You've got a lot of questions here. Let's take them one at a time.
If you have a public school, then you can request the info from the school but all that you will find is that the money was pooled with other monies and you won't be able to follow the trail of it's spending.
Your PTSO is a 501c3? Then it doesn't have to comply with PR request EXCEPT for the 990 tax records that all 501c3's have to fill out IF THEY earn over 25K (or an annual average over 3 years..blah, blah......) I forgot another methed to get it- a court order.
You need to get a copy of it's bylaws and see how this org. is set up- Who reports to whom, who has final say over funds, if an audit is required, who does the audit. Usually, if you have insurance (AIM is one of the sponsors of this site!) they require an annual audit of the books to get insurance. It will tell you if this org.'s officers have the authority to withhold that info from you.
PTAs are indeed private. They are "members only" as Tim has stated many times. The prevailing philosophy is for as much transparency as possible when dealing with financial accounting practices. While some org.s post their budgets on the net and appoint committees to decide how funds will be spent, some are cagey about all of this. It only hurts the org. to be secretive about raising and spending funds that are solicited from parents of a school.
This helps so much. Let me give you some more. The PTSO received money from the school fundraiser. Don't you think that warrants the right to ask where the money went? The PTSO lawyer is saying that they don't have to comply with public record requests. It all seems to contrary to how any school organization should act. You're right, they might be technically "private" but all the parents considered it the school parent club. Is a PTA private, too? Do they have to submit to PRA's? When you said that the PTSO could restrict except to its members, does that mean that any PTSO parent could ask for records and they would have to comply?
If the org. is a private org. that is to say, has membership that is somehow limited and gets no funds from government sources, it cannot be forced to disclose its financials other than to submit a 990 and a schedule A to people that request it. That part is public info and to refuse to disclose it is a crime with a monetary penalty based on the amount of days that it refuses to disclose the info. That said, the minutes and it's budget and how their money is spent is none of any body's business except its members.
I have a question and need lots of input. Our PTO has refused to share its minutes or expenditure records with members of the public who have requested them. They are claiming that because they are a "private business" they have the discretion to manage their business records as they so choose.
How ethical is that? We donate funds, we fundraise. They use our children to raise funds, but they now don't want to tell us what happened to the money? Do you feel it's fair for anyone to be able to review the meeting minutes and expenditure records?
Are PTO's not subject to the same request for public records that normally apply? Can PTA's get away with saying they aren't going to release records? From my perspective, this would be the last time I think the school district should approve any fundraiser with an organization that would do this.
I need your feedback. Who knows the law and what is your reaction?
"I have alot of experience in both PTA and PTO schools, one letter dose not make people volunteer!"
This is the point. Dropping PTA for PTO will not improve involvement by itself!
The same is true of PTO's that change to PTA.
You must take a deep close look at what is going on in your group. Be objective.
You will find that the fact is paying or not paying dues has little effect on volunteerism.
