Do we have to provide board meeting minutes?

QUESTION:   

According to Robert’s Rules of Order, minutes of our PTA’s board or committee meetings are “accessible to members of the boards or committees but no others.”  A member of our PTA has requested to see copies of our Board minutes—do we have to provide them?  

ANSWER:  

Assuming that the member joined more than three months ago, the answer is yes.  While you have correctly quoted Robert’s Rules, Washington state law, specifically Revised Code of Washington § 24.03.135, requires that certain records must be “ open at any reasonable time to inspection by any member of more than three months standing.”   The statute also states the member making the request must bear the costs of copying the records that he or she wants copied.  State law prevails over Robert’s Rules so yes, requests such as this must be granted.

Childcare at Meetings

QUESTION: 
We're thinking about offering childcare at our meetings.  What do we need to know?  And can we pay these folks?

ANSWER: 
It's a great idea to offer childcare at your meetings - especially to help those parents who wouldn't be able to attend your meetings without it.  However, if you use professional childcare, you should execute a contract with them, ensuring they have a business license and are covered by their own insurance.  Using volunteers is an acceptable alternative, and often the Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and YMCA/YWCA provide programs for children and are just a couple of organizations that you can partner with.  Whatever the case, you need to have at least one PTA member present to help oversee this activity.  However, please note that if you pay your volunteers, you void your insurance coverage- so please avoid that.

Safety of Retaining Copies of Personal Checks

QUESTION: 

I read in Money Matters that PTA treasurer should retain copies of all checks that they deposit.  These checks often have a lot of personal information on them name, address, license number and bank account numbers.  Isn’t there a risk that this information will fall into the wrong hand and be used inappropriately? 

ANSWER:  

We realized after publishing Money Matters that our advice on this issue was incomplete.  Keeping the checks for a while gives an accountability trail in case someone claims to have paid but there’s no record of payment.  It also is a way of reconciling receipts and deposits.  Most of the personal information (names, addresses, etc.) are also in the membership records and for many people also in other public records such as the phone book.  The exception of course is individual’s check routing and account numbers that are printed on the lower part of the check.   We recommend that either (1) the checks be copied in a way that obscures those numbers or (2) the numbers be marked out.  Once the financial review for the year has been concluded the copies should be destroyed.  We will include this advice in future editions of Money Matters.  Finally, of course all PTA records containing personal information should be handled carefully so as not to be subject to inappropriate disclosure.