I guess I'm going to play a reluctant devil's advocate on this one. While, I personally would think $100 was a bit much for retirement gifts, if that's what the group decided to do, so be it.
Our PTO works very hard to eek out every dime we can for the school. Generally, we are reluctant to spend funds on anything that doesn't go directly towards the children. However, at the end of the year, our group has always given a couple of $100 gift cards towards year-end teacher awards (person selected by their peers) plus a thank you card with a $100 certificate to each the Principal and Vice Principal.
It's probably not a program I would have initiated, but it's a tradition at our school. We plan for it from the very beginning. It's right there in black and white in our budget. The membership is fine with it, so I certainly wasn't going to raise any flags. (And it can be tied back to one of our goals of school spirit and staff relations.)
We had a situation at the end of the year where some funds were proposed for a very worthy extracurricular program that only benefited 20 kids. Since we had already given them some funds, I didn't think it was appropriate. I voiced my concerns during the vote, but the majority wanted to do it. The point is, the PTO should be run by a democratic process. You have to accept the decisions of the majority.
As far as the IRS stuff goes, it's not black or white what constitutes "benefiting an individual". In the context of the thousands of dollars a PTO raises, I seriously doubt the IRS is going to blink at a $100 thank you gift. Think about it, an overly strict interpretation of that would kill most teacher appprecation programs, prizes for student contests, etc.
Although I understand your position perfectly, you ARE going to have to be careful not to be seen as an ogre if you keep this issue alive. And, you may unwittingly hurt the feelings of those who received the gifts.
If you feel you must pursue it to prevent this from becoming tradition, you might want to quietly address it one-on-one with Board members next year, suggesting an alternative gift or amount if the situation arises again.
My best advice would be to address it at one of your first Board meetings for next year when you are setting policies and making members aware of them. That would be a great time, because you are then talking about an impersonal issue, not Ms. XYZ and what her service to the school is worth. Set some guidelines on how these things are handled, a max amount, whatever. Then you have that policy to fall back on during the year.
[ 06-06-2002: Message edited by: JHB ]</p>
