Treasurer Advice

[PrettyinPearls]

Due to the lack of focus on enforcing rules (especially finacial ones) in the past, our chapter has gotten itself into a bit of trouble. I just recently pledged in the spring of '08 and have been handed all these issues, along with many other girls in eboard positions.

To put it simply, we're in debt and it's because girls don't pay their dues. I was basically thrown into the treasurer position because of lack of interest, and I'm pretty much willing to do anything that will help out our chapter right now.

So, the past treasurer has been helping me out and I'm starting to get the hang of it, active sisters were starting to pay their dues on time etc...until I reached a bump in the road.

We have a few alumni who have pretty high outstanding balances. And one of them inparticular has a very big problem with that.

She says that she went early alum, and she doesn't owe any dues. On the contrary she owes over $600.00 and wasn't even in good finacial standing to go early alum in the first place.

To make a long story short, after message after message of her complaining to me she finally started to ignore me...and I'm fully prepared to take her to collections.

Problem is, I have no clue where to begin with this kind of situation. I was wondering if any other chapter officers had the same experiances and could share some words of wisdom? Like ways to act around this person, who to call, who to talk to, what I would need to take to collections.

Thanks!

[KSUViolet06]

This seems so odd to me.

I know that with my particular sorority, girls can't even qualify for 5th alumna status/special considerations/inactive status if they're not in good financial standing standing (current with dues).

Why was she allowed to take alumna status if she didn't even qualify?

I have no idea what you should do, but I think you may have screwed yourselves out of ever collecting that money by allowing her take alumna ststus without being qualified for it.

[PrettyinPearls]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

This seems so odd to me.

I know that with my particular sorority, girls can't even qualify for 5th alumna status/special considerations/inactive status if they're not in good financial standing standing (current with dues).

Why was she allowed to take alumna status if she didn't even qualify?

I have no idea what you should do, but I think you may have screwed yourselves out of ever collecting that money by allowing her take alumna ststus without being qualified for it.

Well, in all honesty she wasn't granted early alumni status. She is under the impression that our last chapter president gave her the status. However, I can say for sure after talking to our last president personally she was not granted it. Under our records and in the reports we send to nationals she has been an active sister. However, she transfered without getting in contact with any of our past officers.

As I said I was thrown into office without knowing much about what's going on. A lot of the past members had a lot of drama between them and I suppose this member just thought she could just disappear because of the lack of rule enforcement within our chapter. Now that we're trying to get back on track she doesn't understand why she owes all this money.

The problem is she hasn't sign a finacial contract for 2 years, she did when she first joined though so I have no clue if I can use that against her to take her to collections.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by PrettyinPearls

Well, in all honesty she wasn't granted early alumni status. She is under the impression that our last chapter president gave her the status. However, I can say for sure after talking to our last president personally she was not granted it. Under our records and in the reports we send to nationals she has been an active sister. However, she transfered without getting in contact with any of our past officers.

As I said I was thrown into office without knowing much about what's going on. A lot of the past members had a lot of drama between them and I suppose this member just thought she could just disappear because of the lack of rule enforcement within our chapter. Now that we're trying to get back on track she doesn't understand why she owes all this money.

The problem is she hasn't sign a finacial contract for 2 years, she did when she first joined though so I have no clue if I can use that against her to take her to collections.

Are you saying she transferred schools? We had a situation where a girl transferred and didn't even tell anyone. When we found out, we contacted higher ups and realized there was nothing we could do about it, and she was considered an alumna member of the sorority. You might want to find out from National Staff where she would stand in terms of active/alumnae status first.

Whether or not she signed a financial contract 2 years ago probably wouldn't matter. What does matter is what the contract said. If there was a new contract that had to be signed every year, saying, for example, "I will pay x number of dollars for the 2007-2008 school year," then you can't do anything about any money before or after that. If, on the other hand, it was a contract stating something like, "I will pay all dues determined by the chapter while I am a collegiate member," then you could definitely hold that against her.

In the future, make sure that you're holding people accountable so that this doesn't happen again. My chapter requires that everyone pay their dues by the 2nd week of the semester (if they haven't set up a payment plan with the treasurer the semester before). If you don't pay by that date, you're in financial poor standing with the chapter, and you can't vote, hold a position, or attend social functions until you pay. If you don't have any clear-cut rules concerning this, you should definitely try to implement some.

