COVID-19 Impact on CAHS Income –
Note from the Treasurer
Over the course of the past three months, we have heard about the sobering hardships that the COVID-19 pandemic is bringing to people’s health, jobs, income, and livelihoods. It appears that COVID-19 is impacting the CAHS as well: the income sent to the CAHS for renewals and donations between March and May 2020 has been less than 50% of what was received by the CAHS in 2019 over the same period of time. This will affect our ability to carry out our operations over the rest of the year, especially the production, printing, and mailing of our quarterly Journal.
As mentioned in the May 2020 newsletter, the CAHS is not-for-profit, so our membership and donation income is very important for our being able to have enough money in the bank to keep up with our monthly and quarterly bills. We need our members who still need to renew for 2018, 2019, and 2020 to do so as soon as possible. Even when people are behind in renewing for a year or more, the CAHS still has had 100% of its operating costs for 2018 and 2019, and even now in 2020. Perpetual costs include maintaining and expanding our website; producing, printing, and mailing out the CAHS Journal; mandatory insurance policies; website domain and maintenance; and fees for the preparation of our annual audit and CRA submissions. This year, we will not have extra income from the convention or our convention merchandise fundraiser. Not having your renewal money means we have been dipping into the cash float we try to keep as a cushion in our bank account.
You can renew online (paying with your credit card or PayPal) at the following link: www.cahs.com/membership. If you would prefer to mail a cheque or credit card number for your renewal or donation, you could can download the PDF version of the membership form here or the donation form here. If you choose to mail your renewal, we ask that you email our treasurer (Rachel Heide) for her home address, which will ensure quicker processing of your renewal.
Donations are also an important part of our funding streams. We would greatly appreciate it if you could consider donating to the CAHS to help us maintain our bills, website, and Journal production. You can donate online at our website (paying with your credit card or PayPal) at the following link: www.cahs.com/donations. You can also donate through Canada Helps which is running a contest where every $1 donated to any Canadian charity on Canada Helps is an automatic chance to win $20,000 for your favourite charity (hopefully, that’s the CAHS!). This contest closes 30 June 2020 at 11:59:59 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time (PDT). Please check out www.canadahelps.org/en/givingchallenge and consider giving to the CAHS.
Cordially Yours,
~Dr Rachel Lea Heide
CAHS National Treasurer