A Message from the EWC Business Manager
Beloved friends, my love for the Caucus brings me to the decision that I must soon retire from the post of Business Manager. At age 73, even though I thank God that I am in excellent health, the reality is that I could become incapacitated or die sometime soon. I don't want to leave the Caucus without someone who can make some sense out of all the records--membership, mailing lists, financial data, archives--that are in my computer, my basement and my head.
We need to find someone who has some
time, energy, and computer skills. The new Business Manager doesn't have to do things just the way I have done them, of course, but if we find someone with some skills in database work, spreadsheets, and something like Quicken, there could be an easy transition for the computer data.
I have used Microsoft Access, and have
automated a lot of the procedures, especially the ones that get us the best possible PostalService discounts and address changes, but any database manager program can do the tasks that are essential for the mailings.
Recording donations and membership
gifts and sending acknowledgments, keeping financial records and submitting to annual audits, working with the Ruach Editor/Production Manager, sending out fundraiser and membership-renewal mailings, responding to requests for information, communicating with (and aiding the communication among) the Board members, some liaison with our Web Editor--these are the primary tasks.
It would be reasonable, and possible, for
the work to be split between two persons.
The Board has insisted that I take some
pay for the work I do. I have tried to keep that under the amount EWC used to pay a commercial printing/mailing house.
I would be happy to spend several days,
if necessary, with the person(s) who are taking over this work, explaining my system or helping to change over to a different system.
I believe good stewardship demands that
I turn this work over to other people at least by the 2006 General Convention. Interested persons can contact me at the addresses inside the front cover of this issue of Ruach.