Sunday, May 29, 2011

Weekly Reflection: Three

    I learned a lot in this last week. I mostly worked on the OBRA retirement project and on finishing up the tailings list in order to lesson the overall variance in the system. I learned how to re-issue the manual checks in the Treasurer’s office with Joanne instead of issuing them through Sue in the Auditors Office. I also sat down a few times this week with John Turner from Nationwide to finish out my OBRA project. In the beginning, John gave me a list of 800 names that needed addresses and by the end I found 430 so he will be able to close out those people’s accounts with Nationwide, which is a good thing for both the individual and Nationwide.
    For the most part I liked what I was working on this week. I thought it was very cool to be able to find most of the variance in the system at Easthampton and be able to say where the money belonged instead of having it missing. This week, Melissa and I lessened the variance by more then 60%. I think that I was asked to work on finding the variance in the system because one wants the variance to be at zero going into a new fiscal year. One is allowed to write off some of it but only a couple thousand dollars. I was asked to do the OBRA retirement project because it was a project no one in the Treasurers Office had time to do so it was a perfect chance for me and Nationwide to work together. There were no big surprises in the office this week and everything went as planned.
    I had a fun last week at Easthampton City Hall. It was a great experience that I was able to take advantage of. I got to learn tons of new things to carry with me into college and even later in life. I met a lot of cool new people and got to see behind the scenes in a local government office. I had a lot of fun and will miss being there with everyone.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Day Thirteen: Thursday 26th

Today was a short day. I started by talking to my Sponsor about how sad it was that it was my last day.. She then went over the sponsor’s evaluation form with me to review my progress over the past three weeks. I then did a few money transfers and was able to do them on my own now which I thought was pretty cool. Next I worked on depositing some money by filling out deposit slips and making sure the money amount added up to the amount stated was being given to me by the certain department. Next I helped my sponsor re-organize her office since she had set it up with two desks just for me. We spent a lot of time on this and cleaning up. Next we had a nice lunch together and said our goodbyes. I will be returning on Tuesday to deliver some cookies to the city hall and say my last goodbyes. I had a great three weeks here and will miss the people a lot.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Day Twelve: Wednesday 25th

Today was a very busy day! When I first arrived at the office, I found the sheet of paper that John returned to me regarding the checks that were voided for the veterans. He told me that all the checks were cleared so that I could enter this amount into the cash book and lesson the variance even more. Judy also gave me the list back of people that we did not have addresses for for the OBRA retirement project. She knew 14 of the people so I could eliminate them form the list of people who did not have correct addresses. Next Chamele from the retirement office came in and asked us to stamp her checks for the people who receive retirement checks through her office. I stamped the checks for her and Melissa and I went over the amount that she said she was paying these people and see if it matched with the warrants. It did match so we stamped the checks and she was good to go. Next I worked on a proposal to the City Council for parking tickets. The rate of the parking ticket was being proposed to be raise my ten dollars and the mark fee by ten dollars. This made it so if a parking ticket was late now it would be sixty five dollars instead of forty five dollars. This extra money earned on parking tickets would go to maintaining the sidewalks of the city. Since this proposal is being proposed by Melissa (who is also the parking clerk) and the Chief of Police, we went over to the police station and dropped the proposal off in dispatch to be signed by the Chief tomorrow. This proposal will be presented to the City Council where they will vote on it to pass or not. Next I wrote a collection letter for an insufficient fund. Someone had written a bad check to the city so they are now charged the amount of the check plus twenty five dollars. I wrote this letter to the individual and a copy of the check that was not good for him to pay to the order of the treasurers office. Lastly I talked to Joanne about my poster board and presentation and began to plan out how it was all going to fit together. I had a fun but long day today.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Day Eleven: Tuesday 24th

