Thanks for your help. I'll be making up some sample forms for the group to look over soon. I really appreciate the ideas. [img]smile.gif[/img]

If you have a non profit organization all forms are legal. From a business mngmnt and legal perspective I recomend that you use logistical forms such as inventorty: beginning and ending. If it's simple and you want to keep it that way, Make sure you get itemized reciepts from your vendors. Then reuse them for ending inventory. The same can be done for volunteer records,but its more accurate to calculate in hours 1hour= 1 volunteer for 1 hour. Your treasurer should keep all records in triplicate and 1 record should be kept in a location not prone to distruction. A CD backup is in order. You might want to look into using Quickbooks its simple, easy and can facilitate all of the needs you mentioned. you will also save alot of trees and headaches.

[ 02-15-2004, 12:17 AM: Message edited by: texas twister ]

You're very lucky if you can get your chairpeople to actually complete a post-event form. It's been my experience that by the time the event is over, they've had it and want to just close the binder and file it away! Horrible for future planning Anyway, the best way to get a response is to make the form as easy to complete as possible - check boxes rather than essays, for example, and short specific questions. Here are some ideas:

The best idea we had:
The biggest problem we faced:
We had way too much:
We ran out of:
If we do it again, we should:
Approximate number of volunteers we needed:
Approximate number of people who participated:
The date we started planning:
How much we spent:

I would expect any computer-generated documents or flyers to be copied to disk and kept with the project files.

Also, the treasurer should send a summary report of all the financial transactions that the treasurer handled back to the chairperson for filing in the event files. Ideally, the treasurer should also copy the detailed receipts that were sent in for reimbursement and give the copies to the chairperson. It can be extrememly helpful to go back and look at how many popsicles were purchased, for example. At minimum, those receipts should be kept in the treasurer's files even if no backup copies are made.

If you print the form on colored paper and set a deadline for returning it to the Exec Board, you will increase your chances that the report is done. Keep a copy in the Exec Board (VP's?) files and send the original back to the chairperson for filing. The more places the info is kept, the more likely it can be found next year.

If you are only interested in post-event forms, this won't apply. But if you are working on planning forms as well...

One of the things we learned early on is that collecting email addresses and using email is great to communicate. EXCEPT you also need to know who uses email and how often.

So on forms where we collect email addresses, we also have the statement (with check boxes)

I check my email: __daily __weekly __monthly

We're trying to get organized and will be making forms for chairpeople to use for after events and fundraisers. What kind of information will we need for future use? What do you have to fill in on your forms? What do you think should be on there but isn't?

Thanks for any help.