Thanks for the advice everyone. Critter mentioned the not having a grant request form, that is truly what I am looking for. We have a budget, a checking account and savings account. What amazes me is that because we have a saving account, everyone (those that don't come to our meetings) thinks that money is free an available. When in reality, it is money that is budgeted but not needed at this time, so it is earning interest in a savings account. We are trying to educate the staff and parents alike, it is happening small steps at a time. Thanks again for the great advice!
People tried that with me a few times and I would reply "A requests such as that would need to be brought up before the general members, I'll put you on the agenda". Some cases knew it and some didn't. With very technical money questions I would send them to the treasurer.
This sounds kind of mean but we ask the person asking to put it in writting and it would help their case if they came to a meeting. An example would be for years we gave the sixth garde teachers $350 to have to help kids with the cost of a major field trip. Every Spring two of the teachers would come and talk to the group and answer questions, last year no one came to our meeting and we weren't even sure if they needed the money. Sure enough, the week before the trip the Prez was stopped in the hall and asked "Where is our $350?!" They had just assumed and she smiled and told her "Well, no one had said anything so we didn't know what to think." They did get their money (it was already budgeted) but it was really they example that she wanted to make, the members need to know what we are spending this money on and there also needs to be a checks and blanaces.
In the future, you might want to consider developing a detailed budget for your PTO. This will avoid all the "hallway requests" since your group's spending plan is decided in the beginning of the year. You don't have to shut the door on unexpected spending -- after all, it's highly unlikely that in August you will know the Music department needs a new microphone in February. But if your budget has some general categories with caps, then the PTO stays in control of its money, and the requestors know you're not a "first come first served" bottomless moneypit.
For our PTO, we have a pretty detailed budget, but we have a few categories (about 1/3 of our budget) that we allow the principal to control. Teachers don't come to us directly, they go thru the principal. That way, we as parents don't have to be the bad guys telling one teacher yes and another no. The principal works with the staff to decide how best to spend his discretionary money. But...since the PTO sets the budget amount for each category, and a general description of what each category should fund, we feel like we have some say so, too. We also have budgets for events and committees run by our volunteers.
By the way, since we have a budget, I never really designed a form for grant requests, but you could certainly modify the Check Request form Mum24kids mentioned to be used that way.
If you click on the "useful resources" section at left (under PTO Basics), you'll find a bunch of Critter's forms there--all kinds of financial stuff, not just check requests.
The Pres. of our PTO is being approached in the halls of our schools with requests of money. What I would like to know, does anyone have a form that they would share in regards to requests for money? We want the teachers and group leader to fill out a form so we have something concrete to consider.
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