furni-ture items along the east wall. May saw outstanding sales growth at Furniture Plus. Average sales were over $1000/day for only the third time in its history. Furni-ture Plus sales were up a whopping 44% from May 2016!

July/August: In August we celebrated our third complete year in operation: in the first 36 months, sales were just shy of $600,000! By the end of August, Furniture Plus sales were up 24% over the past 12 months

September/October: In September the front furnace was re-placed with a new one by Cobbe’s Furniture Plus sales in September were up 3% from 2016 After serving as Cashier since December 2016, Alison Flint moved on to another job in October. Former volunteer Reighan Chiponski was hired to replace her as full-time Cashier The vacant Furniture Plus Manager position was filled by Sharon Morrison, who had been the acting manager since Carla Hemingway’s departure in June A special Christmas tree setup took place on Oct. 21st, followed by additional setup on the 28th and 30th Tye Cameron-Daniels was hired as a Receiver through a wage subsidy program on October 31st Furniture Plus sales in Oc-tober were up 4.3% over 2016. Furniture Plus sales averaged over $1,100 per day (only the second time sales exceeded $1000/day).

November/December: During the Christmas break our cleaners (Robert & Blondina Hofer) were able to put three coats of wax down on the majority of the tiled floor (which our staff were able to mostly clear on our last day open) Compared to last November, Furniture Plus sales were down 3.5%; compared to last December, Furniture Plus sales were up 27.4%


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Furniture Plus Monthly Sales in 2017 (includes The Common Thread)

Month Sales Change from previous

year Average Daily Sales Days Open

January $16,470.07 +15% $784.29 21

February $15,307.50 +54% $765.38 20

March $16,747.41 +6% $728.15 23

April $19,377.27 +32% $968.86 20

May $22,320.56 +44% $1,014.57 22

June $18,955.78 +21% $861.63 22

July $17,867.41 +15% $893.37 20

August $22,622.97 +28% $983.61 23

September $20,881.13 +3% $949.14 22

October $23,255.19 +4% $1,107.39 21

November $25,525.68 -4% $1,215.51 21

December $17,848.31 +27% $1,049.90 17

2017 Totals:

$237,179.28 +17.3% $941.19 252

Furniture Plus Sales Highlights from 2017

Daily Sales (Furniture Plus and The Common Thread)

Tuesdays: 3 of the top 7 Tuesdays were in 2017 (averaging over $1,600)

Wednesdays: 2 of the top 7 Wednesdays were in 2017 (averaging over $1,600)

Thursdays: 1 of the top 7 Thursdays were in 2017 (averaging over $1,400)

Fridays: 1 of the top 7 Fridays were in 2017 (averaging over $1,600)

Saturdays: 3 of the top 7 Saturdays were in 2017 (averaging over $1,500)

Daily Averages: 5 of the top 10 were in 2017 (averaging $1,000+ per day for the month)


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Weekly Sales (Furniture Plus and The Common Thread)

In total 5 of the top 10 weeks were in 2017:

Rank #2: $6,768.10 Nov. 28 - Dec. 2, 2017 (included no special events at FP)

Rank #3: $6,710.76 November 14-18, 2017 (included no special events)

Rank #7: $5,973.83 May 9-13, 2017 (included no special events)

Rank #8: $5,956.55 October 17-21, 2017 (included no special events)

Rank #10: $5,796.66 October 3-7, 2017 (included no special events)

Monthly Sales (Furniture Plus and The Common Thread)

In total 6 of the top 10 months were in 2017:

Rank #2: $25,525.68 November 2017

Rank #3: $23,255.19 October 2017

Rank #4: $22,622.97 August 2017

Rank #5: $22,320.56 May 2017

Rank #7: $20,881.13 September 2017

Rank #9: $19,377.27 April 2017

The Common Thread: Beautiful Hands The volunteers who make up The Common Thread continue to be quiet heroes. Dozens of hours

each week are poured into crafting beautiful quilts, over 150 of which found their way to war-

torn refugees and others on the other side of the world. Many more were sold to raise money

for MCC’s work abroad and close to home. Following are just some of their beautiful hands:


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In addition to the work up front, behind the scenes volunteers are sorting and pricing notions

and fabric and testing sewing machines. Several other volunteers worked in their homes.

