Critter - can you please forward your auditing information to me, also? My email is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We are looking into auditing procedures and this would be VERY helpful. Thanks.
Thanks for the replies. Just to clarify she will not be conducting the audit an, outside person will, but the problem is she does not even have the reports, reciepts, statements ect. ready to hand over to him. anyways..Critter could you send me those forms please. thanks again you guys!
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I think your trez has given you a great chance to check out her work. She doesn't want to do the audit (which she shouldn't be doing anyway since she is herself the trez), so you and the VP should jump at the opportunity. By conducting the annual financial review, you will see first hand if she has been following sound financial practices and adhering to your PTO's procedures.
If she has gotten lazy or sloppy, that will be obvious from an audit. For example, it seems surprising to me that she would allow the bank balance to go to zero if there were outstanding payables. As trez, she should have known about those bills and made sure there is money to pay them. As the auditor, you will see the bank balance, all transactions for the year, and her filing and recording system.
Also, a good audit report should include recommendations by the audit team for improvements to the group's financial controls and money handling procedures. If you are uncomfortable with the way she has been doing the job (ex: no treasurer reports in the summer), then the audit report can identify those problems and recommend improvements. You can blame the impersonal world of "auditing" if she gets defensive or you feel funny "telling her how to do her job".
If you need some tips on what exactly is an audit for a PTO, check out the March 2004 issue of PTOtoday magazine. I also have the forms we provided to our auditor if you want some info by email.
And, of course, we are all busy. She just has chosen to put other bus-i-ness at a higher priority than PTO. If she can't readjust her priorities, she may not the right person for the job.
More and more recently, when I here the excuse about why someone hasn't done a job they stood up to do, is because they're so "busy". Well you know what, we all are. If you chose to do the job, do it. If you can't, get out so someone else can. I work a full time job, have a family, take care of my disabled mother, church obligations and I volunteer for PTA. Every moment of every day is full. Don't tell me you're busy because if I can do it. You can. (and the biggest complainers are the ones who aren't nearly as busy as you are!! )
Do your bylaws state anything about missing a certain number of meetings, person can be removed? Many of our bylaws state that if a person misses three or more meetings, they cease to hold the position. Of course, that can be overridden if the situations were excusable and understandable but if you're fed up, you can stand behind the rule instead of initiating the impeachment.
Yes, I'm sure she's busy, as are you and everyone else who volunteers but you are even busier when you have to do someone elses work or clean up after them. You signed up to do your own job. Not hers. If your bylaws state that she is to initiate the audit, then she needs to do it or quit.
[ 08-02-2004, 04:00 PM: Message edited by: Michelle B ]
I need some advice from you guys!! Here is our situation...I am the newly elected president for the 04-05 school year. I was very involved in last years pto and school events so I had a first hands glance at the work of our treasurer who was elected again for this school year. She is a teacher and all around nice person, but she has not done her job very well. When we had heard she won the election we were somewhat bummed out because we knew that we would have to stay on top of her about doing her job, which in my opionion is the most important!! anyways here is my problem. I have called her several times this summer to let her know about meetings and bylaw changes ect. no response for a least a week after I called. there was no money in our account and we still had bills to pay and checks still coming through. so again i call her and told her that we need to borrow $ from our school's account for the rest of the bills ect. finally after about 8 days she returned my call. come to find out she has not done last years audit and had no idea what the balance was in the account. She pretty much said that it hadn't been a top priority for her since school has been out. The audit was to be done and overlooked by an outside person before June 15. It wasnt done and now she is saying WE need to get the audit done. I am in the middle here, my vp and another board member are having a MAJOR issue over this and I am trying to give our treasrer another chance to prove herself. We have made our bylaws a little more strict in her job description thinking that it would open her eyes to what she needs to do. We have a mandatory meeting next week and I am sure that it is going to be a exciting one. our treasuer who hasent been at any of our summer meetings said she would be here and probably only because I told her it was mandatory and that the board has some questions and concerns about finances. What would some of you do in this situation...give her another chance to clean up her mistakes or get her out (which wont be a problem with the rest of the board members)...her reasons for not doing her job is that she taught summer school and that her son is starting college this semester and just didnt have time to do the books. She said that is has been really hard this summer. Well, half my board are single moms at the moment because we are a military school so our husbands are gone to iraq and I know that this will come up at the meeting that we have it hard too, but we VOLUNTEERED to do this job so if you didnt want or knew you couldnt commit to the postion then why did you run for it. Anyways I will quit rambling, but I would really like your feed back on what you think I should do. Thanks for listening to my pto drama, I feel better now!
anyways..Critter could you send me those forms please. thanks again you guys!
