ANNEX 2
This report to the members of ISSOL describes the major expenses associated with running the Society, and how membership dues are used to promote Society activities. In July 1999, after the San Diego meeting, the ISSOL checking account had $13,565 and there was $13,959 in the David White Memorial Fund as a Certificate of Deposit at the Bank of America, a total of $27,524. (By stipulation, the White fund is a reserve account, and only the interest from this fund can be used for ordinary Society expenses.) Three years later, in June of 2002 just before the Oaxaca meeting, the White fund has grown to $17,086, and the checking account to $38,296. Of this, $11,600 was a grant from the Astrobiology program to support young investigators travel to the meeting.
The grant and accumulated dues allowed us to provide substantial support for most of the younger investigators who applied, as well as several senior investigators from countries lacking foreign exchange. (We also received a generous private donation of $2500 to help support several senior investigators.) ISSOL policy has been that dues income are to be spent largely on grants to students and younger investigators to support travel to the ISSOL meeting, and we were able to offer 22 travel awards (out of 30 requests) ranging from $300 to $1600 for a total of $23,640. (This number is likely to change if one or more awardees are unable to attend the meeting.) The Society spent $580 on office expenses, $750 maintaining the web site, $564 for postage and mailing of dues notices, and $3,517 for travel expenses related to the Oaxaca site visit in 2001. ISSOL also provided a $1000 grant for the COSPAR meeting in 2001. Because of the additional funding available from the NASA Astrobiology program, ISSOL was also able to provide $10,000 to the local organizing committee to support costs of running the meeting.
