Financial prudence wins

I was in town early to attend the monthly Radio Users Group this morning. It provided a good opportunity to Sarah, our retail operations co-ordinator and newest CBS team recruit, to publicise her current project of getting security staff engaged with crime incident reporting and registration under the Data Protection Act, ready for her meeting with them tomorrow.

Later in the day, Ashley and I visited the bank to arrange transfer of the final sum of money that finally releases titular ownership of the radios and network equipment to us, bringing closure to negotiation, and freedom to revise budgets with new aims in mind. The bank officials took ages with us over security verification before authorising the transfer, even though Ashley is a well known regular customer. It's odd when you think that I could have made the transfer alone by internet banking, albeit in two payments. On this occasion it needed to be one and as it was a moment to remember, we went together, in person. 

The bank's caution is praiseworthy if time wasting under the circumstances. The process would have been smoother, less prone to inconsistency if more bank employees remained longer in the same branch, long enough to get to know all regular customers. Like the police and other public officials however, it seems staffing is forever in a state of flux, and this isn't beneficial to the end-user.

As sustainability and stability are essential to the operation of CBS, we have to plan thoroughly. We can't afford risk or extravagance. But, as men in our late sixties, raised through post war frugality, followed by a dash of progressive optimism in life as young adults, we share from our respective backgrounds a sense of what cautious  development involves, and have results to show for it. The trouble is that officers we have to work with in Council or Police rarely understand how business works. They know how to manage budgets, but financial resources are given them to work with, not earned. That can make a difference in realistic planning, so we need to be single minded when it comes to financial control over the enterprise.