I really do understand how mistakes can be made and how hard the treasurer's job is. I wouldn't want it for a million bucks. But in some cases there is reason for investigations and for charges to be pressed that are not mistakes. I do feel sorry for those who have been accused wrongly.
It makes me extremely paranoid. As pres at the elementary only the treasurer and principal were signers. That was more than fine with me, but the new PTO I am doing next year has the Pres's name on the check. Error's happen that can look really bad. I don't understand how anyone could steal, especially from a charitable org and I sure wouldn't want that thought of me even for a split second. We've had posters on here that were accused of discrepencies. What an ordeal to have to go through. If someone is out right stealing money, I think they should be prosecuted. When the Blog was started I couldn't believe how many articles were on parent group thefts. It is appalling.
I'm not saying that someone shouldn't be held accountable when things aren't done right because I've seen how this happens. One principal told our group-before I was involved-that they were under the umbrella of the school district and didn't have to file tax forms or anything else. Needless to say, this was the last year that there were good records for our group. I will be the first to say the PTO stuff is lots of work and is hard to figure out if the person before you didn't even do what was expected because how are you supposed to know the ins and outs. Our school doesn't want to be a PTA and they don't want to spend a ton of money making sure everything is right or understand why they should to make sure everything is in order when nothing seems to be wrong as it stands. My problem is when you tell your group that your President has been using your group's funds inappropriately and no one is willing to do anything and the people that want to do something are told not to and that the principal will handle it. I'm sorry, I'm tired and I feel like I get this treasurer stuff under control and I'm told I'm not doing what needs to be done but not told how to do that and told I can't spend any money trying to get done what I need to do. To be honest with you, I relly wonder how many groups just fly under the radar because they are in this same position. I was never told what to do. I was handed a checkbook and keys to a cabinet and that was it. Then our district says we need to get tax exempt numbers, so I do this. Then I'm told I need to file tax forms, but I don't know what or how or anything else and I want to scream! I'm good at money and keeping financial records, but the stuff that is not common sense, how am I supposed to KNOW what to do?
The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating-in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life. --Anne Morris
I think when you consider the number of PTA's and PTO's in the country, I think it is a small percentage but it does happen. I don't know how Tim missed these but there was also a case of stolen funds from a PTO in Wisconsin www.wisinfo.com/thereporter/news/archive/local_21029967.shtml
and another in Dallas where close to $15,000 came up missing over the course of two years and they were part of a theft ring accounting for over $300,000 total stolen!!
... www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/new...cfraud.c47e3bae.html
We had a situation with our group where the treasurer didn't file a tax return for three years (two were one treasurer and the third year was a different one). When we discovered the problem we tried to file the missing returns, but the treasurer who didn't file the taxes the first two years claimed he "lost" all the treasurers records. Our group has been in existance over 25 years and we only have records for the last four. What was interesting was our fundraising numbers magically went up a lot (almost doubled) after this guy was no longer treasurer. The last year he was treasurer he took his kids out of our school and put them into private school. It was all so suspicious and we always suspected that there was something fishy going on but no way to prove it.
However, our current treasurer was able to go back in the quicken records and pull a balance sheet from when this guy was treasurer. It now appears that over $36,000 in scrip was never accounted for - but we have no way of knowing whether the quicken records are correct and we have no records about scrip at all.
I think there are probably a lot of situations like ours where theft (or negligence in the least) has happened and there's no way to prove it.
but from what Tim has been posting, it does not seem to be a rare occurrence. Can someone please tell me what these people are thinking? Is 2-5,000 dollars really going to take care of their problems?
"By: JENNIFER KABBANY - Staff Writer
She also said PTAs are audited frequently and theft is a rare occurrence."
