I must confess that it's been a minute since I reviewed the Interpreter Foundation's expenses. (Reading through this thread, I must ask: whatever happened to the Vox Nostrum blog? See
here.)
First, it bears noting that the Foundation has been entirely opaque in its reporting on expenses for
Six Days in August. I share the Relief Society sister in Parowan's grave disappointment about that fact.
Second, I noticed something unusual about the Foundation's expense report for the
fourth quarter of 2023. I need to point out by way of background that each expense report includes a report of volunteer hours donated by the Proprietor’s acolytes to editing, reviewing, and writing. Whether Foundation watchers should view these figures as gospel truths or something akin to Book of Mormon population figures or war fatality numbers has always been unclear. In any case, the quarterly expense reports indicate the total numbers of hours given during the quarter by the Executive Board, Board of Editors, Contributing Editors, Editorial Consultants, and "Others."
Now, the Executive Board members have always been the Proprietor’s workhorses. For example, Executive Board members alone contributed 2,026.5 volunteer hours during the first quarter of 2022.
Members of the Board of Editors have been, shall we say, less faithful in their service to the Foundation. For example, these eight individuals provided 56 total volunteer hours in the first quarter of 2023 (an average of 7 hours per person), 74 total volunteer hours in the second quarter of 2023 (an average of 9.25 hours per person), and 70 total volunteer hours in the third quarter of 2023 (an average of 8.75 hours) per person. Until recently, the Board of Editors' all-time record for volunteer hours during a quarter was 313.
The expense report for the fourth quarter of 2023, however, reports that the Board of Editors gave
2,539 total hours of service. That means that each board member contributed an average of 313.38 hours during the quarter and an average of 105.8 hours per month. In essence, the board members worked a part-time job during the fourth quarter. If we value their time at $50 an hour (as the Foundation does), we find that the Board of Editors contributed a monetary equivalent of $126,950 during the quarter. That's truly commendable.
I would suggest that the Foundation set up a challenge: if the members of the Board of Editors collectively give 3,000 hours or more of service during the third quarter of 2024, they get to dump a plate of Hungarian goulash on the Proprietor’s head during a live-streamed devotional.
Will this estimable record of service continue in 2024? We shall see. This far, the Foundation has been slow to post 2024 figures.
Posted from Devil’s Slide, Utah
