This is to PTOMommieo. In reading your post the first thing I noticed was the way you referred to the officers as "my officers", "my vp", "my treasurer". These adults are officers of the PTO, and to refer to them as "my officers" leds me to beleive there may be something else going on. Perhaps a control issue. Just a thought.
DEMAND a treasurer's report at every meeting...I will not conduct a meeting without one. I assume you are on the checking account also...you can go to the bank and ask for a copy of your monthly statement and if need be bring that to the meeting, there is no excuses here and I would not accept any from our treasurer...I have even had to do the report myself before.
As far as your carnival...we just had ours and I don't expect people to put up their own money for a month until it is voted on. They way we do it is each coordinator ie; kitchen, games/prizes, volunteer coordinator submit a costs sheet that has been broken down in catogories...Then we use their total of what they expect to spend and vote on it way before they need to buy the stuff...since they have to turn in receipts for their purchases everything works out fine. I personally feel that by making volunteers use their own money for a pto event and then have to wait to have a vote to hope they get reimburshed is absurd...when you think about it what would you do if nobody was willing to put up their own money...you'd have to cancel the event. I don't blame your members for being upset...you have to remember the money belongs to the pto not the board and should be used for the pto events...
About your treasurer not giving a report - be very strict with this. Our organization has been in the middle of a big mess with a treasurer that had been with the organization for 5 years and has never made a point of giving treasurer reports. Now that we have had to look into the situation due to the inabilty to pay bills it turns out that we have been embezzled against! To the amount of about 20,000 over the last 4-5 years! Every one gave her the benefit of the doubt because she was a "friend". Keep in mind that this is a business and there are no "friends" in business. Have fun with your organization but don't think that it can't happen to you because it happens more than you think. We had many people think that we were jumping the gun but our treasurer has been questioned by the police and has admitted to it. Our case is still pending. Avoid what we have been through - PLEASE!!!
Um, if you have time to check our friend Robert's Rules of order the secretary is to record all expendtures in the minutes of the meeting. Also, it is (or could be considered) deriliction (spelling?) of duty for your Treasurer to respond this way.
We have our budget set in September and it really helps! Also, in my adjenda we have the Treasurer's Report then Secretary's Report then the reports from all our committees, then new business and so on. A new or remembered topic must be added before the meeting begins and noted to the members or wait until open forum. I wish I could relate all this to our current President as easily as I have to you--we have 15 minute meetings last 2 hours because she strays from the adjenda. I am really trying to help and am sorry if I'm rambling. A smooth meeting is like baking in Colorado- if it's not the alttitude it's another thing or just darn right impossible but there is help!
I agree completely with OhioMom about the need for preapproved budgets. After nearly a year as treasurer, I couldnt even imagine doing the job without budgets. It saves everyone so much conflict since it's all decided up front how much we can spend on the major events.
Also, about your treasurer's response -- yes, maybe you should ask her for a "run down" of every check she writes. Remember, this is not HER checkbook or HER money -- it belongs to the members of the PTO. If she feels you are being unreasonable in asking for a simple checkbook balance, then she is the wrong person for the job. I take the treasurer's position very seriously (after all, I'm custodian for someone else's money) and I can tell our members not only the checkbook balance, but also the balance in any budget, how much, if any, we made over our fundraising goals, and exactly how much "extra" money we have to spend on unplanned items. Our bylaws state that the "books" are to be audited annually at the end of our fiscal year. How about yours? If you are concerned about your treasurer not wanting to share info with you, remind her that she will get the chance to share it with the auditor at year end!
P.S. It may be too late in the year to encourage her to change, but I would be happy to snail-mail you a copy of our monthly Treasurer's Report for one example. Email me.
[This message has been edited by Critter (edited 03-15-2001).]
I had to snicker when you said that people jumped around and seemed to not really follow the agenda. This happens to us, and guess who the one who usually does the jumping? Our principal. She'll go off on something new while we are still under committee reports. That is when I just politely (not always so politely under my breath) say, let's finish this up and then we'll move on.
One way that could possibly help you with the people wanting to be reimbursed before a vote would be to set up a budget either at the beginning of the year or as projects are coming up. Make sure everyone knows that it has to be an expense approved by the committee for that activity, and then you can reimburse them as it is needed. We then give a complete run down of all expenses at our next meeting. You will need to watch the budget however, and make sure that they don't exceed it without a vote. Hope that this helps you a little. It seems to work very well for us.