The first thing I did today was initiated payment for this weeks payment for the city. This pays all the employees that work for the city of Easthampton. Next I went to work some more on the OBRA project. The spread sheet has a list of maybe 50 people who they do not have the correct address for. I printed out this list and gave it to Judy who works in the Personnels Office to see if she would recognize any of the names because she has worked for the city for such a long time. Judy will get back to be with the list if she notices anyone on that list tomorrow. After the OBRA project I payed the health insurance bill for the city and sent in child support wages to the state. I then worked on entering receipts for this week into the cashbook. I had a little mix up with the numbers but I figured it out. Lastly I worked some more on the tailing project. I found more checks (vet checks) that were cleared and subtracted them from our over all variance, so our variance dropped. Over all I have found more then 50% of the variance and am helping to get the city ready for the next fiscal year with a clean slate.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Day Ten: Monday 23rd

Today I continued to work on the tailings and OBRA project. I took all the forms that were sent back from the tailings project of people requesting their checks to be re-issued, and I gave them to Joanne and she will write manual checks for those people. Later on I entered the cleared checks from our tailings spread sheet into the cashbook to lesson the overall variance in the system. Next I met with John Turner from Nationwide. He explained some more specifics on the project and expressed some concerns. I more time finding address and trying to use the software correctly to find these individuals current addresses. Next a few people came into pay their parking tickets and we filled out some forms and cleared their parking ticket. It is important to call the DMV right after they pay off their parking ticket so people can have their cars registered, or license renewed. Lastly I filled out a form to claim abandoned money belonging to the city of Easthampton. Melissa found that this money was abandoned on the DOR abandoned property website. I searched for my mom, dad, and grandparents names on this website and found that my grandpa had a bunch of abandoned money and was able to show him how to claim it. Today was a long day and I will continue to work on the OBRA project tomorrow.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Weekly Reflection: Two

Going into this second week I felt a lot more confident. I learned a lot of new things, and I also had a solid understanding of last week's activities, making me feel more comfortable doing work on my own this week. I have continued to do things like balancing accounts, receipts, reconciliation, and tailings. This week though I have done two completely new activities. One new project was working with the OBRA retirement funds. This project so far has consisted of researching people who have previously worked for the City of Easthampton and have retired. They have a retirement account with OBRA and they have money in these accounts that has been sitting there for a while that needs to be taken out. I have been in contact with Mr. Turner from Nationwide who is helping me work on this project. I need to check that all the people have retired on his list, get the treasurer to sign off that they have retired and then Nationwide can contact the people to close their accounts. The second event that I attended, which was by far the coolest, was a trip to the State House in Boston, Massachusetts. On this trip I had the chance to meet with the legislator and senator that represent the region in which Easthampton is located. In the morning I listened to some speakers of the house speak about what is currently going on with our budget and income. One thing that I thought was really neat was that when we talked with other treasurers from other towns at this event, I actually knew what they were talking about and what “treasurer terms” they were using. Lastly, I had a tour around the State House. I learned about everything from what the art work represented on the walls, to how much the roof cost to coat in gold, to what the cod fish represented in the house of senate. I learned a lot on this trip and it was also really exciting. I had a great second week so far and I think have been reaching all my goals and meeting a lot of interesting people in the process.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Day Nine: Thursday 19th


Today I got up very early to meet up with other treasurers at the State House. Melissa and I drove to meet some treasurer on a bus that we all go to talk on on our way to the State House. This gave me some time to meet other people on the bus and talk to them about issues going on in their own towns. When we got to the State House we all met and had breakfast in the grand hall. The grand hall in a beautiful marble room with flags from every 351 cities in Mass. Next we listened to some people speak from the State House and then we were all dismissed to go talk with the legislature and senators that represented our regions. Then a few of the people in the group seperated and wondered around the building sitting in a the senators meeting in session and peeking into legislatures offices. Next we had lunch back in the grand hall. After lunch we had our photo taken on the grand staircase before our final event. Lastly we had a grand tour of the State House which was very interesting and I learned a lot. I loved the trip to the State House and think I got to learn a lot about the house as well as meet new treasurers from other towns in Mass.