From looking at your book, Money Management in a Homeschool Organization, it appears that all field trip money should be run through the group’s account. Checks should be made out to the group, any cash receipted, then one check going out to pay for the field trip. This seems to be a real hassle, especially since trip attendance can change the day of the trip due to illness, etc.
After a year of not having field trips, a committee was put together, so now some are on the calendar. It was my belief that the above needed to be practiced. The leader refused. She wants the money paid to her, checks preferred, no receipts. This is how she operates another large homeschool prom she coordinates for another set of people. I was on the field trip team for years. This has never been done before! If we do not do it her way, she won’t do field trips.
I am new as Treasurer. I don’t know if we can do that, legally.
The other question it brings up is putting those field trips in our yearbook (we do a yearbook each year of our sports, activities, field trips). If they are not really functions of our group (which is what the leader is saying), can they be in yearbook? If they are in yearbook, does the money need to be run through the account and all that hassle?
Thank you so much!
Karen M Treasurer
Karen,
Thank you for contacting me. I’m glad to see you have read my book Money Management in a Homeschool Group and are trying to be compliant with good money practices.
Yes, all field trip money should go through your homeschool group’s bank account. But in reality, sometimes it is easier to collect cash on the day of the event and pay for the field trip that day with cash. I understand that. But, as much as possible, if checks are collected they should be made out to your organization and deposited in the organization’s checking account.
It greatly concerns me that your field trip volunteer is demanding that checks be made out to her. That is a red flag! It looks suspicious. She is trying to direct money that belongs to your group to her (that’s called embezzlement!). Tell her that your group does not do things in an improper way just because another group does it that way. You are seeking to implement good financial practices and that means no checks for funds that that belong to the organization are written to a volunteer (i.e., her).
Tell her that if checks are written to her then:
1. It is personal income to her and needs to be included on her personal tax return (!) and
2. If checks are written to her then your homeschool organization is not sponsoring the trip and your insurance will not cover the event. Her personal insurance must cover the event (Get her to agree to #1 and #2 in writing!) and
3. If the checks are written to her, then this is not sponsored by your group and should not have your group’s name associated with the field trip or include it in the group’s yearbook.
This is less a legal issue than a moral, ethical problem. If a volunteer insists on checks written to her personally and threatens to quit her volunteer job if you don’t comply with her demands, you have an ethics problem.
I am concerned that her behavior and demands sound as if she is trying to embezzle money. Have nothing to do with her, at least as far as handling money goes.
If she threatens to quit leading field trips consider yourself fortunate!
For more help in managing the money in your homeschool group get my book Money Management in a Homeschool Organization or listen to these podcasts:
Can a Homeschool Group Collect Money Now for Next Year?
What Homeschool Leaders Don’t Know About Fundraisers
Carol Topp, CPA
P.S. I will be unavailable from October 24, 2017 through November 5, 2017. I will be on a long-desired trip to Israel, walking where Jesus walked! Thank you in advance for your patience as it will take me some time to catch up after I return.