In February new shelving was installed on top of Common Thread fabric racks. In March we re-

ceived $54 from Lion’s Prairie Manor for hand-made catheter covers the ladies created.


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Combined (all stores) Sales Highlights from 2017

Monthly Sales (January – December 2017)

Month Sales Change from previous year Average Daily Sales Days Open

January $77,118.66 +7.5% $3,672.32 21

February $70,705.57 +10.5% $3,535.28 20

March $79,659.08 +10% $3,463.44 23

April $82,321.79 +1.5% $4,116.09 20

May $90,827.07 +18% $4,285.50 22

June $83,854.49 +5% $3,811.57 22

July $75,913.11 -3% $3,795.66 20

August $97,570.09 +10% $4,242.18 23

September $91,567.02 -4% $4,162.14 22

October $97,017.96 +2% $4,619.90 21

November $101,146.07 -1.5% $4,816.48 21

December $72,235.67 +12.5% $4,249.16 17

2017 Totals:

$1,019,936 +4.4% $4,047.37 252

Daily Sales

Tuesdays: 6 of the top 10 Tuesdays were in 2017 (averaging over $6,600)

Wednesdays: 4 of the top 10 Wednesdays were in 2017 (averaging over $5,300)

Thursdays: 4 of the top 10 Thursdays were in 2017 (averaging over $5,200)

Fridays: 3 of the top 10 Fridays were in 2017 (averaging over $5,800)

Saturdays: 7 of the top 10 Saturdays were in 2017 (averaging over $4,500)

Daily Averages: 4 of the top 10 were in 2017 (over $4,200 per day for the month)


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Weekly Sales

In total 3 of the top 10 weeks were in 2017 (24 of the top 50 weeks ever were in 2017!):

Rank #1: $28,187.57 Nov. 28 - Dec. 2, 2017 (included Ladies Shopping Night)

Rank #3: $26,232.38 Aug. 29-Sep. 2, 2017 (included Community Charity Day)

Rank #10: $24,454.50 November 14-18, 2017 (included no special events)

Monthly Sales

In total 5 of the top 10 months were in 2017:

Rank #2: $101,146.07 November 2017

Rank #3: $097,570.09 August 2017

Rank #4: $097,017.96 October 2017

Rank #9: $091,567.02 September 2017

Rank #10: $090,827.07 May 2017

Miscellaneous Notes from 2017

Days of the Week by Sales (all stores combined)

Tuesdays have always been the busiest sales day for us, but do you know how the other days

rank? In order of top ten averages, here are the highest-overall performing days of the week:

1. Tuesday $6,566.55 2. Friday $5,980.32 3. Thursday $5,413.63 4. Wednesday $5,361.18 5. Saturday $4,407.60

Days of the Week by Sales (Furniture Plus)

Things are a bit different at Furniture Plus, with Fridays topping the list and Thursdays in last:

1. Friday $1,743.38 2. Tuesday $1,619.40 3. Wednesday $1,509.12 4. Saturday $1,477.87 5. Thursday $1,469.11

Saturdays

It wasn’t until 2014 that we first had a Saturday sales day that exceeded $4,000. We surpassed

that mark twice the following year, but only one more time in 2016. This past year, we had


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sales of over $4,000 ten times! We have seen a noticeable increase in out-of-town customers

on Saturdays, and an overall high level of “busy-ness”!

Recipients of “Loans” Following is a list of organizations that

received loans of materials from us:

• Dakota Ojibway Police Service

(two mannequins)

• Portage la Prairie Regional

Library (antique tractors)

Recipients of Donations Following is a list of charities and other

organizations who received material dona-

tions from us:

• Children’s Wish Foundation of Por-

tage la Prairie (Fair Trade gift basket)

• Festival of Trees (Christmas tree)

• Manitoba Métis Federation Portage

Local (Fair Trade gift basket)

Distribution of Aid and Unsaleable Items Following is a list of items that were redistributed to MCC and other approved mission organi-

zations. Names with asterisks are agencies which requested aid in response to an assessed

personal need.

