Hey, thanks for the quick response. Sorry it took me so long(breakfast w/Santa & craft bazaar this weekend). The charges being applied to the account are collection fees. The co. refuses to take this out of collection or make any arrangements for payment. I guess I really don't blame them because this bill was with a yearbook publishing co. that goes back for charges for 2 years & 2 different presidents. From what I can tell( I have no records, yet another saga)there was an outstanding balance of $2200 when they did the next yearbooks(which I couldn't believe a co. would do after being owed that much),adding $4200 to the bill. Late fees & collection charges added, the bill now is $7468. As for a lawyer in our PTO...No lawyer but plenty of farmers..not much help there. What a great first year! THANKS!

THIS IS REALLY REALLY BAD. I FEEL SO SORRY FOR YOU. MY FIRST THOUGHT WOULD BE ~~IS THERE ANYWAY YOU CAN SEEK RESTITUTION WITH THE FORMER PRESIDENT? ARE THEY LIABLE TO THE ORGANIZATION FOR THOSE MISSING FUNDS?? MY SECOND THOUGHT IS WHO SIGNED THE CONTRACT WITH THIS COMPANY THAT YOU ARE IN DEBT TOO? ALSO~~YOU WOULD LEGALLY NOT HAVE ASSUMED THIS DEBT WHEN YOU TOOK OVER IF YOU DID NOT SIGN THE ORIGINAL CONTRACT. MAYBE GIVE THE COMPANY THE OLD PRESIDENTS HOME NUMBER...?AS A LAST RESORT COULD YOU CLOSE DOWN THE CURRENT PARENT TEACHER ORGANIZATION, DECLAIR BANCRUPTCY, AND REGROUP MAYBE AS A ELEMENTARY CO-OPERATIVE GROUP? GIVE UP THE OLD DEBT LEGALLY, AND BEGIN ANEW.... I WOULD ASK A LAWYER, YOU MUST HAVE ONE IN THE PARENT GROUP NOW........ GOOD LUCK

What charges? Are they charging you interest? Is that in your contract? If there aren't interest charges specifically spelled out, you shouldn't be paying them.

Could you make a deal with this company where you maybe say, you'll do your next 4 (or 5 or 6) fundraisers exclusively with them?

I was elected vice president of our PTO last year. After lots of nasty business (missing funds, etc.) which involved our president, I am now the president. Our biggest problem is that we are $7500 in debt. Most of this is to one company. We are a poor school & could fundraise until the cows come home & never be able to raise this kind of money. I certainly didn't sign on for all of this, but here it is. Any advice on what we could do? By the way, the company that we owe will not take any partial payments. They have put the account into collection & the charges are killing us. HELP !