How to Resign if you are Secretary
How to Resign if you are Co-Chair
How to Resign if you are Treasurer

How to keep the books
How to do a Treasurer's Report

What to do when your Executive resigns
(or, worse, won't go away)

IF you believe the Residents' Association is doing something dangerous or criminal, contact your local ward councillor and discuss the situation immediately. You have a responsibility to care for your neighbours and your own good reputation.

Sometimes, things just aren't any fun anymore. If you're spending more time arguing with  the other people on your Residents 'Association Executive than arguing with the Managing Agent or freeholder, or you feel you aren't being appreciated and you've done the best you can, then you may feel your only option is to resign, and get on with doing something useful with your life. Unless you think someone is doing something you object to because you feel it is dangerous or criminal, try to resign as politely as possible, and if someone else is resigning, let them leave with as much dignity as they like (this isn't just the Residents' Association, these are your neighbours and everyone knows where everyone lives).

1. Write your letter of resignation, send each of the executive and the CFTRA a copy, and posted a copy on the communal notice board:

2. IF you have signing powers with the bank, notify the bank immediately, and have your name removed.

3. IF you have the key to the Locked Notice Board, return it to the Residents' Association.

4. IF you have the computer, return it to your Residents' association in good working order, with a letter stating the condition in which you are returning it.

5. IF you have been using the Residents' Association e-mail address, as soon as you resign,  change the password to an agreed-upon temporary password, and hand over the control of the e-mail address to the Residents' Association to change to a permananet passowrd you do not know.

6. IF you are the contact mailing address for the Residents' Association, notify the District Housing Manager , CINDEX (Camden council's Website index to Tenants and Residents Associations) and CFTRA that you are no longer the contact address, and give them the substitute address.

7.  IF you are named as a voting member for DMC meetings, notify Camden Council, asking to have your name removed (any replacement will have to be elected at the Residents' Association's next meeting)..

Ideally, a Residents' Association should have two co-Chairs (one tenant, one lease-holder). If a co-chair resigns and you don't have an interim co-chair,  and no one volunteers  to stand for the position at the next meeting, just wait to fill the position at your next AGM.

If both Co-Chairs resign, or if you are the only Chair of your Association, and you resign, contact the Camden Federation of Tenants and Residents Association immediately. You will have to have an extraodrinary General Meeting and hold elections immediately.

If the secretary resigns and no one volunteers to stand for the position at the next meeting, just have someone volunteer to do minutes, meeting by meeting, until your next AGM.

The only person in a Residents' Association who must do more than just write a resignation and go away, to resign, is the Treasurer, who must provide a Treasurer's Report and be audited.

As Treasurer, to resign you must:

TAKE TWO DAYS TO COOL OFF.
IF YOU'RE STILL UNHAPPY:

1. Don't write any more cheques, and don't let anyone else write cheques until the books have been audited.

2. Write to the Executive members of your Residents' Association, Camden Federation of Tenants and Residents Association, and your District Housing Manager, informing them you have resigned as Treasurer. (If you have any other responsibilities, such as administering a community chest grant, write to them as well.) Post a notice of your resignation on the communal notice board.

3. Ring the bank and inform them you are no longer Treasurer for the Association's account and you have relinquished all signing privileges.They will ask you to write a letter (or send a fax) saying this. They will also send you a form to sign as well.

4. Balance your books. (You need to have all your bank statements for the TRA, plus all the receipts, and records of all cheques paid into the account and all cheques paid out by the Association. If the PLUS amount and the MINUS amount equals the amount the bank says you have in your Association's bank account, your books are balanced. While you are balancing your books, write it out again, explaining each expense and income (this is your TREASURER'S REPORT)

5. Once your books are balanced, ring the Camden Federation of Tenants and Residents Association and arrange to have an audit (do this BEFORE  you hand over the books to someone else in your TRA).

6. Make photocopies of everything (cheque book, cheques out/cheques in/bills/receipts/bank statements/ grants). Make two copies of your bank statements, and all receipts, and your Treasurer's Report (a written explanation of in-coming and out-going expenses)  so you can leave one copy with the Camden Federation of Tenants and Residents Association, at the audit meeting.