Canadian Mental Health Assoc.*

o $571.00 (9 people assisted)

Canadian Red Cross*

(Long Plain FN tornado victims)

o $263.46 (4 families assisted)

Family First vouchers*

o $254.95 (18 mothers assisted)

MCC Manitoba

o 16 boxes of eyeglasses

o 159 refugee blankets

o 140 school kit bags

o 1 box of school kit supplies

Portage Family Abuse Prevention Centre*

o $326.40 (5 mothers assisted)

Portage la Prairie Regional Library

o 185 boxes of books

Salvation Army*

o $1,456.20 (20 families assisted)

Ukraine/Zambia:

o 32 bags

Union Gospel Mission

o Approximately 6,000 bags

Total monetary value of direct aid* given in response to specific requests

during fiscal year 2017: $3,072.01

Silent Auction Report Sales: $18,383.03; Total Items/Collections Sold: 346; Average Price Per Item/Collection: $53.13


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New Volunteers & Staff Following is a list of volunteers & staff who began serving or resumed serving after an extended

absence at Portage MCC Thrift Shop/Furniture Plus/The Common Thread during the past year

(our apologies for any errors or omissions):

Nickolas Adams, Kasem & Iftikar Al Hallaq, Ethan Allec, Pam Anderson, Greg Arndt,

Hasan & Sheren Bakr, Lalaine Baun, Donna Boitson, Melvina Bone, Alicia Bueckert,

Tye Cameron-Daniels, Reighan Chiponski, Danny Cook, Bethany Coull, Dan Cumming,

Tristan Dezing, Robin Dillabough, Jonathan Fraser, Natasha Gerbrandt, Megan Gross,

Robert Harmon, David Kanne, Brenda Krahn, Gail Lee, Madeline Lee, Candace Lepine,

Dean Little, Janice Lynds, Chad Mack, Andrea Mann, Eric McCutcheon,

Margaret Nelissen, Donna Nielsen, Isaac Neustater, Raina Nickels, Kjell Ohlsson,

Meredith Plett, Orie Plett, Sandy Plett, Don St. Goddard, Marcus Slimon,

Gerald Spence, Taylor Stothers, Jordan Thiessen, Isaiah Woods-Piche.

Fond Farewells We said farewell to several volunteers in 2017 as their time on earth came to a conclusion

(our apologies for any errors or omissions).

Nina Pavlovskaya

(June 12, 2017) Lois Heath

(Nov. 24, 2017) Evelyn Campbell

(Dec. 11, 2017)

Staff who completed their employment with us during 2017 Tye Cameron-Daniels

Alison Flint

Carla Hemingway

Keesha Otsuji


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Treasurer’s Report 1. Portage MCC has once again been blessed with another successful year as we seek to serve

and generate money in support of local and worldwide projects being sponsored by the

Mennonite Central Committee. This past year ending Dec. 31st the total revenue from our

stores was $1,022,766. This is an increase of $41,703 or 4.3% increase over last year. (2016

showed an increase in revenue of 8.5%) It is interesting to note how the overall increase this

year was split between the Thrift Store which saw an increase of 1.3% while Furniture Plus

saw an increase of 17%.

2. Looking back over the year our expenditures for 2017 were $586,298 or 57.3% of our total

revenue. This is an increase in expenses of 4.7% as compared to the last three years where

we saw double digit increases.

3. In May we saw the completion of the new roof on the Thrift Shop and the balance owing of

$52,164 was paid. This was a capital project and none of the total is included in our annual

expenses mentioned above. Total cost of the roof was $78,246.

4. Another improvement to the Thrift Shop was the construction and completion of four new

change rooms at the approximate cost of $6,500. In following this project it was hard to de-

termine the exact cost due to our current system of designation of expenses.

5. We reported last year that we had changed our accounts from Scotiabank to Stride Credit

Union. As a result I am happy to report that our bank charges for the year decreased by

$1,000.

