[Rick O]

I have a few issues with the Treasurers responsibilities and I want to get the BOD's input.

I haven't received any correspondence indicating that we have had a new member join the club since April. I know we have had new members join but for some reason Jenn has chosen not to report income to the Treasurer. In future years I think it would make things smoother for the club if the treasurer were also the membership coordinator. At least the membership applications and checks should be sent to the Treasurer.

I have not received a bank statement since February. When I submit a Treasurers report to the BOD I am stating that the information submitted is correct to the best of my knowledge. Without a bank statement to verify this then I can't do that. Bob would it be possible/feasable for Wachovia to send a duplicate statement to a different address or could we change the address of record on an annual basis so that statements are sent to the current Treasurer?

I know that some of you have expenses that you need reimbursement for. I was told by Jenn that two signatures are required on each check. Logistically speaking this is a difficult task.

I would appreciate any input or suggestions that any of you may have on any or all of these issues.

Thanks,
Rick

 

[wildemon]

Money, money

I know that Jenn has received the bank statements for two months ago and 30 June. She announced at the meeting $1926.95 and added $162.50 for a total of $2089.45

This was from last night's meeting. You or Andy will have to arrange for the bank to deal with you, the club's Treasurer Officer. She collected a few more members last night as well.

 

[MyReef]

I am with Rick. If we have a treasurer, and we do, then they should be receiving the bank statement. They are ultimately responsible for balancing the check book and writing the checks for expenses. I don't think this should be open for much debate, but if you have an opinion, lets hear it.

 

[ckreef]

I basically agree but I think the membership coordinator should be kept seperate.

There is no reason why the membership coordinator can't have a few deposit slips and as he/she collects money -- take it to the bank and make a deposit. And of course notify the treasurer.

 

[MyReef]

I agree with Charles, but I also think going forward that the membership coordinator should not have check writing capabilities...and we need to have the statements going to Rick, not Jenn.

 

[wasabi]

personally i think all funds should be handled by the treasurer if theres a deposit to be made it needs to be directed to the treasurer. when it comes to handling funds in a club the less people that handle the money the better. it is a complicated enough job without an extra set of paws to stir things up. not only that when you delegate to many of the same responcibilitys to different peolple, it creates a lot of tension. if rick's the treasurer then let him do his job without any outside interference

 

[ckreef]

Curtis I understand your point but doing it that way makes too many jobs one persons responsibility. This is a volunteer situation and the more one has to do the less that gets done and what does get done isn't as good of a job as it should be.

I beleive we currently have that situation w/ only one webmaster. We should have one for site improvements and one for the regular site updates (new addresses/announcements ect...). Haveing just one makes for a very large job that really isn't moveing along as fast as it could be.

In the future (when we get a little more organized) then both the membership and treasurer jobs will get expanded a bit which will in turn create more work for those people and would hate to have one person try and do both.

 

[Rick O]

The problem is I'm not getting any information from Jenn. A non-BOD member has complete control over the club's finances. I don't have a clue when or how much deposits have been made for. I don't have a clue how much money the club has. I can't verify weather or not deposits are being made. Jenn does not communicate with me any longer. She is running the club's finances as she sees fit. Does anyone think this is ok?

 

[wasabi]

im going to stand by my original comments. many other positions could be the responcibility of more than one person with the exception of treasurer. the person acting as treasurer needs to have complete control of all accounting and money transactions. i'm going to take it a step further and say that rick should step in right now and have full control over all the clubs finances. no offence to jen i'm sure she's doing a great job,but rick was voted in as treasurer he should be taking charge of his position, and personally i think if someone was having trouble handling there responcibility either they should ask for help, or we should step in and see they get it. i thought we had another club member who volunteered to help with our web site?

 

[MyReef]

My feelings are the Jenn should relinquish all bank activities....that is the job of the Treasurer.

 

[ckreef]

I totally agree w/ all of you.

The only exception is the membership coordinator needs to be able to take in dues. What happens to those dues after that is up to you all.

I really don't think Rick wants to get into the membvership coordinator job which is what would need to happen if Jenn can't accept dues. I'm not saying she should have anything to do w/ the finances just that the membership coordinator should be able to do their job by accepting dues.

But I will argue this no more --- I have on many different occasions stated my feelings about how much automation (or lack of) we have in regaurds to our financial situation. The lack of automation will bite this club sometime in the future.

But i digress ..................

 

[MyReef]

I agree that Jenn should be able to take the funds...and either deposit them and or turn them over to Rick.

Charles, what kind of automation do you want?

 

[ckreef]

I would want to see quicken or quickbooks or MS money.

I would want that tied into the bank account. Set it up w/ all the approiate categories. Jenn could due deposits and all Rick would need to do is a download from the bank once a week or so. Any bills we have could also be paid online and be automatically entered into the system.

Also if setup correctly getting a monthly, quarterly, or end of year report would be as easy as clicking a few key strokes. This would also keep us more inline if we ever got audited (by IRS or whoever)and when we have a third party come and audit us on purpose which I beleive we have to do once per year.

Also this would easily transfer from year to year as the treasurer changed and would keep it in one financial format that is a widely accepted business practice.

We (Kimberly and myself) pay all our bills online (every last one of them) and our checkbook is fully automated with quicken and linked to our bank account. It's not that hard to setup w/ quicken and the bank and once setup you would save lots of time and effort in the long run.

Weather we do it this year or some year in the future --- at a minimum some type of check book accounting program will have to be started up and all the past records will have to be back posted. The sooner we do this the less work we have to do in the end.

 

[MyReef]

I agree....should look into cost of the software for next year...and let it be our legacy to leave the BOD better than we found it.

 

[Lifestudent]

Hello from TN!

Rick, as an authorized check signer you have at least two options: 1) you can have a second bank statement sent to a different address (either for free or for I believe $1 per month) and 2) you can signup for free Wachovia's Online "Basic" Business Banking which will give you 60-90 calendar days of activity.

I agree that Rick should have total financial responsibility and so a simplier solution must be provided. When I get home and have more time to read this post (I'm at the Fentress Public Library in Jamestown, TN), I'll add my recommendation to help simplify this process.

Bob