Scouts treasurer??? What does it entail

[Lichensclerosus]

Can anyone tell me please if they know what does becoming a treasurer for the scouts entails does anyone know on here. Im a bit confused about what friend has just signed up for at our agm. Meeting tonight and so is she!

A treasurer is responsible for basic book keeping for the group, payment of expenses to leaders and preparing accounts for year end, and submitting to the charity commission.

You should attend exec meetings, usually once a term and there is some basic training required, safety, gdpr, safeguarding. All online.

There are job descriptions here: Treasurer is towards the bottom

www.scouts.org.uk/volunteers/running-things-locally/recruiting-and-managing-volunteers/role-descriptions/group-roles/

Checking income and outgoings, paying receipts and invoices. Keeping evidence of all
spending. Remembering noting right amounts under right decisions. Taking books for accountant approval if required. Banking. Be present on AGM meetings.

What has been said, but most Groups don't have to submit to the Charity Commission.

If the Group use OSM (On-line Scout Manager) for their finances, a lot of systems are already set up.
Most Groups will now have moved to electronic payments in one form or another, but not all have, so there is quite a difference between the way groups operate.

Usually expected to present the accounts at the AGM, and to ensure a copy are sent to District.
In many groups, will be asked to sort Gift Aid. OTOH, I know groups who have a separate GA Secretary and I know Groups that don't collet Gift Aid.
So, as I have said, it does vary a lot.

I think your friend should have found out before agreeing.....

THANK you yes so do I I was absolutely shocked when she vomuntered her self! I don't think she fully knows at all what she's signed up for she has bookkeeping and great it skills and is very clever with figures however she works a lot!! AND VERY RARELY HAS ANY FREE TIMe

She will spend a fair amount of time chasing for subs too. If she rarely has free time then signing up to help at scouts with anything is daft because the admin always takes up more time than you think.

Also if there are any big projects in the pipeline there's the finances for that (we ate trying to get funding to rebuild the Scout hut for example...)

In some units the leaders do the chasing so it's not so onerous on the treasurer.

Or membership secretary may chase subs.

She should meet outgoing treasurer ASAP to find out their role, systems in place etc.

And also meet group leader who has overall responsibility for everything.

There will likely also be treasurers in other groups in district/scout county to call on, and a district/scout county treasurer who organises for the d/dc so will have a network with all group treasurers in the d/sc whether that's formal or informal.

Am not treasurer but am group secretary and a section leader (1 of 2 cub packs) ..

Seems a bit of an over reaction.

Seems an ideal way of volunteering in the group - particularly if she already has those skills - and much less time consuming than being a Leader.

You do realise lots of people volunteer in lots of ways across their lives, don't you ? Something like treasurer is really flexible as you don't have to be there at 6pm every Tuesday or whatever - you can keep on top of things when it suits you.

As an aside, not sure why people things there is so much time taken up chasing subs.

I've been a scout group treasurer for 8 years and pretty much echo what everyone else has said.
I pay suppliers/camps, check all the subs (we do it by standing order), chase receipts for everything, pay any expenses, do the annual gift aid claim, create the final accounts (checked by an accountant) and submit to charity commission, collect payments for camps (although you can use OSM for this but we don't currently). I also create and monitor a budget and provide ongoing feedback to the Exec on our financial position against the budget. I also provide reports on the final balance of all camps as well. We now use prepaid debit cards for the sections to buy things instead of a cash float, so I manage all that as well and top cards up as required and check receipts are uploaded. I also manage and pay for all the insurance policies although strictly keeping the secretary is supposed to do that (but ours doesn't do much).
There's probably more as well - there's lots to do but most of it is not rocket science. I think you need to be a diligent person who is meticulous with record keeping and good at admin. I had no bookkeeping experience but excellent spreadsheet skills which I think is vital. My spreadsheet is pretty complicated now.
I get a lot out of it personally and I probably put a lot more work into it than is required as I have the time.
I was a bit worried when I first volunteered for it, but I'd say that any reasonable IT proficient and intelligent person can do it. I'm not going to lie though - it can take up quite a bit of time.

If you use OSM It’s super easy to chase subs & is all automatically done.

