As most of you have noted, as will I, there is something rather fishy going on. I am currently serving as the President of our PTO and my wife serves as the Treasurer. When we voted in our officers, the group had no problem with her and I being on the board. We are upfront and honest about the records and we provide an up-to-date financial statement at every meeting that shows all expenditures since the last report and any income we may have had. Everything is in detail. The fact that there are no by-laws (that you know of) is like the way I started in the PTO. 2 years ago our PTO checking account was listed under the SSN of the then current treasurer. We had all that changed and got our own EIN, we've rewritten the by-laws to ensure they work with the PTO and the school. Sometimes in smaller schools, you find there is little participation in groups like this. We had 3 people volunteer for 4 board positions. We pushed one of the teachers to join the board with us to show our solidarity with the school. He's finding it's not as bad as people once thought. The bottom line is you have to force the existing President and Treasurer to make public all records concerning the PTO. Who's name is the checking account under?? Does the PTO have it's own EIN?? Do you have your tax exempt status with the IRS?? Are there by-laws that spell out what's expected of the PTO?? If they won't cooperate, your next step is to contact the Principal and get the situation corrected. There are potential problems with the IRS concerning income and accountability. Your school district may also have requirements for annual financial statements.
I'll chime in, too - don't give up on opening the books. They may just be very embarassed that the records are in disarray, or that they haven't been keeping up with reconciling since no one cared before. On the other hand, they may have been treating the PTO like their personal loan office. No way to know without an audit and information forthcoming.
We also have term limits, require two signatures on every check,and operate under an approved annual budget.
Keep up the effort. You're doing the right thing by trying to help the kids - that should be your motivation if it gets nasty.
I would be very concerned that they are withholding the records, that seems like they are trying to hide something. I would talk with your principal, superintendent, anyone who may be able to help you. what happens if you become president and then you find out some really bad stuff, get it our first and then let the rebuilding begin.
"When you stop learning you stop growing."
This all sounds very fishy. Our bylaws state that you can only hold the same office for two consecutive years. You can be on the board as many years as you would like just not the same office. The bylaws also state that an audit of the financial records must be done every year.
You should work on getting others to agree that your PTO needs bylaws.
Scares me!! I always get really concerned when someone isn't immediately willing to offer up financial records. It usually means something's fishy. At the very least the records may be way out of date. At the worst, there may be nothing left! That would explain why you "can't afford" things. I also get peeved at groups who seem to hold on to big sums and never spend them. What's the purpose?!
Don't let go of this. I'd certainly pursue getting new officers in place next year. Really hunt for people who want to be President and Treasurer particularly. Do you have a large membership? Get them to the meetings and then bring up the subject of the quantity of money in the account and propose your budget idea. I'll bet there will be others interested in hearing answers too.
Red flags are going up all over the place with this situation! First, not a good idea to have the President and the treasurer (the two people in charge of the money) be husband and wife.
What immediately came to my mind is that they're not being honest with the money. You haven't seen the financial records, they avoided replying to you when you tried to get the records, and when you went another route, they did what they could to hold onto the books (ie staying in charge)
How much money was spent in the bank statements? Is there anything in the last three years that can be linked to those expenses??
