AIBU to be the only person concerned that the PTA treasurer seems to have gone missing....

[PTAmissing]

With all the PTA money?

She's been treasurer for years, no children at the school anymore.

She usually attends roughly 1 of every 4 meetings. She hasn't been to one for 6 months. She won't answer the phone or the door, doesn't reply to emails or texts. Chair went to her house and she didn't answer the door although it looked like she was in. We have no access to the money or accounts and the school is lending us money to get back off her at some indeterminate time in the future.

We have the school fate soon and she has all the info on stalls etc not to mention the money we need to buy things! She owes one of the parents about £50 for things they bought from their company for the PTA xmas fate.

Nobody else seems concerned! I really got angry about it at the last meeting and said this is ridiculous, we have no idea how much is in the account, we can't get hold of her, we have no working float. Apparently she has family drama at the moment and thats why she's unavailable but she still wants to be treasurer. I raised the possibility that there could be something dodgy going on and got shut down by the chair who said its not possible as there are two signatories on the account (because she couldn't just forge a signature???)

AIBU to think they should be taking this a bit more seriously given there is over £7000 (at the last count) of money that has been donated by the parents fgs, not to just sit in an account that nobody can get into?!

I would imagine not, I'm afraid.

In fact, I would be surprised if the School Office (if they were using school premises) even had a current and signed application for let. These things tend to go by the board when the group is known and so closely associated with the school.

I've been following this thread since you started it, OP. I think you've done the right thing in resigning, and I think the Chair has realised that the situation is dodgy and is looking to share the load with someone (though I don't think there is malice in their actions, probably naivety - but I don't know this person.)

It's time to get everything out in the open and cleared up. Treasurer can't just refuse to speak to Chair and Chair should be looking to take action against Treasurer if they're not willing to communicate whilst holding a considerable amount of money. Chair does not seem fit for purpose either so I think you're better off out.

Our PTA is like that. They seem to run it as a social club rather than as a profit making organisation. Even the HT said recently, in all seriousness, that he saw its function primarily as a way of parents to socialise, and the money making side was secondary .

Ours is like that too - our headteacher says, "a bit of fun and a bit of fundraising" . We don't run discos to raise funds; we run discos so that the kids can go to a disco. Our events are almost entirely child-focussed so it's about the event rather than funds generated. We're a small school though, so money making potential is probably going to be very small even if pushed to the maximum by hardcore fundraising. It's a good thing I think

I wouldn't be in the least surprised if the Friday meeting saw the resignation of the chair. I'd stay out of it now if I were the OP - for the time being at least.

I wonder if the PTA Secretary has any information about the insurance policy. They could ring and verify the situation and the chair could ring for advice if they are still insured. The chair can then tell the PTA meeting that she has taken advice and that is how she is going to proceed. No point in Chair resigning as has happened on her watch. All in a recognised PTA position Chair, Secretary etc are going to be involved in this, although what the legal responsibility of someone like a class rep is, will have to be determined.

(Although if the signature is obviously fake the bank would be responsible)

However, getting them to acknowledge that responsibility may take some doing. I know of one blatant bank fraud where the bank was only willing to rectify the situation (to the tune of c. £40,000) if they were able to pursue the individual concerned in criminal court. This would have required evidence from the victim who was also the perpetrators brother. In the end family loyalty won, and the bank refused to reimburse and was let off the hook. Complaints were made, but the stance was backed by the regulator. There's a clause somewhere in the T&Cs about customers being required to assist the bank in investigating fraud.

She is also very concerned about the situation and agrees something needs to happen ASAP, would I come to the meeting on Friday?

The shit is going to hit the fan on Friday. I think that it might be an idea to be there, to put your side of the story and to get the right comments put in the Minutes.
But only attend as an invited party, not as a committee member. The Treasurer's missing Report should be high on the Agenda so you can leave the meeting after that.

senua Unless I'm mistaken, I believe any parent can attend PTA meetings just by virtue of having kids in the school - I don't think they need an actual invitation?

