[MMiller]

Sorry to hear about your difficult circumstances. I agree with what many others have said above about contacting a collections agency to get advice on collecting from this individual, the feasibility is always different depending on the situation. It's a difficult process trying to collect from alumni that haven't paid their balances and haven't signed any sort of legal agreement to pay their dues.

To prohibit this from happening in the future, I would strongly urge you to begin using a collections service or dues collection software. There are several collections services such as Omega Financial and GreekBill that will take over your collections for you. These services are convenient, but they are also expensive (the cost varies depending on your chapter size and how much money your chapter collects), which may not be something your chapter can afford right now or needs depending on its size.

An inexpensive alternative to consider would be EasyDues, which is dues collection software. EasyDues is web based software that will help you manage your collections internally, and only costs an inexpensive annual fee.

Regardless of whether or not you contract a dues collection service or buy dues collection software, make sure you have your members sign contracts at the beginning of each semester, legally binding them to pay their dues by a certain date, or on certain dates. Of course there may be situations in which an event occurs for a member where they are no longer able to meet their payments (and your chapter may decide to give the member some leeway depending on the situation), but if a situation like you are currently in arises, you'll have the documents necessary to bring the member to collections.

Good luck, I wish your chapter financial success! Feel free to contact me with any treasurer questions, I have a lot of experience as a chapter treasurer and would be happy to offer advice.

-Matt