Lister
Active member
Just in case you are in the Trust but didn’t receive this. Looks like it will make Nigel’s job a tad easier! I have just rung my bank and it was a very simple request.
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Dear Trust Member……….
Since taking up the post of Trust Membership Secretary, I have been working closely with Nigel Banks (Trust Finance Officer) and Martin Lawrence to consolidate and reconcile Trust Memberships and contributions in order to provide regular definitive statements of membership totals and contributions income to the Trust Board of Society.
Part of that process has been concluded, with all annual renewals (not paid by ‘Standing Order’), having now been validated.
Unfortunately, there still remains a more complicated task to reconcile all monthly contributions paid by Members through a Bank Transfer or Bank Standing Order.
By way of explaining the onerous nature of this particular task………… please consider that each month, a bank statement, (containing in excess of 150 pages), is received by Nigel, who, until such time as an electronic system is introduced, has to reconcile each contribution manually, matching each contribution to a reference and a Member. Reconciling is very time consuming at best and can be further complicated by other variances, some of which I will highlight here.
Although a payment reference might have been set up by a Member in association with their bank, many are shown on the database as; ‘ECFC Trust’, ‘ECFC Supporters Trust’, ‘Trust’, ‘ECFC’, etc., and although references such as these might assist recognition of payments on personal banking statements, unfortunately it does not provide enough information at ‘The Trust’ end to advise who has made the payment, nor to which Member(s) the payment should be accredited, as in some cases these may be different.
There are some instances where although contributions are being received regularly, due to a lack of any associated information or references, once again it is almost impossible to identify who the payment is from and to which Member the payment should be attributed.
In recent months, Nigel Banks has reported that there may be as many as 500+ Memberships which require further exploration, cases where, Members believe that their bank is forwarding their monthly subscriptions but, for whatever reason, they have stopped, in other cases, where Members have instructed their Bank to cancel their subscription but have failed to inform ‘The Trust’.
Two main areas have been identified as being problematic and therefore are in need of immediate redress. These are;
1) Trust contributions having ceased without notification.
This may be a banking issue of which the contributor has no knowledge, or it may that the contributor has decided to cancel the Order without advising the Trust.
2) Trust contributions received but with little or no reference to validate.
All new Members joining the Trust and who wish to make monthly contributions by Standing Order or Bank Transfer are now advised, as is the payee bank, of their ‘Unique Reference’. This should be used in all future Trust subscriptions/money transfer activity.
The ‘Trust Unique Reference’ is made up of (Member’s Trust Number) / (Member’s Surname in capitals). For example; ‘4579SMITH’
In order to rationalise and streamline ‘The Trust’ accounting processes, I appeal for your help, and ask that you carry out an immediate appraisal of your personal Trust Membership contribution arrangements. This is particularly relevant if you have a ‘multiple arrangement’ whereby you pay for other subscriptions within a single payment.
According to information held on the Trust database, your contribution is paid by monthly Standing Order, unfortunately it has no ‘reference’ attached, thereby making monthly reconciling extremely difficult.
Could I ask therefore, that at your earliest opportunity, you might spare a little time and carry out the following;
(1) Check your personal Bank Statement to confirm that your monthly contribution is regularly leaving your Account.
(2) Confirm with your Bank that they hold correct details for your mandate and that these payments are being made to;
Exeter City Supporters’ Trust
Bank: Lloyds TSB, High Street, Exeter
Sort Code: 30-93-14
Account No: 02103802
…………. and most importantly….
(3) Request your Bank to reference all your future Trust contributions as advised - Trust Number/Surname in Capitals
(If you are in any doubt of your Trust Number, please request to me by return, whereupon I will immediately respond).
If there are any discrepancies then please contact me immediately at either of my contact addresses at the end of this advice.
Should you have other concerns or any Trust Membership queries, please contact me, whereupon I will be very happy to work through these with you.
On behalf of the Board of Society may I thank you for your help in addressing these issues also appreciating your continuing generous contributions in support of ‘The Trust’ and ‘Our Football Club’.
