I am serving as the local PTA Treasurer for the current school year. Upon taking over the books, I quickly discovered that things were not always done appropriately. I looked at some information provided on the national PTA's web site and used that along with input from the Executive Board (Principal, PTA Officers, and Chairpersons) to try to come up with suggestions for Treasury procedures.
Talk about resistance to change - whew!
Long story short, our PTA seems to be controlled by a HorridUberGossiper (the FundRaising Chairperson) who literally hates me. The speed of darkness travels faster than the speed of light so....She has a few of the more vocal members convinced that I am not doing my job, despite the fact that - unlike the previous Treasurer (her friend!) - I have been present at each and every meeting and provided a very nicely formatted Treasury report with my contact info @ the bottom) to each and every attendee. (This has not been the level of diligence they are used to for sure.) I also undertook the long and semi complicated process of getting us our Tax Exempt Certificate for shopping tax free, and I am keeping the group up to speed on the new IRS filing requirements that are coming soon.
Incidences more attributable to lack of communication and poor group dynamics are squarely blamed on me amongst members of "the clique". One example is this: Another PTA Officer sent me a rther lengthy email with a few action items for me in it. The very last line was "Oh by the way, can you bring the check book to Event ABC for an on the spot payment to a vendor." Well, I missed that last statement and showed up to the event without the checkbook. I was there the entire time though. The President came up to me and asked me if I happened to have the checkbook. I stated "Of course not-LOL-That thing has 100 + blank checks in it and we are in a gymnasium with at least 150 people." I did not put two and two together.... I sat at a table alone, watching my son participate in the games & activities, eating pizza, and drinking juice unaware of what was happening at another table: Rather than coming over and saying "Hey-can you run back home and get a blank check? We need to pay ABC right now..." (My house is so close to school - my back yard overlooks the playground.) The President had apparently reported my response to her nondescript question and the HorridUberGossiper and Minions sat around talking about how much I suck and getting more and more mad that "someone" had to "pull money out of their pocket" to pay the vendor. (This person was reimbursed with cash during the event though...)
The HorridUberGossiper has told everyone that I suck yet I have paid two invoices / items from the last school year which her buddy the previous Treasurer - if she was on top of things - should have paid long ago. I also found out that the previous Treasurer (her friend!) allowed her to make deposits whenever she was "too busy" to do it.
At the last meeting, a Minion actually yelled at me that I should quit because I can't do my job. She accused me of a few things: one - Allowing money to "sit" in her house. When I told her that I didn't even know she had any PTA money and asked her why she did not contact me so we could meet up to get the money turned in, she replied that I should have known she had the money and that she didn't bother calling me because I was out of town. She stated that during my five days of travel I should have designated someone to perform the Treasury duties. It was clear that she had been properly primed by the HorridUberGossiper
The HorridUberGossiper brought her spouse to this meeting and he proceded to burn daylight by telling me about his Internet Research and his conclusions about what my responsibilities as Treasurer are. I'll pause here to note that homeboy has not been to a single PTA meeting this entire school year. I'll also pause here to note that a few deposits and a check for over $3K was written without my authorization recently because the HorridUberGossiper decided that she didn't want to deal with me at the moment and she is really good friends with the PTA President who went to the bank and performed these actions on her behalf and who also happens to work for the Principal / the school checking identification for visitors @ the front desk.
Now I am ready to call it quits. May / June would be the new election; however, I feel that I will not have any mental peace until I disassociate myself from these folks. Truthfully, this organization does very little in terms of influencing the budget at the county level or influencing the school's curriculum-the things which affect our children's education directly. We basically hold fund raisers and then turn money over to the Principal for what she deems is important.
Someone at the state level PTA has been made aware of what is taking place and we (the Executive Board: Principal, PTA Officers, and Chairpersons) are supposed to get together soon and hash this out. I am somewhat convinced that the gossiping and non-communication will continue amongst the general members regardless of whatever happens in that room. Historically speaking, the HorridUberGossiper and her spouse were partially responsible for a debacle two years ago when the Treasurer at the time was accused of wrongdoing, the President was pushed out amid race-related accusations, and the PTA had to be reconstituted.
What say you ladies - should I give up now or ride it out? I am inclined to find an appropriate moment to extricate myself because I actually had a headache thinking about all of this garbage last night. Also-the monthly meetings usually end an hour (or less) before my 6 year old's bed time and he is pissed that he doesn't get much wind down time afterwards.
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Last night was the Executive Board meeting with the District Director.
The District Director was on the side of having two people count the funds as were several other people at the meeting.
But-once again H.U.G. advocated very strongly for NOT having two people count the funds before turning them in to the Treasurer. The Principal and Vice Principal were also on the side of NOT "requiring" two people count funds. (It should be "optional"!) This is inspite of the fact that their hindquarters are NOT on the line in the event of missing money. And, I don't know what planet they live on where financial procedures designed to safeguard public money are "optional".
The bigmouthed H. U. G. groupy who called for my head at previous meetings fired up her unfounded accusation machine yet again: I had let her check remained uncashed for "SEVEN WEEKS" and allowed money to "sit" in her house....well, I prepraed a spreadsheet which clearly showed she was telling tall tales. It listed dates of receipt as compared with deposit dates. My average time was just over nine days. I also listed on the sheet an occasion where H.U.G. held onto money for FORTY SIX DAYS before turning it over to me. Could her check have been in that stack? I wonder....(((sarcasm))) Also, she couldn't explain why she did not call me directly to turn the money over to me.
In the end, the motion for two counters was voted down, but another motion that I came up with as an alternative was voted in: The Chairperson will affirm the amt of the funds prior to turning them over to the Treasurer. What this does is forces the original person (not necessarily the Chair) count the money and THEN the Chair counts the money. Unfortunately-sometimes it will only be the Chair. Which brings me to my next point:
Since the two person counting system is not "required" and it can be done sometimes and not done sometimes. I do not feel comfortable with this and immediately decided I would resign.
We worked on agreed on a few other procedures and then we had to table the rest of the discussion because it was after 9:30 p.m.
I am currently working on obtaining certified copies of the Books and contacting the state PTA for my resignation.