One thing every organisation needs is a good treasurer; and we are very lucky to have one of the best in Colin Russell. 

Colin has been very busy counting and separating all the foreign coins from various Sunday collections and has been trying to find time to put pen to paper to say a little about being treasurer, well wait no longer!

Colin's predecessor, Leslie Hall, held the position of PCC treasurer from 1973 to 1992.  Colin was already the treasurer of the church hall but when Leslie relinquished his post Colin volunteered to take over immediately, saying "seeing that looking after money and keeping financial records are two of the very few things I can do with any degree of competence, I agreed to take on Leslie's role".  Of course there was the small matter of being called by his country (and his fanaticism for cricket) to attend the cricket world cup in Australia in February/March 1992 to cheer the England team on (and presumable shout rude things at the Aussies) before he could assume the role, but in May '92 he took up the mantle and has been at the financial helm ever since.  If continuity is to be valued, how does two treasurers in over 40 years sound!

The Treasurer's role includes collecting, recording and banking cash and cheques; paying bills, monitoring monthly and annual pledges, claiming gift aid tax from HM Revenue and Customs on a monthly basis, sending out monthly bills to regular church hall users and many other related financial matters that require attention.  There is also regular liaison with the pledge and gift aid secretary, Fred Watson, over a convivial cup of coffee most Monday mornings.  There is also of course the requirement to produce annual financial statements for approval by the PCC at the annual parish meeting.

Now .......... back to the foreign coins .......... after counting the various collections during previous years we've discovered we were the lucky recipients of twenty foreign coins from twelve different countries (plus one more we're still trying to work out) ... AND ... gratefully received a grand total of two car wash tokens!