I have a similar issue. We had to make a big spiritwear order after letting our supply get too low. We failed to allocate enough $ at the beginning of the year due to vendor cost increase. Prez authorized order to be placed and chair personally floated the money until it could be voted on by assn. Some members are saying order should not have been placed although they agree everyone was acting in school's best interest as full order ended up being nearly sold out at next event, before assn mtg and vote.
At the beginning of the year, we set a budget for spiritwear. It is my understanding that no matter how much we've made from it so far, we cannot increase the budget without approving it. Some members are saying that they have accepted checks to cover this latest order and want me to just pay it without getting it approved at a meeting. I did let the person in charge of spiritwear know that she was almost at her limit and should consider asking for an increase at the last meeting we had. That was not done so I've said that I can't pay the invoice until the next meeting in two weeks. Can anyone advise?
Every year the board talks about PARP (PArents as Reading Partners) and complains that ever year they want to spend more and more money on the entertainment.
We do support PARP, but it's not a PTA event, it's a teacher's union sponsored event that we help support and we're tired of them just spending whatever they want every year expecting we'll cover it.
We do allow a up to $50 to be spent with an officer's approval without a vote.
We're not at odds with the board or president, we as a whole are just looking for a way to let the principals know that we aren't a bottomless pit of funds and they can't just spend the money without asking first.
We have some teachers who chair events that are very good at sticking to the budget they're given, and appreciate that they are getting that! Then others who just aren't as considerate.
Last year we loosened up and started approving more of the individual requests, ($50 for a pizza party here, $100 for the zoo mobile, etc.) and let them know it would have an impact on the amount we could donate for field trips at the end of the year.
Sure enough, come the end of the year, we only had $10,000 to donate vs the $13,000 we'd been able to donate the previous 4 or 5 years, even though income was almost the same.
We have more students now too, thanks to a universal pre-k grant, so instead of about $12 per student towards field trips this year it's only $8 per child. Bussing has gone up, so field trips are more expensive than ever and we have less to spend, which makes the parents have to make up the shortfall. Some trips are being considered for cancellation already, because they're afraid parents won't be able to afford them.
We just approved a budget with a note that said items could run over without specific approval; our funds aren't quite so tight, and it was a nuisance to have to vote on a $50 cost overrun.
I think you've got to check with your members: are they OK with the board (or just the president) approving small overruns? Is the PARP (what does that stand for, anyway?) an important event, and does everyone think it's worth what you pay? We had a couple long-time enrichment events where the teachers just did it each year, and this year someone actually looked at the budget and said, "$400 for that? Let's find something better."
**it'll be up to her to make up the short-fall out of her budget.**
I wouldn't include this because that's the principal's decision to make. Instead, I would end the sentence by stating that the PTO board will be unable to approve such expenses as presented. What the principal decides to do on his/her end is up to him/her. Most likely, he/she will re-submit the expense so that it matches the PTO budget for that line item.
Because you are no longer on the board, this letter will have to come from the President or the Treasurer (but only after the board has discussed that this will be their strategy so all are in agreement).
