I have to admit that my knee jerk reaction to your post was to tell the officer who was against the reimbursement that, yes, it is voluntary--and now you were volunteering her to do all the driving since she didn't think it was such a big deal. But let's see if I can be a bit more diplomatic....

No, we don't typically reimburse for mileage, but what you're talking about is more of a one time thing and I would be inclined to make an exception. So I would go back to the other officers and explain that it's more time and money than you are willing to spend. Ask if they can put out a notice to have some other parent who might have business in the area to go and do the pickups, or see if the company would consider mailing it to you.

Sometimes you just have to say no. It's not a bad thing.

In our PTO we reimburse people when they pay out of pocket for things for PTO use but I'm having a little disagreement when it comes to reimbursement for gas. I do a lot of running around for PTO but try very hard to pair it with something I'm doing personally or I keep it local. The problem right now is we got some donations that are further away than my 'normal' driving. I mapped it out and to pick up 6 donations I will be driving approx. 90 miles both ways (90 total). I had mentioned reimbursement for gas to my fellow officers. One of them was fine with the idea and the other was not. I'm only talking about maybe $20-30 for the trip, this ONE trip not making this a 'normal' thing. The officer who is against it told me to claim it on my taxes and that it's all voluntary. I file simple taxes and only claim my children nothing else so I don't want to claim every little thing and I fully understand it's voluntary. I love my PTO and help more than anyone else on my PTO, I have never asked for anything like this before because me driving 5 minutes down the road isn't a big deal to me, or picking up something while I'm already shopping is also no big deal. Driving for over 3 hours, 90 miles, 4 towns over is a lot to ask of anyone, I think. The items I would be picking up have at minimum a $300 value. Sorry this is long, getting to the point, does your PTO reimburse people for these things or no?