- Title
- The Emergency Treasurer
- Genre
- Everyday Life
- Premise
- A man turns up at a residents’ association meeting to complain about loose bin lids and is accidentally elected treasurer because nobody else looks annoyed enough to be competent.
- Specific job/task
- He must present the association accounts at the next meeting despite not knowing where the accounts are or what counts as association money.
- Precise setting detail
- The meeting takes place in a church hall side room with stackable chairs, a humming strip light and a noticeboard full of out-of-date exercise classes.
- Mundane system complication
- The previous treasurer kept everything in a petty-cash tin, three handwritten IOUs and a folder labelled ‘Later’.
- Decision that turns the story
- He decides not to resign and instead presents the tin as a bold transparency measure, which earns the committee’s trust.