----------------------------------------
Dear Trust Member……….
Since taking up the post of Trust Membership Secretary, I have been working closely with Nigel Banks (Trust Finance Officer) and Martin Lawrence to consolidate and reconcile Trust Memberships and contributions in order to provide regular definitive statements of membership totals and contributions income to the Trust Board of Society.
Part of that process has been concluded, with all annual renewals (not paid by ‘Standing Order’), having now been validated.
Unfortunately, there still remains a more complicated task to reconcile all monthly contributions paid by Members through a Bank Transfer or Bank Standing Order.
By way of explaining the onerous nature of this particular task………… please consider that each month, a bank statement, (containing in excess of 150 pages), is received by Nigel, who, until such time as an electronic system is introduced, has to reconcile each contribution manually, matching each contribution to a reference and a Member. Reconciling is very time consuming at best and can be further complicated by other variances, some of which I will highlight here.
Although a payment reference might have been set up by a Member in association with their bank, many are shown on the database as; ‘ECFC Trust’, ‘ECFC Supporters Trust’, ‘Trust’, ‘ECFC’, etc., and although references such as these might assist recognition of payments on personal banking statements, unfortunately it does not provide enough information at ‘The Trust’ end to advise who has made the payment, nor to which Member(s) the payment should be accredited, as in some cases these may be different.
There are some instances where although contributions are being received regularly, due to a lack of any associated information or references, once again it is almost impossible to identify who the payment is from and to which Member the payment should be attributed.
In recent months, Nigel Banks has reported that there may be as many as 500+ Memberships which require further exploration, cases where, Members believe that their bank is forwarding their monthly subscriptions but, for whatever reason, they have stopped, in other cases, where Members have instructed their Bank to cancel their subscription but have failed to inform ‘The Trust’.
Two main areas have been identified as being problematic and therefore are in need of immediate redress. These are;
1) Trust contributions having ceased without notification.
This may be a banking issue of which the contributor has no knowledge, or it may that the contributor has decided to cancel the Order without advising the Trust.
2) Trust contributions received but with little or no reference to validate.
All new Members joining the Trust and who wish to make monthly contributions by Standing Order or Bank Transfer are now advised, as is the payee bank, of their ‘Unique Reference’. This should be used in all future Trust subscriptions/money transfer activity.
The ‘Trust Unique Reference’ is made up of (Member’s Trust Number) / (Member’s Surname in capitals). For example; ‘4579SMITH’
In order to rationalise and streamline ‘The Trust’ accounting processes, I appeal for your help, and ask that you carry out an immediate appraisal of your personal Trust Membership contribution arrangements. This is particularly relevant if you have a ‘multiple arrangement’ whereby you pay for other subscriptions within a single payment.
According to information held on the Trust database, your contribution is paid by monthly Standing Order, unfortunately it has no ‘reference’ attached, thereby making monthly reconciling extremely difficult.
Could I ask therefore, that at your earliest opportunity, you might spare a little time and carry out the following;
(1) Check your personal Bank Statement to confirm that your monthly contribution is regularly leaving your Account.
(2) Confirm with your Bank that they hold correct details for your mandate and that these payments are being made to;
Exeter City Supporters’ Trust
Bank: Lloyds TSB, High Street, Exeter
Sort Code: 30-93-14
Account No: 02103802
…………. and most importantly….
(3) Request your Bank to reference all your future Trust contributions as advised - Trust Number/Surname in Capitals
(If you are in any doubt of your Trust Number, please request to me by return, whereupon I will immediately respond).
If there are any discrepancies then please contact me immediately at either of my contact addresses at the end of this advice.
Should you have other concerns or any Trust Membership queries, please contact me, whereupon I will be very happy to work through these with you.
On behalf of the Board of Society may I thank you for your help in addressing these issues also appreciating your continuing generous contributions in support of ‘The Trust’ and ‘Our Football Club’.
