I don't know about anyone else but our PTO(actually we are a Home& School Association)gets our paper for our newsletter(and any other notices in which we need to get information out to the students and their parents) from the school. Actually the Superintendant said to use their paper! I am the President and have a super great rapor with the Superintendant and the two principals of our two schools. They will bend over backwards in any way to help us. They are very supportive and appreciative to us.

I know I am sort of off the topic, but reading about everyone having to purchase their own paper....it made my have to write. lol! [img]smile.gif[/img] [img]smile.gif[/img]

Kelly,
I agree it sounds like you have a micro managing President. With our PTA, we have a budget, anything that's not on the budget must be voted on if it's over $200. Under $200, the executive board can agree to it.
One of the things I love about being a volunteer is I can quit if I want to and I can pretty much run a committee how I want to if I am the chairperson. If I had someone else that I had to answer to for a piddling committee like the landscaping committee, I would be an unhappy camper. We do have a committee chairperson but her job is to be available for questions and to keep them on track as far as time- Holiday party chair might need to be reminded that to get started planning on a certain date, etc.
p.s. I just came back from Staples and got 9 reams of paper for $45 in a pastel color.

KellyK,
I was just wondering how paper is an unnecessary expense? How do you do your monthly newsletter, send meeting reminders or other notes home without paper? What do you type your Minutes on, post your monthly Treasury reports on? If you're doing it successfully without paper, PLEASE SHARE YOUR SECRET!

It sounds like you are in a sticky situation. I am a PTO Prez, for the second year, and I believe in delegating as much as possible. Not only does it prevent burnout of the officers, but it allows other people the opportunity to get involved. I'm not sure what people comprise your officers. Ours are the Prez, VP, Sec and Treas. The people filling these positions are not committee chairmen unless they want to have an additional position. All committee chairmen report to me, but most of them are so on the ball, that it's barely any additional work for me. The better your training and written job descriptions, the less work your officers need to do with committees.

As for the Treasurer position...Our Treasurer handles all A/P and A/R. She reports all financial info to us on a monthly basis. Basically all money goes through her, and she records all transactions. The Prez does 2 spontatneous, unannounced checks of the books a year, plus a planned one at the end of the year. This helps keep the Treas. honest. We rely on the Treas. to inform us of what we really can spend on unplanned items, since expenses and income come in at different times. It is her responsibility to give us the bottom line, and frankly, that occasionally means she says that some things aren't prudent. But, when the Prez, or someone else, just goes and buys something, that's a big problem. That wouldn't happen in our PTO. It's understood that all non-routine expenses are pre-approved by PTO vote. It might help you to suggest that at your next meeting. I wouldn't refer to the paper - I'm assuming it's too late for that (too bad! that's an unnecessary expense in my opinion!), but get a policy now before things get further out of hand. As it stands now, you're in a position of having to go one-on-one with your Prez, which isn't fair and could get ugly. Get a PTO policy, and you'll be in good shape.

Good luck!

Your Bylaws should hold your answers as to what Officer Duties are. Our Treasurer last year was a teacher, so I tried to make her life as easy as possible, handling as much treasury work as I could. She kept the books, kept me informed as to the 'bottom line' and I counted money and deposited it.

I am of the opinion that the more committees the better so as to give everyone a chance to help out as well as to get more accomplished. Of course, I don't mean to the point where everyone is over-loaded, including the officers. Last year, for the first time, I put the officers (myself and 3 veeps-don't ask...lol) in the position of overseeing each committee. Each committee was, in actuality, chaired by an officer who could delegate as needed. I chose to "oversee" my committees, but to have an actual Chair (not myself) for each one. The only one I remained as Chair on was Fundraising.

As to the paper... Paper is not free, even the preschool paper costs money. Someone somewhere is paying for it. Your group should be paying for it's own paper. The expense of that paper is up to your group. It is not uncommon for a group to have 'special' paper, but again, it is up to your group to define 'special'. Our group uses 'PTVO PINK', which is a bright cherry color. The school never orders this color, so that when people see it, staff or parents, they know automatically that it is something from PTVO. I believe our paper runs right at $60 for a case. We've used about 2 cases a year in the past. I know that the IRS has something very specific to say about how much of a non-profit organization's budget can be used on administrative costs, but the figure escapes me just now. One of the things I did to cut paper costs AND still have a nice border/letter head, was to use my computer. There are so many clip-art and border programsout there that it was easy just to create one, do the letters on the computer, print one and then copy it onto the pink paper, using my computer generated copy as the original. This offers a lot of freedom, a lot of choices, no additional costs, looks great and is less filling... lol ... wait, this is turning into a beer commercial... lol ... gotta fly!

Good Luck!

Hi,

I am new to this board but have a couple of questions. I am treasurer of a preschool PTO. This is my first year as an officer. I want to know what all the duties of the treasurer are. We have the same pres. as last year. She is a super person, but it seems that she wants officer involvement in all of the committees. We have a "support officer" for each committee which means if the chair of the committee needs help, she calls on the officer assigned to her committee. We have a binder from at least 6 or 7 years ago that contains detailed notes for each committee. Am I wrong in thinking this is micro-managing? Our pres. is up at the preschool almost all day every day working on something, and she wants to add five new committees this year, although we are already doing so much fundraising and so much for the teachers already. I have another child in grade school, and I would like to be involved in her PTO also, but it seems like we have to have an officer's meeting to discuss every little thing.

Also, as to the way money is being spent. School has barely started, but we have already spent money hand over fist. Our pres. thinks the PTO flyers need to be on a special kind of paper with a cute border. I was handed a reciept for over $100 last week for this special paper. I think there would be some really miffed parents if they knew we were buying all this paper, when we could use the preschool's for free.

Any suggestions? :confused: