Everybody has been to boring meetings where you weren't really interested in the thing the meeting was about.  I went to a meeting this morning where A.) I was bored to death, and B.) I didn't know what the hell they were talking about most of the time.  It was an exit interview with the finance committee of the Bay County Council on Aging by our auditors, and I really never knew what was going on.

Actually, that's not entirely true.  They started the meeting by saying our audit was fine, and that's really all I wanted to know.  It was never clear to me what happens to that audit report, if anything.  It was never clear to me how much of this audit stuff is required by law because we're a non-profit and get government grants, how much is to let the Board know nobody's stealing money, and how much of it is professional practice by CPA's.  If it was just CPA obfuscation, they won.

Ironically, the two CPA's who gave us that exit interview are totally down to earth, personable, and likable.  They did their audit while our building was undergoing major renovation, and they were right in the middle of the "Big Room" of the senior center.  They heard everything that went on, and every day Tom, who sat next to the filing cabinet that had the money in it, would see me come in and drag out huge bags of money from our Trolley System.  I mentioned that, and he said they had thought that was weird.  I made/make bank deposits every day, and the Trolley money was in sacks of coins that each weighed 60 pounds or so.

At one point I told them that I was reasonably well educated but I didn't understand what they were talking about.  At that point Tom admitted that, even though he's a CPA, he had seen an audit of a condominium that even he didn't understand.  "How can the condo owners possibly understand it?" he asked.  Answer: they can't.

Anyway, if you're ever invited to an audit exit interview for an organization you serve on the board of, decline the invitation.

ED