Why No Subs Collection Yet?

Normally we start collecting membership subscriptions shortly after the AGM. We haven't done that this year because first we need to sort out our bank account.

Until now we have had a "community" account with HSBC. This was designed for our kind of small organisation. However HSBC have now decided to end this kind of bank account and move us on to their standard Business bank account, which charges £6.50 per month (£78 per year), plus some other fees.

We are currently looking for an alternative account, but we haven't been able to find one so far. HSBC want to charge almost half of our annual subscriptions merely for storing the money, which seems unreasonable. However without any alternative we may just have to pay. The only alternative is having our Treasurer keep the money himself, either as cash or in his current account. Neither of these is acceptable.

We will consider this again at our next committee meeting in January.