OneandOnly;138882 wrote: You should never divulge names as it is public embarassment and cause for more harm than good. If payments are not forthcoming, then you need to take it to the principal and ask to exclude the family from PTO events until the payment arrives.

My $.02...
You would be greatly embarassing the child. Many PTOs fund field trips. So as an example, what it seems like is that if a FAMILY (namely the parent) is not paying up with the cash or check, then that family - which includes the child(ren) - is now going to be excluded from going on that field trip. But, don't divulge the name? A fact of life is that staff and parents and other students will whisper and talk, if that child has to stay back or isn't allowed to attend a PTO sponsored speaker or other event, it will be figured out why.

There is already too much of a need in this world to keep adult problems just that...adult problems. I do understand the point, however, it's an unfortunate fact that there are parents out there that could give a hoot if their child is being excluded or singled out because of what they, the parent, has neglected to do. If the money is not paid up then approach the principal or the superintendant. If that doesn't work then write it off. Yes, it stinks to have to do that but it is true that PTOs run similar to businesses and occasionally having to write something off is a part of doing business.

Call first to ask for a replacement payment along with the bank fee. Then send a reminder letter. Depending on the cooperation you receive and the number of times the person does it, they go on a No Check list.
You should never divulge names as it is public embarassment and cause for more harm than good. If payments are not forthcoming, then you need to take it to the principal and ask to exclude the family from PTO events until the payment arrives.

We've had 7 checks returned so far, all but one was small. We tried phoning the people without success, so we wrote up a letter telling them their check had been returned and giving them the total amount they owed us (including the bank fee); we asked that they pay the amount in cash to our front office and said we wouldn't accept any further checks from them until it was paid.Our front office has a "Do Not Accept Checks From..." list.

The one check that was the largest was the easiest to collect-the person who wrote it realized they had made a mistake and contacted us before we ever received notification of it, and once we told them the total amount of charges they were there the next day to take care of it. The other checks total maybe $100 including the fees.

If it is a parent that has returned checks over and over, you must let any event chairperson know so they do not accept checks from this person! Usually we get that person to pay the amount of the check in cash PLUS the fees the bank charges our PTA.

We haven't had this problem too often... I think two in the last 6 years. I do know that with Girl Scouts (my girls are both one) when we sell girl scout cookies all checks have to be made out to me and then I have to write one check. That way there is a small amount of checks circulating and a low possibility of checks bouncing... Maybe that is something that can be done in the future.

We have always contacted the person privately and they have always gave us the cash instead with extra to cover any charges we accrued... About the IRS, I don't have a clue about that...

We are a PTO and we have had several returned checks come through. We are wondering if we are obligated to tell parents the name of the people whose check has been returned to us. In our treasure report we only show a returned check for the amount in the committee that it was written for. Also do we need to give the name for IRS purposes.