They Want a What?!

I'd like to start by offering condolences to Ruth's family. She was a member of the Fairtrade committee, and she died suddenly last week.

Our treasurer phoned up the Co-op Bank, where we have our account, to inform them, as Ruth was a co-signatory of the Fairtrade group's cheques.
"Of course, we'll need to see the death certificate," said the young man at the other end of the phone.

The what?!!
The last thing a grieving family needs at a time like this is the members of a voluntary committee, that the deceased just happened to be a member of, coming round to ask for a copy of the death certificate!

"I couldn't possibly do that," our treasurer said. The young man consulted his supervisor.
Fortunately Julie, who started the whole Fairtrade movement in Hay, was still on the books as a co-signatory even though she had resigned from the group. Eventually the Co-op agreed that Jo and Julie could sign something together saying that Ruth had died. Her name could then be taken off the cheques. Julie's name would also be taken off the cheques, and then the group would need to find a new co-signatory. Which would be me - there pretty much isn't anyone else.

We've got about £300 in the Fairtrade account, not a fortune by any stretch of the imagination - we're hardly going to be laundering drug money, or funding terrorists, or whatever they think we might be doing. We're just a little voluntary organisation - so are the rules that the bank were applying really appropriate? It seems like a disproportionately strict application of the rules to me.