Is the Sinking Ship Coming up for Air??

On Friday I have a very important appointment to see about getting some funding for the Association. This same foundation gave us a grant last year that saved us from having to close with a lot of debt that we found out our new President would be personally responsible for (Thinking about opening a non-profit in Italy? Make sure its status is RICONOSCIUTA and not NON-RICONOSCIUTA to avoid this problem). This helped explain a few things like 1. Why the old president was in such a hurry to get out and 2. Why past presidents kept smiling, pretending nothing was wrong and passing the debt on to the next president. Like I've said in earlier posts, they say our debt goes back about 30 years with creditors changing and getting paid depending on how loud they complained. Payment priority went to the creditor who sent the lawsuit threat letters. What changed the situation was the piece of advice our old accountant gave our last president about the rental situation which had been paid after it was due instead of before it was due since the Association moved to this building. The rent was always very past due. Finally, when the landlord threatened to sue and then did, no action was taken. The old accountant's words, I believe, were "We're in Italy, they can't throw you out!"*

Um. Yes, they can. But we solved that problem.

Anyway, today it turns out that I can finally report some GOOD NEWS. According to my friend Davide, who took over the day to day accounting at the Association last August (Rule number one, ask for help!), we should be debt free by December. Can you BELIEVE THAT? After 30 years of ignoring the debt, our team will have ELIMINATED IT IN A YEAR AND A HALF. Incredible. So that's it. We just have to live until December. Zero will never feel so good!

At least there is an end in sight. In later posts, I will tell you how we are achieving this amazing feat. But for now I am on cloud nine and I must feel the thrill for a moment.


*He is no longer our accountant by the way, he was one of the Baddies we eliminated, actually he eliminated himself-- THANK GOD. He was just recently in the paper for giving more stellar advice to another company in Trieste. I believe the words were "Sure, go buy that expensive machinery! OF COURSE the Region will pay for it!!" so they did, and then the Region told them "Hey, we can't pay for machinery that you already have!" Boom. Bankruptcy!).