United Kingdom and Nigeria · susu, chama or esusu

A church welfare committee

Twenty members, monthly, one organiser and a deputy treasurer.

The welfare committee runs a monthly circle for twenty members of the congregation. The organiser is the committee's secretary; the treasurer is the deputy. Both travel, and both are sometimes away for a month.

The committee needs to know who approves what when the secretary is away, and to be able to show the whole membership, at the annual meeting, that every pound or naira went where it should.

When the rotation ends, most members want to go again, straight away, with the same people.

What worries them

Who decides when the organiser is away?

Showing the membership a record they trust, not one person's spreadsheet.

Starting again each year without setting everything up from scratch.

What Rotaro changes

• Every group has a deputyThe treasurer accepts the deputy role. A payment made to the organiser is decided by the deputy. If the organiser leaves, the deputy leads and names a new deputy.
• Changes that need two peopleCancelling a running group, setting the remaining order by hand, redrawing or swapping turns: one leader asks, the other approves. Nothing big happens on one person's say-so.
• A record the whole committee readsEntries are never edited or deleted. Each carries a code of the one before it, so any change would show. The membership can read the whole history.
• Several groups on one planA committee that runs more than one circle manages them all from one account, on a plan paid once by the organiser.
• A new rotation in a tapWhen the last round closes, the group starts again with the same people, and the old record stays.

Their first steps

1. Start the group and name the treasurer as deputy.

2. Invite the twenty members; each reads and accepts the committee's rules.

3. Draw the order at the meeting, where everyone can check it.