@kite22 the reason a lot of time is spent chasing subs is 2 fold:

You give some kind of family identifier to use but it doesn't get used. So you get envelopes of cash or electronic payments which say "Scouts" or nothing at all from maybe 15-50 people (we have 170 members) and have to figure out which Scout's/Cubs/Venturers/Beavers they belong to. The reason you give a family identifier is that there are 4 different J Smith's (Jane, John, Jimmy and Jenny), and 3 Mary O'Brien's (in 3 different sections) so just family name is not clear enough.

And then of those 170 members, 80 will pay within a week of getting the first request or by the first deadline. Another 40 will pay in the first reminder and 30 on the second reminder to everyone.

But the remaining 20 needs individual letters done out and then individual phone calls to chase them, as treasurer and group leader figure out which of those are just forgetful or cannot be bothered- and which of those have an affordability issue and should be covered by the funds we have in the group to cover those. But many of the "can't be bothered" group will promise to pay and need a few chasing up calls/emails before a final decision that we cannot carry those who want free childcare as there are expenses to cover even if the leaders and other officials are volunteers. Actually, it's usually about 40 that this group starts at in our group - and there is always a checking exercise with the leaders of each section as well that they haven't paid in cash in person and are still attending etc. It's just time consuming.

@BiddyPop I feel for you. When I first started 8 years ago subs was paid termly - in cash and like you said in unlabelled envelopes. They were a complete mess and operating very unprofessionally. We didn't even have online backing back then and everything was paid by cheque. I did the letters, emails etc like you - but now I very rarely have to chase anything up.
You CAN sort this out and whip them into shape but you have to be very firm and not accept cash. I moved onto monthly standing orders (with a unique reference per child based on name and DOB) . I'm not going to lie it took a while to get the stragglers and reluctant to sort it out but now it works like a dream. The other alternative is to move on to OSM direct debits. There is an overhead on that but the money is taken out of their account monthly. This also helps as the gift aid can be done through OSM. If I was starting from your position I'd use OSM as once they've agreed to the DD the money will be taken automatically.
Another tip would be to insist on seeing the first standing order come in before you invest new children into the group. We have a field in OSM I fill in once first payment received and leaders will not invest until I say that has been received. Parents are motivated to get their child invested, so this helps them sort out the financial side of things.
If you really feel that you can't get them onto standing order or OSM because they are entrenched in their ways - just insist on it with any new starters. They don't know any different. It will take years but eventually it will filter down to everyone paying like that.
Your group sounds really big - twice as big as ours, so they need to operate how YOU want them to, or else it is just too big of a task for any reasonable person. Feel free to PM me if you want any support from a fellow treasurer.

Ah, I'm ok thanks @pinkysmum, I'm just Group Secretary so organising Group Council meetings (of 40 odd leaders....), writing the minutes and the odd letter, and delegating for Group Leader at County Management meetings. Our treasurer does most of the legwork on financials.

But I'm also Section Leader of my Cub pack (25 Cubs) and we operate on cash in envelopes for camp fees etc - we ask parents to write the CUBS' own name on the front (and anything else they want), I put that in red and bold in every communication about money and I still usually get at least 2-3 with ""Unit Name, Camp Name" or variations but no specific family or Cub name or other identification, and then I'm trying to figure out whose writing it is if I hadn't had a chance to tick them off the list as they threw it at me on arrival! And Treasurer does have to check a few families with me every year around fees, once I've sent out the "send to all" initial reminders. So I have an idea how complicated it gets when looking at larger numbers....

To be fair @pinkysmum that is poor management by your group.
If you have 170 children and young people, you should insist on them all setting up a standing order, as a condition when they join.
(Or use the OSM facilities).
As @BiddyPop says, there is some initial work, but the time saved long term is phenomenal.
I'm District based, and any issues where we have had to get involved regarding money, have always been in groups where they are still messing about with cash.
The resistance to change is always there usually from Leaders not parents
but once they realise how much easier it is, how much less work there is, and how much less room for error - or sadly, even fraud (yes, no-one ever thinks it will happen in their group) - people are usually converted pretty quickly.
Plus of course, it means no Section Leader is dealing with money at the start of any meeting, let alone "guessing whose it is from the handwriting"
!?!
I mean, really ?
That is a disaster waiting to happen.
Have you done the administration Module of your training ?

@Kite22 I think you have got the names the wrong way round in your post. I do agree with you about cash. We are completely cashless now and the leaders don't need to worry about it and concentrate on delivering the programme. The recent move to prepaid cards has made it even easier as they don't even need to keep tabs on the float now. Cashless is definitely the way to go.

Yes. Sorry @pinkysmum