To me, the question's not so much if OP's entitled to be there, but whether it would be wise for her to go. I stand by my comment that she'd do well to distance herself completely, but of course it's not my decision to make ...

the chair could ring for advice if they are still insured

She could, yes, but I'm afraid this Chair is the very last person I'd want talking to any insurers right now

These organizations don't just hand out advice willy nilly; they make notes about the situation and what's been said. Given that the Chair's already been less than honest about who's spoken to who, frankly I'd worry that she'd simply make things worse

I'm worried that if dodgy Treasurer and OP disappear off the committee at the same time then somebody is going to conflate matters and OP's name will be mud.
I suppose that she could make a written submission and ask for that to be minuted instead.

I doubt it would be. If she's followed advice earlier on this thread and jotted down a quick timeline of events - and, hopefully, also kept emails and texts - I don't see how her behaviour could be taken to be anything but that of a reasonable person.

Senua, that thought also crossed my mind.
People will associate OP resigning and any wrongdoing on the treasurer's part as being connected.

It wasn't a wise move to resign at the same time suspicions were being raised about the Treasurer.

In my experience that's not the way things work - the OP would, I reckon, be seen as desperately trying to sort things out and finally resigning in complete frustration with the apparent unwillingness of others to do anything. Which is pretty well what happened if I recall.

I think it was wise to resign when it was obvious that untoward things were going on and the Chair and HT weren't tackling the problem.
But I think that she needs to get her defence in first and let people know what did/didn't happen. Otherwise, it could be a case of chinese whispers.

It depends, I guess, on the people, their position in the community and their relationships with others. Only the OP will know those.

Sorry i've been missing, decided to leave the whole situation for the day!

To answer some questions:

Yes a quite small school with lots of overlap between roles etc. Also an 'old' PTA, only one newcomer in recent years, most parents have children in Y4/5/6. So very established so to speak. Three different chairs in the time i've been there. Recent Chair has only been there since last AGM (when the treasurer was last seen). She was previous PTA member.

With regard to the school loaning the PTA money I maybe didn't explain properly. We fund one big project every year or so depending on funds. So playground equipment etc is quoted for and paid for by the school. PTA then gives the school our contribution. Head asks us beforehand how much we are willing to give to each project. So its paid for by the school, presumably out of building/misc funds and then we donate the money to them. I think we currently owe a small amount of money for the BBQ meat ordered through the school meat supplier and £21 to the Chair for the fair alcohol licence. Looking through the minutes I can't see any other mention of us owing money. So in effect we do 'owe' the school the promised contribution for the latest project. There was another smaller project about 3 months ago which we paid for. Looks like we have given the school the money for that, so a cheque must have been raised since we last saw the treasurer.

Smallish update in that another PTA parent approached me today to say she thought I had done the right thing resigning. I mentioned that I thought the police needed to be called and she was very taken aback and thought that was very OTT. Oh treasurer has been around a long time, going through a hard time etc etc

I'm in two minds to attend or not for all the reasons said here. Would like to be there to fully minute what has been said and say my own piece. Also am happy to be away from the whole sorry business.

Head won't be at the meeting on Friday as she has a prior commitment and I haven't seen an agenda yet. Re treasurers report as a standing item...its not even on agendas anymore!

Surely the deputy could attend" if there has been a misappropiation of funds, the press will become involved and the school will be mentioned. I don't understand why the Head is not concerned

At should be a , not a '

Not very together are they?

God how annoying. I'm not sure what I would do. Can you report it to the education authority or will you just get referred back to the governors?

I just have this vision, after many years of attending various meetings, of you going to the meeting and the Chair saying something like 'PTAmissing isn't happy about things - PTA, could you explain your concerns to us?' And you being put immediately in a defensive/aggressive position with the rest of the meeting 'soothing' the Chair and assuring her that they wouldn't want anyone else doing the job. Etc etc etc. Cue smoothing over of situation and reversion to agenda and fete arrangements.

Ultimately, you know the people and will make your decision but if you decide not to go, your 'presence' will still be felt. The Chair will also have to run it on her own rather than putting you in the hot seat.

Your call.

PS - I am extremely surprised that the Head is not to be there given the current position and also the imminent fete.

As your PTA has income of over £5k a year, it is legally required to be registered as a charity. Is it?

If you are, in fact, charity trustees (or become them) there are legal responsibilities you have fulfill. This is a useful guide: www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/509664/cc3_lowink.pdf

And its probably a useful guide even if you're not a charity, in terms of good practice.

So treasure disappeared when new chair was appointed? And now will have nothing to do with chair? Is it just me or does this sound like an issue between two people that is now spiralling beyond control?