Thanks so much everyone for your great advice. The parent called me today and wants to chair, just as I thought she would. I told her that I was thrilled she wanted to do such a big fundraiser again. I told her that she needed to form a committee with our treasurer being a part of the committee. I explained to the parent that since this fundraiser is one of our biggest it shouldn't be one that she takes on alone. She seemed kind of hesitant about my suggestions, so I guess we will wait and see since the fundraiser doesn't start until the fall. Thanks again for all your input, since this fall will be my first year as president I am sure I will have many, many more questions.
Our Parent's Club policy is that money is deposited as soon as 2 people have counted it and came up with the same amount. This can be hard to do after running an event for 3 hours, so we generally need 3 or 4 to double check. And money only goes from the school in the hands of the Treasurer or the President. There is no reason to make only one deposit on an ongoing fundraiser. You can balance off of deposit slips. If your policies do not state some sort of rule for deposits, I suggest you get one in place asap. So takethe others advice and make it a comittee effort, or at least give her a co-chair with rules that they both count funds and then turn over to Treasurer in a timely manner.
I think her intention were good but as the PTO you do need to follow better money procedures. No chairperson should ever have that much money. The Treasurer should have been collecting it in a more timely basis.
I would just let her know that you know things get overwhelming and you will have more people on the fundraising committe.
We have a couple days after the fundraiser is due and we all help out go through order, count money, etc. Then the treasurer deposits the funds.
Good Luck
Cindy<br />
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<br>"People have the right to be stupid, but some abuse the privelege."
I think it is primarily your procedures that need rehauling. Giving someone deposit slips and not seeing any deposits forthcoming should have been a red flag. I would suggest teaming this volunteer with someone you know is capable in the financial requirements and having them work together. I suspect she had all good intentions and just got overwhelmed. We only allow board members to collect money. If there is a way to have a board member be the one in charge and the volunteer the collator of the orders then you might have a bigger chance at staying in control of the proceeds.
I would recommend that when the time comes you form a "whatever" fundraiser committee at the meeting. You can ask for someone to chair, understanding that she will likely desire that role, but by explaining that "since this is our big fundraiser for the year this year we're going to run it with a committee". If you feel that things were not apporiate then the Treasurer should be more active in this and make a point of collecting the funds at least weekly.
We have a parent that volunteered for a fundraiser that we had last fall at our school. We asked her often if she needed help, knowing that this fundraiser is one of our largest of the year. She declined each time. At the end of the fundraiser when she was trying to figure out the prizes the kids won, she asked if we could help her count the money. She had the money at her house...why? Not sure, we assumed she was keeping it in the office and she had been given deposit slips from our treasurer to make weekly deposits. That was never done, when she brought the money in it was over $10,000.00
The other issue was that one of the parents paid for their product with a check and that check was never cashed. Although the chairperson said that all her numbers balanced out. How could they if $250 check was not accounted for? My issue is that this parent wants to chair this same fundraiser next fall. Any suggestions...:confused:
