Ya Wonder Why Treasurer's Duty Should be Scruitinized?

[OldGreyEagle]

In my Council, not in my Disitrct,

 

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b3_4scoutsoct29,0,6584722.story?coll=all-newslocal-hed

 

I can't seem to get the link to work, but if you copy the complete address, you will get, sadly, to the story.(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

[evmori]

WOW! Sounds like someone dropped the ball! I pray the Pack gets their money back.

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[Grumpy]

There are always stories like this in the news, and it makes you wonder why a unit wouldn't play it by the book.

 

How can somebody take money from kids?

[FScouter]

Lack of oversight breeds temptation. If the committee doesnt require a monthly written treasurers report, and doesnt eyeball the books periodically, the unspoken message to the treasurer is we dont care, do whatever you want.

 

In this case, in addition to the treasurer being prosecuted, the committee chair should be severely reprimanded for not insisting on basic reporting.

[KoreaScouter]

Some people will steal from anyone; if there's larceny in your heart, scruples are the first thing to go. If you think you're immune because you're a youth organization, you're naive.

 

Two signatures on a check helps a lot, especially if the committee chairman is one of them. An annual audit is a good external control, too. They need not be expensive, either. Many accountants will do it gratis for a Scout unit...check around.

 

I was in a unit whose monthly treasurer's report was a 5-second recitation of what the balance in the checkbook was -- no budget, no trends, no line expenditures, nothing. That was an alarm bell for me, so when I balked at unit fund-raisers until I saw some financials that said we needed them, the CC asked the treasurer for a little more effort, and the treasurer quit. It all worked out in the end, but you can't go wrong if you ask the treasurer to do what the Troop Committee Guidebook says they should do.

 

KS

[John-in-KC]

IMO: Worth the cost to BOND the Treasurer, the CC, and the SM/CM/Advisor.

[Eamonn]

While I get a lot of calls and reports about adults who can't play nice.Some of the tales about what the person who takes care of the funds does or doesn't do are enough to make your hair curl.

The worst offenders are the "One man show" The Scoutmaster who has a few hand picked committee members that haven't had anything to do with anything for years.

Eamonn

[dsteele]

$5,000 in two years is a serious bleeding of funds. I think you're all correct in surmising that the basic bookeeping that needs to be done by a unit was not being done.

 

Not condoning the actions of the defendant -- there can be none of that behavior. However, sometimes embezzelers don't even realize they're doing it. They may "borrow" from someone else's fund with every intent of paying it back. It may begin with writing yourself a $20 check to tide the family over for groceries until payday . . . and you never get around to paying it back. Then, it happens again . . . and pretty soon you're in over your head.

 

I've run into people with money problems through work who have fallen into that trap.

 

Unc.

[Bob White]

Risking sounding like a broken record here is another problem caused by not following the program. Both the Cub Leader Handbook and the Troop Committee Guide say that the unit must have two signatures required to right a check, and that a detailed monthly financial report be made to the committee.

 

Here a tip we give our committees during training. Each month after the treasurers report have another member of the committee call the bank and verify the balance reported.

 

(This message has been edited by Bob White)