PTO Today

I'm new to this and to PTO. I am the new PTO Treasurer and was elected in June 2008. The new school year is scheduled to start in a couple weeks, and we (the new PTO Board) has NOT YET received the books from the past Treasurer. She promised to have to me by the end of June. I called her (beginning of July) the day before we were to meet to for her to give me the books and she said they are not ready due to the fact that the past-President "just gave her more receipts last week". She said she'd have the books ready by August 1st.

On August 2nd, we had meeting at the bank to transer to the account to new Board and sign signature card. Past President showed up, but Past Treasurer did NOT! Therefore, she was not released from the account even though the new Board signed the new signature card, etc. We tried to get a hold of her. Not one was able to. I called her after we left the bank and followed it up with an email asking her to take care of the release ASAP and also offered to pick up the books from her house if she was unable to meet me somewhere. I have not heard from you.

At this point, what should we do? Do we go to the Principal? School Board? Do we write a "nice" demand letter? What steps do we need to take to make sure we get the books. I'm just afraid that if we get audited this school year, we won't have anything to show them except for the bank statements. HELP!

Take a copy of your minutes to the bank of the meeting when your election was held. These minutes should have detailed your new officers by name. Also take a copy of your by-laws that should list who is a signer on the account. These documents in your hand will allow you to take the past treasurer off the account.

Where are bank statements mailed? If it is to the school, they should be passing them on to you and not to the past officer.

I would take the time and mail a certified return receipt letter (I know it costs) giving her a deadline to get the books to you or turned in to the school office for them to get to you. I would also state that the books come to you in whatever their current condition is - that you will not wait for her to "get them ready". If I was really frustrated and snippy the day I wrote the letter I would probably make some comment about if we were audited, she would be liable for not turning things over propery. (I would hope that I could keep from being that bad, but it would sure be hard if I was getting a big runaround)

Do you have the checkbook? An important question you have to answer is: do you think the past treasurer is a well-meaning but overcommitted volunteer, or is she trying to hide something? (Did the past president, in fact, turn in some late receipts? Make sure no one else submits receipts to the old treasurer -- per your by-laws, the ex-treas is probably not authorized to write more checks since she's no longer treasurer.)

I agree you should make sure the statements come to you; you can also ask the bank to give you a copy of the latest statements.

I had a similar situation, where our treasurer resigned mid-year due to overcommitment, and promised me the books, but then didn't quite have them ready, and had another folder of stuff that he was "embarrassed" to hand over to me because it was disorganized. He was good, though, about handing over the checkbook and getting himself off the account. I let him have another week or two, then asked: how are you doing with organizing? If you haven't made any progress, then let's admit that you're not actually going to, and just hand it all over now.

I'd like to hope that all PTO volunteers are well-meaning, and you just have to convince her that (a) you need the information NOW so you can get organized and (b) she's not realistically going to get any more done before the school year starts (and surely she agrees that you should have the books by the 1st day of school) because it's no longer really her responsibility. If the books are disorganized, you're going to want to be on good terms with her so you can get some questions answered -- so I'm not sure a certified letter is a good strategy.

I wouldn't worry about a possible audit -- most times, PTO audits are internal matters: your own board requests it, just to have a second set of eyes double-check.