7. The audit takes about half an hour (You'll probably spend more time looking for the office, than you will auditing the books). The accountant (a lovely man called Richard Pearl, circa 2005) will look at your bank statements, and check one or two receipts, to be certain you are recording things accurately. If the books balance (or you know why they don't - an out-standing cheque which hasn't been paid into your account for a small DMC bid, for instance) the accountant will be happy.

8. Once the books are safely audited, and you have photocopies of your records in a safe place, hand the books and the cheque book to the senior co-Chair, to pass on to whomever is going to be the interim treasurer.

9. If you've resigned, resign. Don't do anything else for the Residents' Association for at least three months, or everyone will expect you to carry on just as if you hadn't resigned at all. (Follow through with demanding a meeting to appoint your replacement, however).  Once your books have been audited, you are free and clear from the job, and once you have informed the bank you are no longer a signatory, you can't co-sign cheques.

10. Refer the interim treasurer to this webpage. Being a Treasurer for a Residents' Association isn't difficult. If you could sort it out, so can they.

HOW TO KEEP THE BOOKS FOR A Residents' Association

Get yourself a large Arch-Lever File Binder in your favourite colour. While you're in the shop, buy yourself a stapler and two-hole hole punch and several heavy plastic folders that click shut (for loose papers which might otherwise fall out of your binder). Also buy a package of A5 envelopes.

Put your bank statements in the Binder (use your hole punch)

Number your receipts consecutively (write the number on the front of the receipt). Photocopy all your receipts, and add the details to it as you need (such as the number of the receipt)

Put your receipts into separate A5 envelopes, write the details on the front of the envelope (including receipt number, cheque number, who you paid,  what it was for), seal the envelope, and put it in your Binder (use your hole punch). Put the photocopy of the receipt in your binder as well.

For every cheque you pay out, you should have receipts to match that amount. Don't be tempted to 'lump everything together' and just pay out one lump sum. Try to write out one cheque for  one receipt, if possible (which will make your book-keeping much simpler in the long-run, because you'll be able to very quickly see why the cheque written).

Try to write the details  (such as the number of the receipt) on the cheque face and photocopy your cheques, if possible, before sending them out.This will give you an accurate record of out-goings, at a glance.

Try to keep an On-going balance sheet of income and expenses.If you have anyone who knows about spreadsheets, you can set up a very simple spreadsheet; if you don't, just draw five columns on a piece of paper and fill it in by hand, or print off the following CHART:

Follow the instructions for making a Treasurer's Report

How to Resign if you are Treasurer

TREASURER'S REPORT

1. ON A PIECE OF PAPER, LIST THE TRA'S OPENING BALANCE (THE AMOUNT OF MONEY YOU STARTED WITH AT THE AGM WHERE YOU WERE ELECTED)

2. LIST DETAILS OF INCOME:
date                income  source               explanation of income                         amount  (add all these up)

for example:

date	cheque number	income source	explanation of income	amount
21.09.2002		District Housing	small DMC bid	1,000.00
01.10.2002		District Housing	large DMC bid	10,000.00
11.10.2002		CFTRA	operating grant	150.00
17.01.2003		Community Chest	community chest grant	5,000.00

(add all these up)

3. LIST DETAILS OF EXPENSES:
date                expense             explanation of expense                         amount
(add all these up)


for example:

date	cheque number	expense source	explanation of expense including receipt number	amount
29.09.2002	1	Wiggly Wigglers	receipts 1, 2,3. small DMC bid ecological project - worms	100.00
28.02.2003	2	Betty's Heavenly Herbs	receipt 4. community chest grant - organic lavender and rosemary hedge	30.00

(add all these up)

4. SUBTRACT EXPENSES FROM INCOME. That should be your bank balance. If it isn't, go find all your recipts, and keep going over your accounts until it is. Print it up and destribute it to everyone. Your report has to be approved at the next meeting (or Annual General Meeting, if that comes first). Every Treasurer must submit an annual report to the Annual General Meeting, to show where the money is, or went.