Happy Christmas!

IT is April, the hottest day of the year so far - and I have been decorating a small, battered tinsel tree with beads and ribbons, and wrapping empty boxes in metallic red and silver paper.  I even donned festive headgear, found some unused crackers at the back of a cupboard, and unearthed one of the stockings I made The Daughters when they were toddlers.

Normally I am the first to complain that Christmas gets earlier every year, so what, you may well ask, is the reason for this unseasonal activity?

The answer is quite simple really.  I am a volunteer with New Way Savings and Credit Union and we were promoting our Christmas Savings Club at a village Fun Day.  Naturally, we wanted something eye-catching to attract people's attention - and a Christmas tree seemed the obvious solution.

It certainly made people notice us, and we did get a few new members for the Christmas Savings Club.  Many people stopped to chat and there was a lot of interest, especially from pupils at the village school, where we run a school bank.

This was my first experience helping the credit union at an outdoor event as my role usually involves me taking notes at meetings, producing minutes and reports, sending letters and so forth.  However, today's activities were the first in a summer-long campaign aimed at increasing membership and upping our profile in the community, so we could all be very busy in the months ahead.

For those who don't know, a credit union is a kind of financial co-operative.  It is a 'people's bank', owned by the members, who receive an annual dividend on their savings, and also have access to small, easily accessible loans.

Unlike major banks, directors (who must be members), receive no payments or fees, apart from the standard dividend on savings.