erinA little bit more information in today’s article…
“In court documents, Chad Ohman said accounting software glitches created duplicate expenses and missing data, and all reimbursements were rightfully owed.”
Paul Turnbull 🇨🇦@erin I find it odd the community league does large expenses this way. When I was on a non-profit executive big purchases where done by PO and paid from the organization's bank account signed off by two executives.
I also find it odd that the community league has launched a lawsuit before conducting a forensic audit. I would think you'd want pretty conclusive evidence before making public claims like this.
Aside: the treasurer in the org I was in was a forensic auditor so things were tight.
Alessandro Corazza 🇨🇦@alessandro @erin Clarification: Community Leagues are non-profit organizations rather than charities.
Good to know - I've never heard of "community leagues" until this. In any case, if they saw this shortfall in Xero, wouldn't their first instict be to check their actual bank statements? I switched to Xero myself this year and had similar problems with duplicate entries, so I used my bank statements as the canonical record of transactions. One would assume they spotted a $280k gap between revenues and expenditures there too. Relying only on Xero would be idiotic.
Amelia Bellamy-Royds 
@alessandro @Chigaze @erin If Chad was paying expenses on his personal credit cards, and then reimbursing himself with bank transfers from the league accounts, then the bank statements would indeed look like he was taking money for himself. The missing invoices, that explain the payments, are the big issue.
However, there's still the actual goods & services paid for. Given the amounts involved, I'm assuming a lot was related to major repairs on the league hall, which Chad had talked about previously. So the rest of the league must know that the entire amount wasn't "stolen", as it has been implied based on their court filing.
But without clear documentation, there is always the possibility that numbers were fudged & expenses inflated. All of which can hopefully be cleared up with original receipts & transaction records.
I suspect, based on observations of conflicts in the mstdn.ca team, that the confusion spun out of control & into courts because of other interpersonal issues & communication breakdowns.
Good point about the personal card, that would do it! Although $280k on his personal card seems like a lot. He must have made a killing on travel points.
Stéphanie@AmeliasBrain @alessandro @Chigaze @erin I agree with you Amelia. If what he says is the truth and he did explain it to the board.. either they didn't find him trustworthy enough to believe, or they decided to sue him anyways?
Software glitches are something you can fix out of court with good communications and collaboration
Bowreality 🇨🇦🍁@stephanie @AmeliasBrain @alessandro @Chigaze @erin I have no idea what’s going on but I wouldn’t ever run almost $300k through my credit card at any time(s) for anybody. That is way too much to not be super diligent & have some payment system / bank account in place. It must have been 1000s at a time. That’s not something that you can just swing here and there without properly accounting for it and having documentation. Software glitch or not. It’s wild how these leagues operate.
@Chigaze @erin What’s a community league anyways? Also agree with the concern that he was paying from his own credit card and was reimbursed. They need to have a bank account and order system. It’s not that hard really.
Forensic audit would be smart before blaming him as well. I mean that not just peanuts and going public about it without being sure … ouch.
Forensic audit would be smart before blaming him as well. I mean that not just peanuts and going public about it without being sure … ouch.
@Bowreality @erin I grew up in Edmonton so never realized that Community Leagues are kind of unique to here. They run local community halls as well skating rinks and such.
@Chigaze think most towns have something or the sorts, perhaps just named differently. Ours is called a “community association” similar mandate. @Bowreality
AnnieBuddyThere was a program run by the CRA at one point that taught board members' responsibilities for NFPs. I recommend that people ask to see bylaws and financial statements/procedures before joining any board. Ask questions. Ask about the history and power dynamics/personalities.
This sounds like a fiasco all the way around and I would not accept a role with a not for profit that was this badly managed, specifically because it would leave you open to exactly this.
McRocker 🇨🇦🍁@AnnieBuddy @Bowreality @Chigaze @erin
And, if the Board doesn't have insurance to protect them from being sued ... they are liable. Alberta government offers online & in person non-profit Board training
Search: Alberta Non Profit Learning Centre
@Chigaze the whole thing is a bit odd, isn’t it! However, smaller nonprofits and businesses don’t always do things the way they should.
It would appear the organization is confident in how the money went missing. I wonder what internal investigation was conducted before the formal forensic audit that made them come to this conclusion. Their stance isn’t publicly clear at this point. And why would they need a civil case.. would just a criminal case if the forensic audit comes back with the same conclusion they have made be sufficient in trying to recover the funds?
John Francis 🇨🇦🦫🍁💪⬆️@erin well that's good-ish news.
@johnefrancis certainly news. We knew there would be another side to the story. Everything is still very unclear with just minuscule excerpts of each statement being reported upon.
vga256@erin can you please explain your personal stake in this? your post was included the yeg hashtag. you don't appear to be an edmontonian, and don't seem to have any involvement with the inglewood community.
from the outside, you sure look like someone that's trying to stir up lynch mobs for clicks
@vga256 sorry, didn’t know there was a rule saying you couldn’t use the yeg hashtag if you don’t live in Edmonton. My b. You’re welcome to scroll through my posts for the clarity you’re seeking.
