Changes to how we manage our money
When David Joseph retired as Finance Manager earlier this year, everyone at the General Assembly was really sad to see him leave, after ten years at the heart of the team at Essex Hall.
When someone leaves, and you consider the gap in your team, it can offer an opportunity to think differently about the team’s function, rather than simply recruiting a like-for-like replacement.
The Executive Committee undertook a review, which recommended restructuring how we work, to move the day-to-day finance function to a specialist partner organisation.
We have appointed Pulse Accountants, a firm based near Darlington, to provide book-keeping, accountancy services, payroll management and other reporting tools. The arrangement gives us stronger, more current, and flexible financial reporting and helps us achieve good value for the movement’s money.
This change means the General Assembly no longer has a need for a part-time Finance Assistant role, and we are sorry to be saying goodbye to Natalja Talikova, who has held that post for the past three years.
Natalja came to us with experience of providing financial support to a Buddhist community, and during her time with us successfully completed a Master’s degree in Quantitative Finance with Data Science, which enabled her to start a part-time role in data analytics with Christian Aid earlier this year. We have no doubt her career will go from strength to strength. We are grateful for everything that she has given the GA, and we wish her every success.
John Bates, the GA’s Honorary Treasurer, said: “Good stewardship of the movement’s resources is one of the clearest responsibilities we hold, and so it was right that we took some time to figure out the best way to do that. This arrangement gives us access to better reporting tools than we have had and puts our finance function on a strong financial footing. I want to record my thanks to both David and Natalja, for their considered service and care in getting us this far.”