_ Editor’s Note: The November edition is a written column only, with the vodcast set to resume next month. _ SPE finances are not the most interesting or exciting topic for most members, and you will be forgiven if you pass this column. You may not be interested at all if you only want to know what SPE does. However, you may be interested in this column to understand how SPE functions financially. SPE is not a commercial business, but it has an events business that de facto finances most of its other services to members—direct membership fees are a relatively small part of SPE’s revenue. In the current model, if the events business fails, SPE collapses. Finances are always important, but they have become critical in the current context, including the 2015 downturn and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, especially the latter, which have brought an existential threat to our Society. As shown in Fig. 1, between 2014 and 2023, we lost 65% of our revenue, 200% of our profit (Net Operating Income), and 50% of our net assets. Even last year, 3 years after the pandemic, we still had an operational deficit of $3.6 million, and this was expected to be a “good year” with Offshore Europe and two Offshore Technology Conference events. Operationally, we are still hemorrhaging money. SPE’s finances are public, but I thought it would be good to present this information in plain English and with illustrative graphs to explain how we operate financially and how SPE can prevail while its traditional business model is being challenged. I have occasionally heard and read severe statements about SPE’s financial management, allusions to staff being oversized and overpaid, our lack of willingness to adapt, etc. So, it is also a good opportunity to clear up some of these misunderstandings. Conventions and Definitions Until 2024, SPE’s fiscal year (FY) started in April and ended in March. For example, FY24 started on 1 April 2023 and ended on 31 March 2024. This has recently changed and will be explained below. The numbers presented in this document are consolidated in USD (SPE has several offices handling different currencies) and corrected for US inflation using factors listed in Fig. 2. The reference is the USD from the middle of FY24, i.e., October 2023. One important result to gauge our operational results is our Net Operating Income (NOI), which would be equivalent to profit if SPE were a commercial venture.