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?!

OP, I would walk away if I was you. This will not end well.

I think you shouldn't walk. I think you should use your position to resolve this. If you are taking steps no blame can lie with you.

Yes, and that's why I said it was a good thing OP had put her concerns in writing, ghoul ...

You're doing the right thing by pushing for answers PTA. I hope that it's not as bad as it sounds!

There will be several signatories on the bank account. One of them can get bank statements for the last 6 months. Why haven't they done this if there's some concern? They normally get sent to the school so why aren't they opening them in her absence?

For charities under £25k income, no requirement for audit/independent review.

For me, calling the police is over the top if the bank signatories haven't even looked into it. There may be nothing financially wrong and why should be the police be bothered if no-one on the committee who is entitled to obtain this information has even bothered?

The committee itself sounds a bit lax.

My recent experience of taking one signatory off & getting another one on, was it took many months for each change. They are faster taking people off than putting them on, too. Nothing we could do to speed the bank process up. Argh.

update

Email from chair to say no need to call meeting. She's going to carry on trying to get in contact this week. If no contact by Wed she's going to see treasurer with another PTA member to discuss finances. Also constitution is being updated next month to mean all main 4 posts have to be held by parents.

Just how is she to 'go see' the treasurer for definite if there's no contact? If I recall, last time she went, the treasurer didn't answer the door?

And what timescale is she proposing for this discussion of finances?

No idea

It was rather brief. Literally said, no need to call meeting, will attempt to contact via email/text/phone. If no contact will visit with Y and discuss finances. Blah blah about changing constitution.

Anyhow I have something on paper voicing my concerns!

In my job I've seen many instances of treasurers of committees running off with the cash. It's happened more times than I care to remember. They're always the ones who you'd never think would do something like that.

I hope you get this sorted OP. I'd do,as you're doing, and try to get this in hand as soon as possible.

Why is the head so chilled about this? Could they be in cahoots? I don't understand the inaction... it has been going on for too long IMO.

Have you a copy of the constitution to hand? I think you need to play this one by the book.

I don't think they can change the constitution just like that. It has to be approved by an extraordinary general meeting. The chair seems to be dealing with this in a very odd way and isn't inspiring confidence. Has she discussed this plan with the head? Committees need to be seen to do the right thing, not sort things out behind closed doors.

All very odd. I'm treasurer of my amateur opera company's accounts and have to sign cheques all the time. The accounts are audited by 2 other people. This is very worrying.

Email from chair to say no need to call meeting

I wonder what's happened in the short period between her encouraging you to call a meeting yourself ... and this?

It's all very weird. It does sound as though they're all covering up for her so it may be that something big has happened. Alternatively, the HT and chair realise how sloppy they've been and know they need to sort it out.

Please keep us updated OP .

You need an EGM to change constitution. I'd call one still!

Sounds dodgy!

I'm suspicious of the chair as well TBH, there seems to be a lot of inaction and attempts to prevent anything actually being done about the situation.

Our PTA is also a friends association so our treasurer has carried on in the position despite her children leaving 7 years ago! She doesn't actually want to carry on but no other parents want to take the role on (we have over 200 families) we wouldn't have a PTA without her.

Our treasurer raises a cheque but isn't a signatory, we have other committee members who are signatories. Bank statements go to the chair who then forwards it to the treasurer. Where large amounts of money are banked(after a fete) then 2 people go to the bank together.

Money is always counted by 2 or more people straight after the event. Accounts should be externally audited. If you follow these procedures then you won't have a problem in future. The problem isn't because she isn't a parent unfortunately it is to do with how your PTA is run. Your chair should have implemented this. Unless these changes are made you could still have problems with a parent being treasurer. Unfortunately this won't help you now.

I can't offer any advice other than email her to say you are concerned and give her a deadline where she has to contact you or you will seek legal advice. Copy the head and chair of governors.

Things can sometimes become a bit wild and woolly when you have long established committees with little effective oversight and no pressure on positions. Not malfeasance so much as inattention and lassitude. (If there's enough money to do what's needed/expected they can ramble on for years unless something happens.)

Something may just have happened in this case.

Our pta person stole all the cash

Is there nothing in the constitution about audits? Can you suggest something be added.

As evidenced by this thread, problems with PTA Treasurers are surprisingly common. There needs to be some kind of system where the Treasurer is regularly being checked, even just to make sure that everything is up to date. You cannot audit yourself.

Our PTA is very small, but the Treasurer has to sit down with at least 3 PTA committee members twice a year and have them check the accounts. It protects not just the PTA but the Treasurer too.

If she's stolen the money it will come out. What I suggest is that you call a meeting to appoint a new Treasurer. The new Treasurer will request all the account details and paper work and will have to go through everything and check.

If it's just a case that the paperwork is a mess then it still needs to be sorted.

This is a perfect example of how dysfunction on PTAs because everyone is being naice and nobody is willing to ask difficult questions. The OP is completely right in what she is doing. Frankly, if PTAs had 50/50 representation of women and men (as they should) then embezzlement of PTA funds, which happens in a lot more schools than you might think, would be significantly less likely to occur.