ANOTHER YEAR… More adventures (Part 168j)
It was after midnight
when I finally gave up trying to make sense out of the church’s
finances. I could waste a whole post on this topic but I’ll spare you
(and me) from the ordeal and try to limit it to the cause and ‘plan of
attack’. The lady who had been keeping the ‘records’, such as they were,
was a nice person and well respected in the community. She would
volunteer to do just about anything and that’s how she ended up with
handling the church’s money. However, she had absolutely no background
for it and it was obvious to me that she didn’t know a debit from a
credit. The fact that she created her own way of doing things only made
the situation worse. The vestry had been derelict in their duties by not
requiring a financial report at the monthly meetings allowing the lady
to just tell how much money we had. That, and the fact that the ‘books’
had never been audited since the church morphed over from a ‘mission’ to
a ‘parish’. The big difference in that is as a ‘mission’ the diocese (the
governing body of the church) would provide monies to keep the church
going and, once becoming a ‘parish’ we were on our own, financially.
That had been a problem right from the start as we didn’t have enough
members to pay the bills. I’d been asked to join the vestry by one of
the bank Trustee’s and really had no way out of it. I’ll admit as to not
doing enough research on the history since becoming a parish and doing
as little as possible as a vestryman. Left on her own and with no
guidance, the lady did the best that she could. I remember having about
five or six old cigar boxes that held various pieces of paper (and some
cash as well) as I tried to make sense of the mess. Deposits should’ve
been made to the bank each and every Monday representing the monies put
into the collection plate. For the previous year, fifty two weeks, there
were only 40 something deposits made. And, what made that a problem was
the cash from the Thrift Shoppe was supposed to be kept separate and it hadn't. Try
as I did, it was hopeless. By the time I quit it was way too late to
call the minister so decided to make the manse my first stop on the way
to work.
It was around 8am and he wasn’t dressed but I told him
that didn’t matter. Reluctantly, he let me in and led me to the kitchen.
I had put all the cigar boxes into a carton and had it with me. He
insisted he had to have coffee before we started and I remember looking
at my watch knowing that the bank was still in the “busy period”. We
were about to start when in walked his overweight and overbearing
daughter. The first words out of her mouth were like bullets “Don’t you
know it’s only eight o’clock?” I ignored her and tried to get to the
crux of the matter by saying that I couldn’t figure out just what the
woman had done and finished by saying that even with her help I wasn’t
sure it was possible. The minister’s reaction was somewhat predictable
as he asked how much money we actually had. I mentioned that I’d
discovered various sums of cash mixed in with receipts and other slips
of paper and I think it came to around $40 or so. That, and the balance
in the bank, wasn’t enough to pay him and the electric bill. I was
uncomfortable in telling him that, especially with his daughter there. I
then told him I had to go but a suggestion would be to contact the
senior warden (head of the vestry) and come up with a plan for the
special meeting that night. As I got up to leave he expressed concern
about how the lady who’d been doing the accounting was going to take it.
I just shrugged my shoulders and walked out.
There were four
more days in the busy period and then things would slow down. Walking up
to the back door I intercepted Lorie, the chief clerk. She greeted me
by asking just how long she would have Mae before she had to go back to
the branch. I really had no answer to that because it had been ‘sold’ to
her as being open ended. She’d negotiated a ‘deal’ to cover her mileage
and, at least up to that point, seemed happy. I asked why she wanted to
know and she came up with a sort of sheepish grin but didn’t say
anything. I ‘pushed’ her on it and she told me that Mae was way under
utilized at the drive-up window. I’d thought that on my own so now
wanted to know her thoughts on it. Since were were technically still in
the holiday season the school savings program wasn’t in operation but
would return the following week. Lorie asked if I’d consider moving
Alice to the drive-up and putting Mae on a lobby window. I liked Alice
and she was a competent teller. The only negative comments I’d heard were the same
for Lillian… “isn’t she a little young?” I’d ignored them because both
of the girls had performed well. I ended up telling Lorie I’d think
about it and she seemed satisfied. For me, it was just one more thing to
think about.
Before leaving that evening Hobie stopped by my
desk and told me I’d be filling in for him at the Mortgage committee
meeting the next day. Mortgage meetings were usually pretty cut and
dried. J J and his secretary, Lynn, prepared all the materials and my
job as secretary was to record who made and seconded the motions to go
ahead with the loan submission. It was nothing special. My only concern
was with Polack Joe who for this month was on the committee. In my mind
he just liked to get attention and was a royal PITA. That, and I had a
distinct feeling that he didn’t like me. But, I had to do my job
regardless of who attended to meeting.
I was very concerned
about the vestry meeting that night. I didn’t know most of the members
all that well an vowed to myself to keep as low a profile as I could
manage. I ended up being late (not a good idea) and found the group in an unmoderated discussion with people talking over people. When I walked in
everybody stopped and stared at me. I remember kind of shrugging my
shoulders and just looking at them. I don’t remember how it was put but
someone stated some sort of a “congratulations!” at me. “For what? was
my response. “You are now the official treasurer!” After a couple of
deep breaths I, shaking my head from side, responded “No way!”
Again,
I won’t bore you with details but accepted under one condition. That
was that the members of the vestry agree to pay to have an accountant go
over all the financial records, such as they were, before accepting. I
remember a couple of the members saying the church couldn’t afford it
and my response to them being “They can’t afford not to regardless if I
take the position or not” One of the same people asked where the church
was going to come up with the money for that and I, mad by that point,
stated “Out of your own pockets!” But I didn’t stop there going on to say
that when they accepted the position on the vestry they agreed to be
responsible for all and any actions taken by them. I thought that one
lady was going to have an apoplectic fit right there in front of the
group. The reaction was for her to stand up and resign from the vestry.
Thankfully, no one else did. A motion was made and passed to hire an accountant as soon as possible. On the matter of paying the minister,
the lady who’d been doing the accounting stepped up and said she’d
“cover it”. In spite of my negative thoughts about her as I tried to
wend my way though all the materials the night before, I thought that
was very nice.
To be continued…
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