How can I politely say no to this request?

[Fedupandstressed]

I’m an Ea for our SLT. I volunteered a couple of years ago to be ‘milk monitor’, as in taking their £5/month and buying the milk, tea, coffee and biccies for the 9 of us. No issues so far. I nip to Asda twice a week on the way to work. I get the bus btw and all the money goes via a dedicated tea fund Revolut.

Now a fairly new member of SLT, has asked the other departments (over 100 people) if they want to join to save on the multiple milk situation in the fridge, and asked me to organise this. So I’d have to organise a regular delivery and payment AND be responsible for chasing every single person for their money!

I'm not a purchasing clerk, or what they’re called. I do this for our team voluntarily.

How do I politely say that sorry, but it’s beyond my remit!

I am really sorry but no I can't do it, polite, to the point, no further explanation needed.
There is no need to explain because it is glaringly obvious the request is ridiculous and by offering a justification for the refusal it invites further discussion.
The OP needs to close this down and make it clear she is not there to be taken advantage of.

I had this with one place I worked. Quite a few opted out but continued to use the milk. We also had people who ate cereal for lunch and breakfast and used the milk for that so the PT folk got upset their three drinks a week were being charged the same as someone having ten bowls of cereal and ten hot drinks a week.

It's a dark hole. SLT need to consider a delivery of milk that's free for all or leave things as they are.

I once worked somewhere with a honesty system. It was 20p for a coffee/ tea or wrapped biscuit (rocky or 2 fingered kat, viscount. 30p if using milk for cereal or porridge.

It seemed to work quite well. I just have hot drinks but lots of them but even that was just a quid a day there was a sheet with everyone’s names and you’d put tally marks beside what you had and square up by putting money in a change bag with a little note with your name/ items had and posting it in a locked box. Normally I’d just pop a fiver in at end of week for my many teas.

Well, after my email last week, nothing was mentioned in the weekly meeting today. No replies to email either, so I’m counting that as a win.

Rude of them to not reply.

Definitely a win for you for now. I don’t like the attitude of this new team member though.