Lisa, I'm sure people will tell you if they paid and if they get snippy, just tell them that there was a miscommunication and not all dues were collected. Then explain to your other member that this is done at enrollment because people have the money then, it can all be done at once, and because it doens't matter if they come or not, that money is to be your group's startup. (At least, that's how they used to put it!)We live and we learn.

I didn't write down the people who had paid since I thought she had been collecting money. I just don't want it to come back in my face that I collected from some and not others.

Do you have a list that shows who paid and who didn't? Our bylaws will state that you must be a paid member to vote or bring fourth business. Our dues are only $1.00, if that is hardship on someone we can work something out (sometimes it really hard for people to come up with $1). So I think I would try to collect the dues and explain to them what happened. $200.00 can buy alot of things.

One thing I do is make a membership form and keep it in a small binder to help keep up with members. I only receive them if the person has paid.

We had our enrollment yesterday. Both of us that are the "board" were new at doing it to get people to join. But I knew that we needed to collect money for dues when they signed up. She knew, but decided to only get the money if they showed up at the first meeting. My philosophy is that get it while they are there because they may not be able to make it to meetings. I had a lot of people say they couldn't but signed up to bake cookies or do something at home. Her philosophy is to only get the money from those who came to the meeting because that would show they really wanted to help.
We lost out on around $200. I collected $4 before I found out she hadn't taken any. What do I do with the $4? Should I try to collect the rest?