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How Can We Avoid Club Treasurer Burnout?
Q. Our club has been running for 4
years and as the treasurer I am getting burnt out. No one else in the
club feels they have the ability to do the bookkeeping (we use the
NAIC computer program). What have other clubs in position done? We
would appreciate any suggestions.
A. The job of a club Treasurer can be
tiresome, although there's no excuse for anyone in your club to claim
that they don't have the ability to do the bookkeeping. Anyone can use
NAIC's Club Accounting software program, without any prior bookkeeping
or accounting experience.
Here are some additional ideas for you to consider:
Many clubs create an Assistant Treasurer position in order to split
some of the responsibilities of the Treasurer. The Assistant Treasurer
could help with some of the banking tasks, such as receiving checks
from members at the meeting, completing deposit slips, and making the
actual deposits, for instance. In some clubs, the Assistant Treasurer
is considered the "treasurer in training," and is expected to take
over the reins of the Treasurer's position in the following year. A
new Assistant Treasurer would follow in his or her footsteps.
If you have both a bank and brokerage account, consider getting rid
of your bank and opening a single account with a brokerage firm that
offers free checkwriting. Many online brokers, such as TD Waterhouse
and Ameritrade (to name just two), offer free checking to
customers. In addition to eliminating some of the paperwork (such as
tracking monthly account statements from two financial institutions),
you might also be able to eliminate some banking fees and perhaps
receive a higher interest rate in a money market fund offered by your
broker.
If you have several DRIPs (dividend reinvestment plan accounts),
consider opening an account at Buyandhold.com or Sharebuilder.com and
consolidate all your DRIPs in one account, with just one monthly
statement that tracks all your DRIP transactions. You could also
transfer all your DRIP stocks to your brokerage account, even if it
means paying higher fees or commissions to purchase shares. Again, if
you have just one or two accounts to deal with, then your job is that
much easier, with fewer statements to file and fewer transactions that
you have to track.
Strengthen your policies relating to late member dues. Often,
members who forget their checkbooks or miss a meeting still desire to
make their member contributions, but then the Treasurer ends up making
multiple deposits or is forced to keep track of paper checks until the
next meeting. If these kinds of problems are causing you a hassle as
treasurer, try getting your club to set their dues policy in
stone. That might mean not accepting any dues that aren't paid at the
meeting.
Finally, you can simply refuse to serve another year as
Treasurer. Either the club will want to continue and someone will step
up to the plate to serve, or they will decide that no one is willing
to serve and the club will disband. In that case, I'm not sure that I
would want to be in a club where other members weren't interested in
carrying their share of the club's operations. Many clubs have
one-year term limits so that all members have to serve as officers, in
an attempt to make sure that no one gets to be in the position you're
in now.
Good luck!
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