<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>The board voted that no large amounts of money would be given to anyone<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Co-Pres, that is the beauty of by-laws. You make decisions when you have the time to think about the ramifications. Then, when somebody asks you to bend the rules just this one time...RIGHT NOW, you have the by-laws to fall back on.
We use a consignment vendor, and have been pleased with the quality. There's lots of them, so if you're not pleased use somebody else.
We do send home a detailed letter, explaining the price ranges that will be there. I believe the guideline we've used the last couple years is suggesting that parents not send more than $3 per person on the student's shopping list. With a little parent helper guidance, most students find that it works pretty well.
Co-President PTO,
We have had Holiday Shop for many years, first we used the Holiday Shop company that bring the stuff in but people were complaining about the quality. A different lady offered to chair the event and went shopping allover. Different states and all. The holiday shop was a huge success. Everyone was very impressed. We gave her 500.00 at a time and when she turned in her receipts we issued her another check. We use to spend $3000 on Holiday Shop and this year they are spending $5000 to $6000. They ran out of gifts last year. This year we gave her a check for $1000 to start her off because we have history now. Do I feel totally safe about this? No
I'm the new President of our PTO and I told the crew I was elected with that it was time to be out with the old and in with the new. We have been shopping all summer for Santa's Workshop ( so we got some really great bargains) and now that school has started we have picked our committee chairman and they were told from the beginning that after the make the purchase, We will sign a check for them, that day if they need to, But we will not be handing out checks this year! In the past the Pres did and the checkbook was a mess. We had something like this happen last year when the 6th grade banquet committee raised their own money(but it was all in one account) for their dinner, dance etc. The committee chairperson had the President sign a check for $3000 and to this day I've still never seen any written proof of where the money went. So I would just tell the lady thank you anyways but I guess I'll have to find someone else to shop because we just can't be handing out checks in that amount or any amount for that matter. Try not to hand out signed checks to members. Let them bring back receipts first.
How big of a Santa Shop do you have?? Last year we used a company that all the merchandise was on consignment and we did set our own prices...because fundraisers went so well we thought of this as a service and not another fundraiser so we sold the merchandise at cost. We did try using "Dollar Store" items and it went over very well...we actually got alot of nice ceramic nic-nacs, but we also ordered them directly from dollar store.com. You have to buy in bulk but most items were priced from 50 cents to 75 cents each. So we actually did charge a dollar. The only drawback is if anything is left you can't return it...we found all kinds of uses for the leftovers though. On a personal note I am NOT a fan of Santa Shops...at least at our school the parents send a large amount of money for kids to pick out the perfect gift and parents don't realize that kids just grab whatever without much thought...except how much money they have left to spend on themselves.I did not find it to be a learning experience for the kids especially the ones who were not able to shop. We did hand out coupons to kids who couldn't shop so they could choose an item of their choice from the dollar store items. It struck me as odd that those kids were the ones carefully considering their purchase and wanting to pick the perfect gift for their loved one, but the kids with thirty+ dollars couldn't care less. I would love to see an activity that really shows the "spirit" of the season and taught the kids some values. Please remember this is just my opinion.......
I would never give anyone a check for $2000 to go buy stuff (and if it were me, I would never expect the PTO to give me the money up front) First, I question whether or not you're getting the best prices by going to local stores if you're buying in such large quantities (even with the dollar store) Second, what type of quality are you getting when you go to the dollar store? If it's like the ones around here, not much.
Do your by-laws give you any guidance here? Use that as your reasoning, or just tell her the board does not allow such large sums of money to be given to anyone (that way you don't appear to be questioning her honesty.) Personally, I'd wonder why she is so adamant about getting all the money up front.
I have a mom who has volunteered to be in charge of the Santa Workshop this year. The PTO Board has set her budget. The board members voted on the budget plus that anything she ordered be sent into the school and our treasurer (which happens to be a school teacher) would send in a check to the company. But....this mom wants a 2,000 check up front to go to the dollar store to purchase Christmas items. The board voted that no large amounts of money would be given to anyone, so a 500.00 check was written. This mom is not happy at all and I have had several phone calls from her and I have just received one from another mom giving me "her advice". After explaining the boards position she still is not "getting it" so to speak. What would be a final response to give her, I really think she has her mind set and she also said in so many words, that "if she didn't get all of it, then she could not be in charge of the workshop". Any suggestions would be appreciated!