@erin i've already read through your posts. they do not clarify at all why you've made this issue a personal project of yours. you quit moderating for the mstdn.ca server years ago, and migrated to ottawa.place.
so what is this really about?
@vga256 this specific post is about information sharing. I'm not going to talk about one side of the argument without providing information about the other side when it's available. It's important that both sides are heard. Up until now, we've only heard information relating to the statement of claim, not the defence. This particular case interests me because of everything you've read in my posts. It hits close to home and has the potential to affect a community I care deeply about (mstdnca).
@erin you still haven't answered the question. did you have some kind of falling out with mstdn.ca over moderation issues? angry at chad over something that happened?
none of this adds up so far.
@vga256 Sorry you feel that didn't answer your question. Everything I've posted up until this point is pretty clear on where I stand and why.
@erin given your failure to answer a very basic question, i'm satisfied at this point that you've got a vendetta of some kind, with either mstdn.ca or chad, that you're trying to settle publicly via his legal problems.
at this point, any moral authority you have to be a "neutral" or "information gathering" source has completely evaporated.
i hope you know that public behaviour like yours is what characterized the worst of twitter, and why most of us moved to mastodon. public lynchings have no business on this network. why? because it normalizes that behaviour.
we don't allow public lynchings because some day, someone is going to make a personal project out of you or your past, whether you deserve it or not.
@vga256 It's a good thing I'm not in need of validation from random internet strangers, so whatever you have conjured up is yours to keep.
I assume you're also sending a similar message of disgust to everyone else who has posted about this in the past week and a half? Surely I'm not the only one you're getting after.
Take Care!
@vga256 This is the context you're looking for I think. It's from the 22nd so a bit far back.
erin (@[email protected])
Some extended thoughts: I’m truly sad to hear the discourse surrounding #mstdnca and learn of the allegations against its instance owner, Chad. I made my fediverse home with mstdnca in Nov 2022 when there was only 1600 of us. Me and Chad connected and I became the 2nd volunteer moderator. We also became friends. That was a pretty exciting time for the mstdnca community. A Canadian social media alternative was growing! We had prominent figures + politicians joining.. we had an organization sponsoring us. There was lot’s of promise for our growing community. During this time, there were promises made to ensure our community could thrive and to do that we needed governance, boards, oversight. A community building project I was eager to participate in. But it never happened. Why? Most early adopters will note the first immediate reason was because of needing to keep up with the servers exponential growth. The “growing pains” of the instance. Another reason I’ve read is that no one offered to help, and I’m here to say that’s not true, atleast not at the beginning. Myself and the 2 other moderators were highly skilled in different areas, and we had a ton of other highly-skilled people willing to help. I put out a call for volunteers for different groups and committees and we had dozens of people eager to participate. But nothing ever got off the ground. I volunteered a total of 6 months before resigning. There was some discourse within the volunteer team, stemming what felt like a lack of leadership and direction. Despite this, Chad became a good friend of mine—but we haven’t spoken since last year when he didn’t respond to a text I sent expressing something that was bothering me in our friendship. The community stopped feeling like home so I left and came to ottawa.place a few months ago. While my reasons for leaving were ultimately personal, I can’t help to take note that 3.5 years later, the promise of governance, board, and oversight has still not been met and the growing pains haven’t ended. Edit: grammar 1/2
@Chigaze yeah, i already read that post. none of that explains why they're so interested *now*. they have no involvement with that server of any kind.
Human 3500@vga256
Let me wade in here and make things worse. I believe the two of them are well acquainted, although not close friends.
This is potentially exonerating public info that might educate the wider community since many are interested in this situation. I'll assume that why they are still interested now and posted the info.
I know that all I've seen posted was one sided until this post, and I'll admit I'm not following this closely as i know none of the players or the organizations involved.
So i don't have any personal stake in this and here i am posting about it anyway. I think that's the permissible within the intent of this tool.
@Chigaze
NovaNaturalist🇨🇦🇩🇰🇬🇱🇺🇦
Edwin G. 
Jean-François Mezei@erin on why pay for things and get reimbursed instead of having org write cheque: if you need to cater an event and goto Costco ti buy sandwiches etc, even if they accepted cheques, you would need two signatories present at the cash register for the org to issue the cheque. Faster for one to use personal credit card and get reimbursed later. If accounting shows 2 cheques to pay back $237.95 expense, the bank statement would show whether one or two cheques were cashed.
Matthew Guy@Chigaze @jfmezei @erin None of this gives me any confidence in the future viability and financial systems or stability in place for #mstdn.ca
I think for me to return to mstdn.ca and donate it would need to be run as a non-profit organization which publishes accounts. It has the appearance of being the Canadian instance and @cira and other accounts add to that appearance of respectability
RossS
Chris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸@erin running nearly $300K through a credit card? if that's true it's crazy. Whatever the case a lot more info is needed to make this all make sense.