6. Presently, we are still renting the Furniture Plus building at a cost of $3,500 per month.

Plans are to eventually purchase this building and we have received an appraisal from the

owners. Before we proceed any further with negotiations the board recommended that we

set aside funds for a down payment. As of December 31st we have set aside $109,734 for

this purpose. We will continue to do this until a sufficient amount has been reached. At that

time additional financing arrangements will also be necessary to complete this purchase.

7. Our total donations for 2017 were $347,607 or 34% of our total income. This averages out

to $29,000 per month with the majority going to MCC Manitoba. This is considerably lower

than last year due to the fact that each month we are setting aside funds for the purchase

of the Furniture Plus building as noted above. The total donations plus the money set aside

for the building purchase would bring the above totals to $447,607 or 43.7% of our total

revenue for the year.

8. Regarding our “total wages and benefits” account, the trend of the past five years contin-

ues. In 2017 we saw this account increase by 13% for a total of $401,900. Within this ac-

count there is an increase in our payroll expenses from $32,000 to $52,000 in order to cover

additional benefits for the staff. Altogether wages and benefits over the past five years have

increased by 41.7%.


2017

22

Looking ahead to 2018, the budget that the Board has passed follows. It is a budget that includes

modest increases in sales and expenditures and capital purchases. By working closely together I be-

lieve it is a budget that is attainable.

Submitted by Corinne Ronald, Treasurer

Budget for 2018

2017 Budget Actual 2018 Budget

INCOME:

Donations Income A $1,500 $908.49 $1,500

Donations Income B $3,500 $310.00 $1,500

Total Donations Income

Interest Income $450 $146.17 $450

Waste Bin Income $1,640 $1,640.88 $1,738

Uncategorized Income

Sales:

Thrift Shop $794,360 $782,753.48 $795,000

Furniture Plus $201,300 $237,007.76 $252,700

Total Income $1,002,750 $1,022,766.78 $1,052,888

EXPENSES:

FURNITURE PLUS Advertising $511.58 Now under Thrift Shop

Contract Labor $9,000 $9,000.00 $9,540

Electricity $1,400 $1,709.40 $1,820

Gas $1,100 $1,134.86 $1,200 Maintenance #2 $1,400 $1,494.33 All Maintenance under TS

Rent $42,200 $42,168.36 $42,200

Telephone #2 $1,700 $2,101.53 $2,225

Supplies $2,000 $1,541.85 $2,000

Total Expenses FP $58,800 $59,661.91

THRIFT SHOP

Advertising $1,750 $1,250

Board/Staff Relations $4,500 $4,806.92 $4,500

Bookkeeping Accounting $5,800 $4,804.42 $5,800


2017

23

Bank Charges: $- $-

Chase Paymentech $- $-

Bank Service Charges $- $-

Bank Charges - Other $- $-

Total Bank Charges $5,500 $4,647.76 $5,000

Contract Labour $18,000 $18,000.00 $19,080.00

Gas $3,200 $2,276.06 $2,400.00

Hydro $8,000 $7,679.31 $8,140.00

Insurance $8,000 $5,756.57 $8,000.00

Maintenance $17,000 $21,534.04 $21,673.00 Membership $450 $- Now under Office Expenses

Office Exp. & Store Supplies $22,000 $12,935.72 $17,000.00

Property Taxes $14,200 $12,610.10 $13,500.00

Fair Trade* $13,000 $17,109.98 $15,000.00

Telephone $2,500 $2,320.57 $2,500.00

Travel/Training $4,000 $621.61 $4,000.00

Wages/Benefits $348,560 $401,901.84 $375,560.00

Workers Compensation $900 $760.00 $900.00

Waste Collection & Disposal $9,250 $8,871.31 $9,600.00

Reconciliation discrepancies $-

Total Expenses Thrift Shop $486,610 $526,636.21 $-

$-

Total Expenses $545,410 $586,298.12 $572,888.00

Donations:

Cash Donations $1,152.49

Store Donations $324,500.00

Donations - Other $21,955.00

Total Donations $457,340 $347,607.49 $480,000.00

Transferred to savings acct $100,000.00

$1,002,750 $1,052,888.00

*In 2017 approximately 78% of Fair Trade expenditures were reclaimed as income

portage mcc community assistance centre inc. annual … · thank you board members for your...

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