Originally posted by dragonlady: This is a group (not a school sponsored group) that asks for money every year. This year instead of asking the general membership for a vote they want to now amend the budget for the year and have their group added. But my question is can you add new items to your budget after you already have your plan for fundraising and budget for the year.
Sure you can amend your budget. It is a roadmap of what you expect your income to be, and how you expect to spend your money. If there is a significant change, it should be reflected in the budget. If a $1000 expense is going to be $1500, amend the budget including the items that must be reduced to cover the extra. If a $1000 expense is going to be $1005, you can probably just present the bill that went over the budget for approval.
As for this particular group, do your bylaws state the purpose and goals of your group. You might find that a motion to add this group to your budget would be out of order.
Thanks for all the great info. You all are basically confirming everything the officers of our PTO thought. Before school started we went to the principal suggesting they start fundraising then, because we didn't know if we would have the money at the end of the year. We offered to give up 2 small fundraisers to this group(they are small but would bring in about $1100 over the year). They never contacted us about doing that. So yes, the general membership and officers are feeling frustrated because it seems like they want us to do all the work and they get the money.
I don't think the general membership would go for another fundraiser at this point. We'll just explain the needs of the budget as it is. Right now if we bring in what we have planned for the rest of the year our surplus would only be $200, so the adding of the group to the budget would definitely require another fundraiser.
Anyways, thanks for all the great advice and if you think of anything else please comment away!!!
I still think that it is all in the wording. You basically set your budget to cover all "known" expenditures. If a group wants to ask the PTO for funding after the budget is approved, it would not be added to the budget, it would be considered a request.
You need to make it clear to the other members that as of yet you have still not raised the funds to cover the original budget. It would be fiscally irresponsible for your group to add another expenditure, if you are not sure you have an adundance of funds to cover everything. I for one would be totally opposed to having another fundraiser to cover the request of a small group. Perhaps you or someone you know could suggest that they have a fundraiser of their own.
To answer your question, it does not make sense to ammend your budget at this time. This group needs to request that they be considered when the budget is planned for next year. But no one can stop them from asking for the funds now, however, the membership does need to be aware of your financial situation before a vote is.
So really nothing has been approved yet, you are still just talking.....
The facts you are giving us are just the facts that need to be broken down and looked at during the discussion.
Look at it this way, in your home budget there is always the chance of an unexpected expense, you have the bills you know need to be paid and alway hope there will be money to pay for (lets say) repairs to your car. If you know about troubles with your brakes you can plan for it but it a tire blows theres a surprise in your budget. Unfortunatly this group that has been able to recieve money before is assuming the cash will be there again.
Amendments to a budget can be made granted there is money to give. This is the decision that you and the others are going to have to look at. Also, in the end, either way the group votes, if this group really needs the PTO support they need to talk to the PTO when the budget is BEING set....not when they need the money.
What they want is to add something new to the budget. My understanding is that they want to bring the discussion at the next meeting to amend(change) the budget. What we plan on doing is at the next meeting bring it up for discussion with the general membership and see how much money they are asking for. This is a group (not a school sponsored group) that asks for money every year. This year instead of asking the general membership for a vote they want to now amend the budget for the year and have their group added. But my question is can you add new items to your budget after you already have your plan for fundraising and budget for the year. Typically if it wasn't a total school event it hasn't ever been in the budget. Individuals or groups would come to the general membership asking for money and we would vote, but they want to add their group to the budget. What is the proper procedure for discussing/debating and what type of vote (majority or 2/3) would it take to add something new to the budget.
Plus does it make any sense to do this?? We'll have to rethink fundraising for the year if we add something else. We have our bookfair next week and then the big fundraisers are done. We haven't even made enough to cover our budget yet.
Typically there is no reason to make an amendment to the budget if everything is being taken care of. If for some reason your fundraisers did not raise the expected amounts, then an ammendment would be in order or if for instance you budgeted $1,000 for an event and you discover that you actually need $1,500.
Perhaps this person wants to bring forth a request for funds and just worded it incorrectly. Your best bet is to call the person and find out exactly what it is that they want so it can be worded correctly on the agenda.
A majority vote would take precidence, if the agenda goes out to the members before the meeting.
Anyways, thanks for all the great advice and if you think of anything else please comment away!!! 