Q&A

Person with a "past" wants to treasure an event... advice?

I just found out that one of our board members was recently arrested (3 mos ago) for check fraud that happened 2004. Their business isn't doing so great along w/a couple of evictions in the past few years. This person offered to be (night of event) treasurer - with 2 other people. I have NO reason to think there is any funny business planned! Would anyone take any action/precautions? What would you do (if anything)?
-

The first thing I would do is get bonding insurance if you don't have it already. Bonding insurance protects your group in case of theft of funds, and it's one type of insurance that every group should have -- no matter who's handling the money. One problem with letting this person be in charge of the money for your event is that if there's a shortfall, even due to an honest mistake, people will be suspicious. The easiest way around this would probably be for your treasurer to take over. That's a fairly easy explanation -- "Thanks for your offer but Mary has decided to do it herself." No matter who ends up in charge, use standard precautions for handling cash: only take money at one point, create a paper trail, always have at least two people present when handling cash, and make your deposit immediately. Good luck!
- Craig
Links in this post:

bonding insurance: https:/classic.ptotoday.com//insurance/

standard precautions for handling cash: https:/classic.ptotoday.com//pto-today-articles/article/391-handling-cash-6-simple-steps