Well done !!! Sorry you had to deal with it, but glad you stood for what was right. We need more parents like you involved.

Thank you so much for coming back and telling us the "rest of the story". So many times all we hear is the beginning or the problem. It's good to hear the ending.

Congratulations on coming through this. I know it wasn't easy.

Thank you for your update. Per Edmund Burke, " All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Well done, you, for standing up for what is right and just.

Thanks for all the replies.

I just wanted to let you all know that our (now former) treasurer (we voted her out of office for a number of valid reasons in addition to the missing funds whether it was irresponsiblity or worse why the funds were missing) was arrested over the weekend and is being charged with felony embezzlement.

Strange thing is ... last year I submitted ideas for some new financial bylaws and they were all put in place ... but this was assuming the money made it to the credit union. We have 2 signatures required for checks (no cash withdraws are allowed either), we have someone not on the account balance the checkbook at the monthly meetings, we have online access for both parties on the account ... we did all those things and still ended up with problems. Despite the fact that the money has been taken home by the treasurer for the 15+ years we have been having this event, needless to say that will no longer be the case ... and after this I cannot imagine anyone WANTING to. I also encouraged our board last year to get insurance ... but they felt it wasn't necessary. Will see what happens now.

Even though the rest of the board wasn't in favor of having the missing funds investigated at the time, since they have found out that I did call the authorities the majority of the board has been verysupportive. This, even before the arrest. There are a couple of stragglers who are friends with the former treasurer who believe it should still have been swept under the rug. They were upset with me for calling since they voted as a group not to ... but I explained to them what I was told ... you cannot tell someone they cannot call the police on a personal level. That is one of our freedoms in this country and it is illegal to tell someone they cannot call the police if they feel they need to. At the executive meeting where we voted for the treasurer to be removed from office I also made ballots to remove myself from office because I knew it would be brought up ... but no one would make the motion to take the vote. The board members in support of the truth have all told me they would have voted for me to stay in ... so I'd still be president ... but I did make the ballots, all the opposition had to do was make a motion and they wouldn't do that for whatever reason.

But the police believed us and investigated. I gave them my information as did the caterer. I do not know what they found in addition to that ... but the prosecutor has issued charges and a felony arrest warrant ... so we go forward now from here.

Am I still devastated by the whole thing? Yes, I surely am. But do I feel better and like the weight of the world is off my shoulders? You bet I do! Regardless of how the legal proceedings go from here, it is out of my hands and now in the hands of the judge.

If I am forced to go against the things we teach our son at home ... that's a deal breaker. Now I can continue to tell him that you always do the honest thing and the right thing, even when it is hard... because I've practiced what I preach and he has watched this process and we've talked about it and he understands doing the honest thing. It knocked the wind out of me for a couple of days after getting the call from the police that she had been arrested. But I'm going to be just fine ... and so is our group ... and so is my son because he knows his mom did the honest thing, regardless if they had come back and said we didn't have proof of anything. And my son being okay in this is the most important thing of all ... he's the reason I volunteer and do what I do!

The truth is a powerful thing.

Thanks for all the responses and all your support!

I'm chiming in here kinda late, since I just ran across this discussion.

I'm not really qualified to advise anyone regarding whether or not to contact the authorities in a case of this nature, especially since there are probably more pertinent details than can be fit into a post on this board.

That being said, the smartest thing that you could do right away is to insist on an audit of the books being done immediately. If there is a thief in your midst, this may not be the first time you've been robbed. If an audit finds that more funds are missing than you were aware of, then you have a much stronger case for going to the authorities.

Regardless of whether or not you go the legal route here, there are a few things that you absolutely must do.

1) Get Parent Group Insurance ASAP! This protects ALL of you, not only from issues of theft/carelessness, but from other issues as well. This is available both through PTO Today and PTA (if you're affiliated with them). It isn't that expensive, especially when considering the alternatives.

2) Review your accounting and cash handling procedures and incorporate them into your Bylaws and/or Standing Rules. You should also include a copy of a detailed document in your Treasurer's Duties.

3) Consider purchasing a safe to be installed at the school, or ask if you can use the one at the school if one exists. Either allow no funds at all to be taken home with anyone, or limit the amount that can be taken home with someone to a small amount. If an event ends late at night and the deposit can't be made immediately, two of you can witness that the money was counted and then put into the safe. The funds can then be pulled from the safe and taken to the bank the next business day by two people (Treasurer + 1).

4) If the safe idea isn't an option, and if your bank doesn't have a night deposit drop to enable immediate deposits, consider getting locking bank bags and making certain that the key and the bag are never both in the possession of the same person. In this case, this simple and inexpensive step could have saved you a lot of trouble, since the person with the key would have been quickly aware that the deposit still hadn't been made, and two people would have been present the entire time that the money was being handled.

5) Establish online bank account access if possible, and require that the username and password be accessible to both your treasurer and one other person at all times. This will let someone other than your treasurer check the bank accounts and be aware rather quickly if deposits haven't been made or if unauthorized checks or withdrawals are taking place.

6) Make certain that all members of your organization who handle money know that they shouldn't hand over money to anyone without a receipt for the amount that they are handing over. This protects them personally as well as your organization as a whole.

7) If you haven't already, make certain that all checks are required to have two signatures on them. This may very well be the simplest step of all that can be taken to ensure your group's financial security.

The argument that I most frequently here regarding these types of safeguards are that they are too inconvenient for some or all parties involved. But I can guarantee that they are a lot less inconvenient than dealing with the kind of problems that can result in their absence.

And for anyone who isn't currently in a crisis situation, but who has noticed some lax procedures in your group, you don't have to express any misgivings regarding your current board members to bring this up for discussion. Simply bring up one or two recent cases of embezzlement from the news as reasons for tightening up your group's rules and procedures now, before there is an issue. Point out that as much as you'd like to believe that the people elected to handle the finances of your group will always be trustworthy and honest that you are sure that these organizations in the news thought the same thing.

Regardless of whether this particular case does or doesn't go the criminal route, we should all take this as a good reason to go over our own group's cash handling procedures with an eye toward areas that could be improved. As officers we are being entrusted not only with the current activities of our group, but with its continued security.

~Lisa

I think that "sweeping it under the rug" is a common action. There were membership monies missing from our school last year (>$1000), yet since nothing could be proved, under that rug it went (membership numbers changed, so no proof that the original much larger number was accurate...$5 dues so $5 bills easy to have disappear). I think money has been skimmed from concessions. Bad practices (treasurer should NOT be signing checks to "cash" for herself!) caused a special audit; treasurer resigned. Regular audit last year showed a deficit; PTA membership has never been informed and now will not be of the results of that audit.

I am new to this school and PTA. They appear to not want to change their dysfunctional ways (management by crisis, very few committees, loose financial controls). Anyone questioning anything is shamed. I am torn between trying to get new blood in to change things or to simply do the minimum in my position until the school year is over and then never get involved in this nonsense again.