Interview with previous Treasurer

The post of Treasurer of CAS will become vacant in December. To help potential applicants, I spent some time with an earlier Treasurer.

Interview with previous Treasurer: Richard

When did you serve as the CAS Treasurer?
I think for 5/6 years up until Dec 2007

Are you a qualified accountant or have some other relevant experience?
No not a qualified accountant but in the UK I was treasurer for Berkshire Women Aid for many years which was an organization supporting battered women and which was funded by the local Authority. It involved keeping the books for submission to the local Authority and the DHSS.

How much time did you need to dedicate to the “job” and what exactly was involved on a day to day basis?
I probably spent at least an hour each day sometimes longer imputing information plus visits to the office and regular visits to the Bank to Bank money or withdraw floats etc. I spent at least 3 hours every Thursday dealing with the office “takings”.

I assume one must have a computer….. ?
It is not essential to have a computer but highly desirable. Providing you input all info into a programme like Microsoft Money then detailed accounts can be produced easily for the committee. Everything is of course automatically added up which makes life much easier. Also all info is then available for print out at the end of the year for the auditor

Is it important where one lives?
As I said, I spent at least an hour each week day in the Nerja bank dealing with cash deposits and withdrawals. Also, very frequent visits to the CAS Office in Nerja were vital

There’s an Annual Audit – what does that involve?
Each year detailed accounts have to be given to the auditor together with supporting invoices, receipts and bank statements etc. Hopefully everything tallies.

You did monthly reports to the Committee. Was that time consuming?
As I said, having a computer enabled me to produce monthly accounts of income and expenditure for the committee to consider. It helps immensely for them to see our current situation because CAS operates “hand to mouth” every week. Raising the funds we need  to help the animals is everyone’s responsibility, but they cannot fulfill that responsibility if they don’t know the actual situation.

Why did you resign the post?
I resigned after I had done it for a number of years. Also at that time I was also largely responsible for most of the fund raising and the Sunday car boot. The 2 jobs together meant I was working for CAS nearly every day and it is fair to say that I eventually got bored with it.

Were you disillusioned then ?       
One of the main problems with CAS is, I believe, that there are too few people doing too many jobs. The old adage that “Many hands make light work” was never more true than when applied to CAS!
The Treasurer should deal with financial matters only and not get sidetracked into fundraising; running boot sales; organising dinner dances; Scruffs Dog Shows etc.
The job was also made more difficult by people not adhering to the systems. Things like inadequate receipts and having to decipher the jumbled weekly Office sheets used to drive me up the wall!

For a preliminary chat about the job – call Richard on  659 458 020 or send an email to  rthorne1@gmail.com