Critter, I'd love for you to send me the forms. All the advice given is great and it can't hurt to try.
When the person we're talking about found out money was missing for the 2nd time, it was a joke. They said to the principal something like...Oh yeah! I took the missing money...AGAIN!! Like if they joked about it they wouldn't look suspicious.
We're keeping our eye on them, and we've already said that we're doing whatever we can to keep them AWAY from the money.
I think that restricting money handling to only board members will put an undue burden on board members. Better to put in place smart financial controls that apply to everyone (including board members). Here I'm thinking things like those mentioned above: 2 people around whenever cash is concerned. Cash handling paperwork and receipts. All cash to a safe or immediately to the bank. Two sigs on checks, etc.
In this way, you'll be insulating yourself against this suspected volunteer with the added bonus of instituting smart policies to prevent problems in the future.
Of course -- if you really think this person has been dipping -- I'd do everything I could to subtly guide this person to volunteer roles that don't involve money. "Oh thanks for volunteering to man checkout at the bookfair, but we have someone for that. We could really use you during bookfair set-up and break-down." (Or similar)
This won't solve your current problem (I say tell her she is not allowed to handle PTA money anymore.), but it may help in the future. We have a set of control forms we use to log and validate all our fundraising order forms. With this procedure, we can identify underpayments immediately. We send home a letter today, not weeks later when everyone's memory has faded. It takes us about 45 minutes per class to process the orders, and we recruit about 5 people to help. It's not foolproof - volunteers are still handling cash. But, the controls and the checks/balances make it a little harder to dip in. I'll send you the forms via email if you're interested.
Good luck! You may not feel you have enough to accuse her, but why not confront her directly? Tell her what you told us. Ask her if she has an explanation and see what happens. Maybe she'll withdraw from the other activities to save her reputation before the word gets out. If not, recruit a "co" chair,implement tight financial controls, and watch her like a hawk.
Only have the executive board members handle money and use this as a reason for that parent not to be handling it. There should always be at least two people when money is being exchanged, but you can't always be aware of each other are doing. We use three and one has to be an EB member. No money problems so far. :cool:
Hi all, I need a little help. I'm the PTA President for our Elementary School PTA (2nd term). We are always complaining about not getting enough help from parents and then when we do, problems always arise.
Here's the problem...last year we had a parent who had become semi active in the PTA offer to be at school to accept fundraising envelopes that parents brought in. Well, without our realizing it, she had opened the envelopes, supposedly counted to make sure everything was accurate. When our Secretary got to school, everything was seperated and in nice neat piles. We had been marking paid on the order forms once we made sure everything was ok. When it came time for the merchandise to be picked up, we noticed that some order forms didn't have "pd" on them and when we asked the parents for the money, they said they handed it in with the order form. On a couple of occasions, the secretaries handed the parent the envelope knowing money was in there. We ended up loosing about $1,500.00 in all.
Now, this year at picture day, this same parent was helping out. We are not suppose to handle any money, the company does this. Well....this parent was handed an envelope with the money just put in by the child's parent (the teacher saw her). Our volunteer had to go to the bathroom, and when the student went up for her pictures, the envelope was empty. This happened twice.
We have no proof that this person is taking the money, but whenever they are involved we seem to come up short. We have no proof so we can't accuse. Any suggestions? They have offered to help at our Holiday Bazaar and they also offer to chair the Book Fair. We know that we need to keep them away from the money, but without being too obvious.
