Class Collections

[Hummingbird233]

I was talking with a friend recently and wondered if anyone else feels uncomfortable transferring money to class reps for teacher collections?

There is no audit trail and we’re sending to personal bank accounts. With 30 kids in the class, collections can get into the hundreds and I feel uncomfortable sending money to random people in hopes they pass it all on. There’s be nothing stopping them pocketing £50 of it as none of us know what the others have given.

AIBU?

YABU, you could volunteer yourself if you think you are more honest. But also they are optional, and a bonus really as it means you don’t have to think of a gift yourself, so you can of course just not give money to class collections.

I think either you opt out altogether if you are uncomfortable, or you organise the collection yourself, making sure there is an audit trail.

I just wonder if PTAs should or could have a means to pay online centrally into pots that the PTA Treasurer can then pass on. It would provide more audit than 30 parents sending random amounts into unknown parent bank accounts.

I do tend to gift individually, I just wondered if others feel uncomfortable or if it’s just me!

Why should the PTA do it? I’m happy to take the tiny risk and be grateful someone else is happy to deal with it. Not everything needs to be a managed issue

It has literally never occurred to me to think class reps at either of the primaries DS attended were pocketing the class collection money, both because I knew them to be likeable, public-spirited, trustworthy people , and because they consulted on what should be purchased with the money (usually covering the class teacher and the regular classroom assistant/s) on the class WhatsApp, posting photos of the vouchers or whatever had been bought.

You do realise that the people who do this are all volunteers? If you want it done differently, just volunteer and do it? Also, nobody is forcing you to give money - you can still give your individual present. In our school people feel a sense of gratefulness that other people are taking on extra admin work to make life easier for others.

But it’s nothing to do with the PTA. It’s certainly not their responsibility to alleviate your paranoia about Mia’s mum pocketing £50 from Miss Bryant’s spa voucher!

That’s entirely your choice, I’m not trying to convince you. I’m expressing my feelings about it and asking if anyone feels similarly.

I’m happy to continue to gift individually.

i wouldn’t give to a “class rep” I would hand it to the recipient myself - if that’s an issue - don’t have anything!

The PTA have enough to do without organising class collections.

Why don't you suggest using something like ThankBox so the amount raised is publicly available.

I realise all that, it’s in my post. I was asking if anyone else feels similarly.

It’s ok to raise concerns you know. We don’t all have to want to do things the same way or accept the status quo.

Nor do we have to feel gratitude towards someone who wants to do something.

That would require a dedicated bank account for the money to go into. These days it isn't just a case of opening one, the bank would want all sorts of documentation to fulfil anti-money laundering requirements, and then it would need to be updated whenever the PTA personnel changed.

A relative of mine had an account for a small club she was treasurer of - the club had had this account for about 20 years - the bank contacted them recently to say they'd have to provide various documents or it would be closed - after six months of going back and forth with documents etc. which the bank wouldn't accept, she gave up, closed the account and put the money (not much, less than £100) into a shoe box.

Yabu and embarrassing in the way you think! Surely once the person collects it, they post it on the group as to what they have purchased??
and do you not know the parents in your kids class?? That’s more shocking to me

How about joining the PTA and actually doing something about it then? You know, to challenge the status quo? Why are you raising your concerns here instead of where you can actually make a difference with the suggestions you have? Have you asked the other parents at your school?

I’m not a class rep but have volunteered to organise collections for class teachers & TAs for the past couple of years. I used an app called Collection Pot to organise it and made sure it’s all really transparent. I believe that anyone donating could see how much is in the pot in total and then I used the collection to buy gift cards and sent photos on the WhatsApp group to show what’s been bought. People seemed happy with it and it seems more secure than transferring money to a bank account.

And I’m expressing mine/discussing… because you’ve asked for opinions on a discussion forum

Nope, no concerns. I’m just grateful someone else wants to do it because I have absolutely zero capacity to take something like this on. If I didn’t trust the other person or thought they were up to something dodgy, I wouldn’t take part.

We did so 10-15 years ago at the start of school year. £20 was recommended but we were meant to put cash in an unmarked envelope. It was voluntary and it was supposed to be for small present, card, flowers for teachers for Christmas and end of school year and maybe something else.
We were not allowed to bring our own presents because it could become competitive.
Never worried about it.

I used to organise this 25 years ago. It was a fiver in cash. The teacher got a decent gift and there was one bought card, not 30. Most people contributed. If it had reached me that another mum thought I was pocketing some, I'd have been incandescent. I didn't even deduct the tube far to get the nice thing from Tiffany.

@Hummingbird233 there are lots of collection websites now where people donate via them and they keep a running total for what has been collected. The class rep should do that in future. It keeps the money separate.

Hm it's a fair point - ours is very informal and I'm more than happy for them to do it! But in their shoes I think I would want to use a collection website to cover my own back.

We pay on an app, anonymous to everyone else, but the total is public. The person buying is always transparent about what things cost, and there’s a discussion about gifts. If you have an issue with the process, you run it and fix the process, person next time will just copy it.

I think the risk is so negligible, you’d literally have the entire school gate after your blood if you stole from a collection or what not.

I think the genuine reality is - or indeed the risk to the person organising - they actually end up putting in their time and more money to level out the gifts. That’s what I’ve seen happen lots, and if it went the other way and there was a fiver left over i think they should get to keep that for their efforts!

Hasn’t occurred to me. Only mums who have volunteered so far have been honest good people. People I know and trust. The possibly dodgy mums would never volunteer for bathing in a million years so I think we are safe on that front! I’ll continue to contribute to class pots. I can’t be class rep at the moment so I’m grateful to those who do

Mumsnet quote of the day for me 🤣

I think in general it's better to use an app to do it, to separate the money, just for transparency and admin. I can see where it could become an issue for people in certain situations, eg if they are self employed and use their bank accounts for work, have to submit statements for aml purposes if buying a property, or for taxes etc, if they claimed benefits it could be seen as an income for them, or if had a sudden difficult financial issue and their bank account was frozen. Even if the rep is completely trustworthy lots of things could go wrong and it just doesn't seem sensible to mix group funds with personal finances in that way. In our school the contributions come to over £1k so it's significant enough to have to explain it.

I don't have an issue with the specific class reps in our school doing it as I know them well enough to be comfortable about it. And I like doing class collections rather than individual gifts as it takes out the responsibility for choosing gifts for the staff.

Do that then 🤷‍♀️

This honestly doesn’t bother me at all; I appreciate not having the hassle. Also - unknown parents? They’re hardly strangers if their kids are in the same class.