Treasurer - William Lim

A treasurer's job can be summed up in one sentence, in a nutshell, he/she takes care of COSDU's finances.

Which includes a few aspects, the obvious ones would be safeguarding COSDU's petty cash and bank account, record all transactions, keep and maintain all relevant receipts and documents, and finally generate the financial statement in AGM and report on COSDU's finances in the past 1 year.

As the treasurer of a club under student union (UMSU), one task would be filling out forms in applying for grants, and other paperwork related to it. As the treasurer of a not-for-profit religious society, another task would be ensuring we have adequate funds in running various events throughout the year by having fundraising activities, and leaving enough money for the continued existence of COSDU.

Which brings the next point, one important role of the treasurer is to try to balance our finances, which is to raise enough funds to cover our expenditure. One way to do this is to have an idea of what events would be held in the term and budget accordingly, and run fundraising activities to meet those budgeted expenses, or make a formal request of a grant to the Archdiocese of Melbourne. The main activities would be the sale of movie tickets, Festival of Nations and Night Market, and other sources of income are the collections we have in masses and the membership fee we get.

Requirements for a treasurer would be:

·         A basic knowledge in accounting.

-          Not so much on knowing what is debit or credit (though knowing would certainly help much more), since the records we need to make are fairly basic entries of incomes and expenses, but rather the format of the financial report and bookkeeping.

-          If you don't have it's ok, you just need to learn it during the handover period.

·         Honesty

-          Self-explanatory.

Other things that would help in being a treasurer are the same things that one needs in other things, skills like being attentive to details, careful, knowing how to manage one's time well etc.

Ok above are all the things you need to know in becoming the treasurer of COSDU, some tips in being effective or other technical details in doing a treasurer's job will be passed to the next treasurer in the handover. Of course being the treasurer doesn't mean your scope of work only relates to your position's portfolio, you will be supporting the committee and helping in all things run by COSDU.

If all you want to know is what a treasurer does, you can stop here, the following would be some boring and mundane sharing of mine in being the treasurer of COSDU.

I've been in COSDU almost my whole university life, i remember joining it near Easter in my first year of uni and went for the Easter Camp shortly after, so COSDU has really been integral to my university experience. Sadly to say, the first two years haven't really been fantastic, my uni experience that is, while i attend COSDU's sessions regularly, i don't think i have ever fully involved myself in it, like every other thing in uni. But still, COSDU would be the thing i look forward to every Friday, and it really has been the family away from home in a foreign country for me.

I wasn't serious in anything i did in the first two years, even when i ran for social acitivities coordinator in my second year, and deservedly so i lost to a person who was more committed. After two years of wallowing in wilderness, i have sorta come to my senses and decided to run seriously for a position in COSDU, to do something for the community which has given me something to look forward to in a foreign land, and most importantly to be more active in university while i still have the chance. And to be frank, also to put something down under my university  extra-curricular activities section in my resume :P

So i ran for the position of treasurer, being the position closest to what i'm studying and also being the position of something i'm most interested in. I thank the members of COSDU for giving me a chance to give something back to COSDU, and thankful i am indeed. Throughout this term, i can confidently say i have grown and matured to be a better person, and i'm not just saying this perfunctorily in every stepping down speech, i truly have changed and improved in being a better person, at least slightly better than what i used to be (a wanker, if you still think i am one, i apologize and will continue to try to attempt to continue improve myself).

It is through works that one can really learn and change. Only when one is doing something useful can one sense meaning and satisfaction, this i firmly believe.

I think i'll stop here before i further bore myself, this sharing is pretty much about my personal journey and i didn't talk much about journeying with my fellow committee members, not enough space for that but i believe my fellow comm members would have such sharings.

All in all, it doesn't really matter what position you are running for, so long as you are running for one.