Finance Committee

2022-23 Annual Report

It is my pleasure to report on behalf of the Finance Committee for the previous year.

The committee reviews the statements from our investment consultants, Fiducient, monthly and then meets with them quarterly in person. During these meetings we look at the performance of our investments, analyze how our investment performance is impacting the budgetary needs of the Valley, and listen to recommendations from Fiducient on asset allocation and underlying portfolio managers. We also continued to bring in one of our money managers to present at our quarterly meetings to provide a more in depth look at their rationale for investing. The committee then takes our recommendations to the Board of Directors.

The Valley has an external audit done every year, and our audit is available for members to view at any time in the office during normal business hours.

Our long-time insurance provider retired, so the committee conducted a search and recommended a new, third party insurance provider for the Valley.

2022 was a very difficult year for the markets. The committee has reaffirmed with our advisor our strategy and allocation to make sure we are positioned correctly. Over the last couple years, we have strategically taken money out of the market while at all-time highs to fund our capital improvements account, noted here as the building improvement fund. This account funds the short-term and long-term building projects. Our membership should take comfort that all the recent work on the building was budgeted and paid for while the markets were high, not at their current levels. Another important note regarding our allocation is while the bond markets were down double digits last year, the Valley owns individual bonds, not bond mutual funds, so all our bonds mature at full value. And finally, the committee also employed a strategy last year of taking our interest, dividends and maturing bonds to fund the operations of the Valley as opposed to selling securities while they were down.

The Valley of Chicago is financially sound thanks to the hard work of the finance committee. I would like to thank committee members William Tienken, Bruce Zimmerman, Daryl Selock and Brian Owen as well as our Treasurer Ken Armbruster, Deputy’s Representative Chuck August and Active Anthony Cracco for their advice, counsel and commitment of time during this past year.

Respectfully Submitted,

Andrew A. Keppy, 33⁰
Finance Committee Chairman