Who’s who in the Guild? And what do they do?
Tim Phillips
Guild Treasurer & Membership Secretary
The first in an occasional series which intends to shine some light onto the inner workings of our Guild by explaining the various roles and responsibilities of the elected officers and introducing the member who currently holds the office.
The core responsibilities of the Guild Treasurer are set out in the Rules:
The Guild Treasurer shall maintain an accurate account of Guild Income and Expenditure. The accounts will be made up at the end of each calendar year, and be presented to the Independent Examiner. The accounts along with the report of the Independent Examiner to be presented to the AGM of the Guild. (Rule 5:6)
So the essence of the Treasurer’s job is to manage and control the Guild’s income and expenditure.
When we adopted the new membership system we also established a new role of Membership Secretary to administer the system and, while there are two separate jobs and job descriptions, the two roles interact regularly, especially with regard to the collection of and accounting for subscriptions income, so it makes sense that the same person holds both roles.
Tim began ringing as a teenager but let his interest lapse for 25 years or so until he picked it up again when he moved to Bristol with a new job in his career with Lloyds Bank.
As Tower Captain at Sherborne Abbey, he occupies himself with teaching a thriving group of learners as well as ringing quarter peals periodically with the more experienced ringers.
In common with most other members of the Executive Committee, Tim is also heavily involved in his branch as one of the Ringing Masters of West Dorset and often runs branch practices and training sessions.
Tim’s ringing passion is Surprise Minor, having conducted quarter peals of over 100 different Surprise Minor methods; and rung in over 1,300. He’s also rung twenty peals but he openly admits concentrating for three plus hours on a single thing is beyond his butterfly mind. Butterflies are his other main hobby, of which he’s bred thousands of over the years.
As well as Butterflies, Tim’s interests encompass all of natural history and, as a member of the “Swifts over Sherborne” project, has built 10 swift nest boxes in the belfry in Sherborne Abbey, ready for occupation, he hopes, next year by breeding pairs.
