Hi -- I am a new president that has been very successful in fundraising over the last few years. I am excited at the opportunity in front of me and am looking to see what other succcessful PTOs do concerning how money is budgeted. We have in the past paid for bussing for field trips, but the amount is outrageous and I feel that the $$ could be better spent on technology or playground equipment. We have a very detailed line item by line item budet and am curious what other PTOs spend their money on and how they go about budgeting it -- very specific or fairly general?

Each year, our PTO focuses on one primary goal -- last year it was major technology improvements, but we also have a hefty "slush" fund to handle any requests that come up through-out the year from faculty or the administration. In the past, this slush fund has helped replace broken equipment, provided new textbooks and other classroom supplies, and provided classroom items needed by children with families qualifying for the free lunch program. Having the slush fund in addition to items that are budgeted at the beginning of the year gives our PTO flexibility.

Another question...I am a new PTO pres and when we went to the bank to sign the approved signature card the person helping us told us that the bank will charge us a fee for each check we deposit over 200...is that normal? Do other banks charge for depositing too many checks in a month?

Our bank charges us if we deposit over "x" number of checks a month, but we have been able to convince them to waive the fees. They do not charge us for checks over a certain amount (that's outrageous!)

Keep checking around with other banks in your area to see if you can find one that offers better terms.

Our bank does neither of the above-- we can deposit as many checks as we have and whatever the eamount is-- there might be a 1-2 day hold as the check clears from a company-- we do get charged a fee for a bounced check-- whether from a parent or company-- but then we put that charge on the person bouncing the check. Go in and talk to the manager about this-- maybe they can waive these fees knowing it's for a school.

We tryed while we were there to get them to waive it, the lady there just told us to hold checks until the next month. The fee is like .10 per check which I think is a lot! The thing is we're a new PTO presidency with pretty much no records from the past two years so I am not sure if we ever even get 200 checks. Just thought I would ask to see if this seems normal. Not a huge fan of Key Bank anyway. Thanks.