Grain orchestra « Number 5 Now! Office management from an accounting point of view – management by Cybozu Live – #2289oke

Grain orchestra « Number 5 Now! » Thank you for your hard work!

The other day, on the 15th, we were able to finish the second concert of the Grain Orchestra. This time, the members upgraded more than the last time, and we had a very impressive time with their passionate performance.

Thank you again to everyone who came to the event in person and to those who watched the Ustream broadcast. Thank you very much.

I am very grateful to all of you who played with us and shared a wonderful and memorable occasion with us. We are very proud to have played music with you.

Office management system using Cybozu Live

さて、私こと @yuukoma は今回も演奏者兼事務局員として粒オケNEXTに参加させていただきました。

I was in charge of the 1st violin this time in the performance aspect, and in the administrative aspect, I was in charge of the treasurer as before. I was also in charge of the 1st violin.

Since I helped the event as a member of the secretariat, I will leave it to the blogs and Facebook of many people to write about the reaction and impressions on the day of the event, but I will try to write about it from a slightly different direction here.

今回、運営を進めていくにあたって最大限活用したのはこちらの「サイボウズLive」です。

It is the first time for me to use this service here in Grain Oke, though I think I used it in Grain Oke. But this is the first time for us to use this service. I think that this service was started in October last year.

Of course, we communicate with each other by e-mail, but thanks to this groupware, which hadn’t been released yet at the time of the last launch, I think we were able to manage the project very efficiently.

Lively discussions using groupware

The main administrative contact and discussion was centered on the thread=board.

In the end, I think nearly 70 threads were started. Of course, we had meetings to discuss in person, but we were able to resolve issues that could not be covered by these meetings.

Ensuring a systematic communication system

For those of you who participated, the following statement may ring a bell.

Yes, that’s right, the content of the email sent before each practice to inform the office about the practice.

This is prepared in advance by the Executive Director, and then each section manager informs the part-time employees accordingly.

I think we were able to secure an efficient line of communication without any leaks because of the threaded format. I think this kind of leadership is one of the reasons for the success of grain orchestra.

Digitization of accounting operations

It’s a little over the top to call it electronic, but this time we wanted to make the various accounting operations as paperless as possible.

First of all, I applied for the advance payment, which is also done within Cybozu Live.

Specifically, create a dedicated thread and follow the standard format to post in the thread. Be sure to attach photos or pdfs of receipts, etc. at this time.

Based on this, I created an application for the advance payment on my PC using a Mac word processing program called Pages. I made a pdf file of it and saved it in a folder in Dropbox.

Then, have it Synced with GoodReader on the iPad. Then, when the cash settlement is made to the applicant, the GoodReader’s annotation function is used to have the applicant sign on the touch panel.

We have promoted the paperless system as much as possible by using this system.

However, since we are actually receiving paper receipts, all of these will be kept in the hands of the treasurer. Other than that, we have decided to use as little paper as possible.

Transfer of concert fees and identification devices

There were 132 participants in this year’s concert who were able to attend the main concert, and a total of nearly 140 people including those who attended only for practice.

Like last time, we will ask for 3,000 yen for the entry fee at the beginning, and then we will ask for the concert fee as soon as the budget is fixed, but it is no longer possible to get cash directly from more than 130 people before the practice.

So, we chose to collect the concert fee by account transfer.

For this, the secretariat created an e-mail message, posted it on Cybozu, and sent it to each part-timer through the caretaker.

Minimum personal information required

However, one of the bottlenecks of this orchestra is that it is a « gathering on twitter ». It is assumed that you only know each other’s ID. It can be said that it is enough to get together and practice, but when it comes to payment, it is not so easy.

Among other things, it makes things more difficult.

1. 原則twitter IDでの管理となるが、140名近くに上るtwitter IDを会計一人では把握しきれない。
2. 会計である私一個人に参加者全員が個人情報をお伝えするには無理がある。
3. 匿名を希望する方に個人情報の開示を強制するわけにもいかない。

point. How can we solve this?

Therefore, we went back to the very beginning and devised the entry conditions. The policy decided at the secretariat sponsor meeting held several times before the call for entries was as follows.

（2289next第三回打ち合わせ　議事録より：http://www.tnk-one.com/2289/next/gijiroku/gijiroku0406copy.html）

I was particularly particular about…

• 「必ずメールを世話役に連絡する」
• 「1個人が全オケのメールアドレスを所有しない」

This is the point.

By doing this, the secretariat was able to minimize the amount of personal information (i.e., individual e-mail addresses) and create a system where all participants can be contacted by e-mail address through each sponsor in case something happens.

Thanks to you, even if the transfer is made in this way with your ID or your real name and part, if anything happens, I can confirm the payment to all the members through the intermediary of the caretaker.

Thanks to the proper discussion before the entry, we were able to collect the concert fee without any trouble at all.

Of course, we would not have been able to do this without the cooperation of all the participants, and we are very grateful to everyone for being so cooperative. I would like to thank you again. Thank you very much for your cooperation.

The most important thing to keep in mind when doing accounting – transparency.

As before, I was in charge of the accounting, and the most important thing I tried to do this time as well as last time was

• 必ず演奏会1ヶ月以上前に予算案を全体に提示すること
• 常に現金、預金残高と帳簿が矛盾していないかを開示し続けること

It was.

Because accounting information such as books contain a lot of personal information of the secretariat and caretakers, we never disclose it on the Internet, but we always tried to disclose it at least to the members of the secretariat and all caretakers.

（注：参加者の個人情報は先に述べたとおり事務局はすべて把握していないために、ID以外は記載されていません。）

We have also made this disclosure within Cybozu Live.

I think we published the ledgers on a fairly regular basis, which was quite tedious. To be honest, it was a bit of a hassle, but I reported it in detail because it would prevent fraud and also serve as a backup for the file itself in case of emergency.

We still have some accounting work to do, but thanks to you, we have been able to carry out our work smoothly without any trouble so far, and we think we can land in the same condition as before.

Thank you again for an invaluable and wonderful experience!

So, it was very long, but I think we were able to run the meeting more smoothly than last time by using the free groupware « Cybozu Live », although this is just my point of view as a member of the secretariat.

I would like to thank the secretariat and all the caretakers for their hard work. No matter how good the tools are, they cannot function if the people who use them are not strong enough. It was a wonderful and irreplaceable experience for me to work together with such experienced and talented people.

また機会があればみなさんと一緒に活動したいと思います。本当に有難うございました。