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Catton's, but delves more deeply into the practical aspects of
assessing potential income. Discussing sociological factors and
levels of giving, he comments that "there seems to be the widest
variety of practice, and very little evidence of the research under-
taken to determine the factors" but tends to the conclusions that
(i) potential is better than actual, and (ii) whilst instituting a
potential system involves a lot of hard work, subsequently maintaining
it is markedly easier.
5.4.2
Laughlin
In an undated paper
(T6)
Richard Laughlin of Sheffield University
isolates seven requirements which any allocation system should be
required to satisfy:
"1. It should be able to raise the money as required.
2. It should be dynamic in terms of its ability to raise
sometimes large additional sums...and to communicate the
effect of this to each parish quickly.
3. It should be able to give a target to parishes for them
to raise.
4. It should be able to differentiate those parishes which
are pulling their weight and those that are not.
5. It should be able to link parishes together somehow so
that those who are learning lessons about giving can pass
on their knowledge to others.
6. It should appear justifiable to the parishes in terms of
the resulting charge made upon them.
7. It should be as simple as possible."
and he then proceeds to test various ideas against these seven.
Actual income he considers "fails badly on conditions 2, 3, 4, 5, and
7." and potential income "is strong on conditions 3 and 4, passable
