PTO Today

Sentencing comes through for former PTA treasurer convicted of stealing $180,000 (yes — nearly 200 grand!) from her group over 5 year period. Appreciate the fact that other officers and school parents prosecuted and advocated for harsh sentencing. However, looks like the sentence will be one year of home confinement.

There are so many basic tips for solid money management for your PTO or PTA, but here’s one straight from the article: don’t have bank statements mailed directly to treasurer’s home. No way!

Is your group protecting its funds?

Have to give credit to Tennessee authorities for listening and responding to feedback about the 2007 “school support” regulations that came down last year.

Effective July 1, 2008, several clarifications and improvements have been made (Tennessee regs summarized here). The end result: common sense (and parent groupos and kids around the state) win!

In a nutshell, a needed distinction has been made between school funds and school events and parent group funds and parent group events. Parent groups aren’t required to be 501(c)(3)s and funds are not required to be run through the district. Financial best practices still encouraged. Nice.

Wall Street Journal today covers several new fundraising options with a green theme. PTO Today’s expert take on fundraising trends included.

As you’ll see in the article, to me the #1 measuring stick has to be whether the product and company will work as a money-maker, because all the good work you do in your school depends on the earnings you pull in from your fundraiser. Yes, it would be nice to sell only all-natural, recyclable products that also cure homelessness, but that can only be a factor if the fundraiser also works as a fundraiser.

Same key questions should be asked of a green product as a less-green (more traditional product): will it sell? how much will we make? what’s the customer service like? what are return policies? do you have references? how are the forms and delivery and incentive programs handled? etc. The fundamentals remain the same. Fundamentals? Here’s a story we wrote 6 or 7 years ago on the basics of running your traditional sales fundraiser.

Have you used (or are you considerig using) a “green” fundraiser?

Interested and heated discussion on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution site. The crux: should heavily-involved parents get (or expect) occasional school benefits in exchange for their volunteering?

Wow — $65k is definitely one of the biggest embezzles we’ve seen. This one from a middle school PTA treasurer in California.

Of course, our embezzle blog posts wouldn’t be complete without our plea: please use common sense, basic financial controls.

Had to figure this would happen. School Committee in Massachusetts in hot water after using the PTO-funded emergency phone system to blast a pro-budget override message to all school families.

Several issues: 1) non-profits not allowed to advocate for a certain vote; and 2) Massachusetts election laws may also have been violated.

Technology — these phone trees and email solutions like our PTO Manager tool — is going to make this kind of thing even more tempting. Important that we use it well.

More good news on the PTO front this week, this time from Colorado. Seems that a group of enterprising high school students successfully lobbied to have sales tax requirements removed from school support efforts. Book fairs, bake sales, concessions and the like all covered.

Last year, Colorado collected over $200,000 in tax receipts from those efforts. This year those dollars will be where they belong. Nice work by those kids.

Washington Post today presents a comprehensive look at progress made with school nutrition changes.

Of course, the interesting parts for me are the several references to parent groups’ role in the issue. Article tries to make the case that parent groups and parents are part of the problem, whereas I submit that parent groups and parents are playing a rightful, common-sense role in making sure that new regulations (as they often do) don’t go so far as to be crazy. A pizza party, cupcakes for a birthday, and popcorn for a movie night are not the problem.

We’ve actually had a good debate on this same topic over on the message boards, regarding one PTA’s troubles with a Donuts for Dads event. Hope you’ll jump in to the discussion.

The PTO at Pine Grove Elementary in Rowley, Mass. knows how to tell a good joke. When the school entered a contest for a makeover of its PE equipment room, the PTO helped produce a video top 10 list of the reasons the school deserved to win. Apparently the message got across, because Pine Grove was named a runner-up in the contest, earning a $1,000 prize.

It’s not the first time the PTO has used humor to make a point. Last fall we wrote about the group’s great communication efforts in our article Send a Powerful Message. One way the group reached out to parents made a big impression–a Letterman-inspired list of the top 10 reasons parents should come to meetings and join the PTO!

This California (where else?) school and its PTA put together a great, comprehensive all-school event around the environment and healthy habits and fun.   Check out their Eco-Extravaganza here. 

Especially neat, in my opinion, because these guys really went all-out.  Goes with a column I wrote a year or two back saying Go Big or Don’t Go at All.  Basically, I think PTOs and PTAs do far better when they do fewer things in a big way than a lot of things in a so-so way. You agree?