[AZ-AlphaXi]

Do you have a regional or national officer who's area is financial? Have you requested help from your National HQ for how to proceed? Sometimes there's a limitation on how far out you can go after members for debts.

For collections or small claims court you need documentation on billing, when and how much, documentation on payments and due dates, and any
contracts that may have been signed.

[33girl]

Jocelyn, this answers your question:

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

This seems so odd to me.

I know that with my particular sorority, girls can't even qualify for 5th alumna status/special considerations/inactive status if they're not in good financial standing standing (current with dues).

Why was she allowed to take alumna status if she didn't even qualify?

I have no idea what you should do, but I think you may have screwed yourselves out of ever collecting that money by allowing her take alumna ststus without being qualified for it.

Originally Posted by PrettyinPearls

She says that she went early alum, and she doesn't owe any dues. On the contrary she owes over $600.00 and wasn't even in good finacial standing to go early alum in the first place.

Didn't you guys just get your national chapter really recently? Is it possible she's talking about something that was grandfathered in under the rules of the local?

Take her to collections. You need to get a handle on this before you dig a hole you can't get out of.

[Kevin]

If you can establish the debt, contract with a debt collection agency and let them get the cash. In many states, the debt collection agencies can even collect their fees against the debtor, e.g., if the agency's fee is 33% and they're collection $100, then they can collect $133 to satisfy the debt.

[PhiGam]

I use omegafi for all of that usually but one time I contacted an attorney in town and got a wage garnishment on a guy. assuming that you have each member sign a contract making them responsible for all fees related to collections, the sky is the limit. If this is an alumni then I assume that they hold a steady job and a wage garnishment would be the appropriate course of action. You should be able to find an attorney to do this at no cost to you. Warn the alumni beforehand and give her the opportunity to pay her balance by a certain date or she will face collections.

[anonymouse42]

I feel your pain. I was treasurer when a member dropped out and moved back home--leaving several YEARS of unpaid RENT (why something was not done before I took office, I will never know).

Honestly, as others have said, at this point I would suggest getting adults involved--either alumni of your chapter, or someone at the national level. I mean, I know it's nice to handle situations like this on an undergraduate level (if people are able to pay back owed dues, it's nice not to have tons of alumns worried or mad at them), but it sounds like this person isn't taking you seriously. Maybe she'd be more responsive to someone older than her.

[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

[Kevin]

Sigma Nu has a billing service through its Fifth Point Properties which is open to other organizations wishing to collect dues. They take a lot less money off the top than Omega Financial does. Maybe your organization has something like this... if not, you can always contact Fifth Point. I do know that they serve other groups.

[AnchorAlumna]

Your organization should have procedures in place for dealing with this very situation. If your financial adviser or chapter adviser can't help you, go to your regional collegiate adviser. Be sure you read through your manual, and work with your officer in charge of disciplinary matters.

This should be dealt with NOW, because it's not that long until the end of the semester! And believe me - once you bring a couple of errant members to honors board, or whatever you call it, the word will spread and you'll find more members paying in full.

Something else to do - if a member is not paying their bill, send the bill to their parents. Often the parents give their student money to pay their bills...but the student seems to find other things to spend it on.

That sister who claims alumna status - if she has transferred to another school, you're out of luck on part of her bills. But she would still owe money for the term that she signed the contract for, and you can send her to collections (consult your adviser and/or executive headquarters on that procedure). Don't EVER sign off on initiating a new member until they have paid their bills in FULL or you have a promissory note!

Warning: you may be called mean. You may hear wails of "But I'm a SISTER!" Please don't feel bad about pursuing non-payers! They are hurting every person in the chapter by not fulfilling their duties and carrying their weight. They are the ones not acting sisterly!

Good luck! The most important officers in a chapter are the treasurer and the president...in that order!

[AnatraAmore]

Also, make sure that every sister signs a financial contract EVERY semester if that is how your chapter has them set up. It should be non-negotiable that they need to be signed at the first chapter meeting of each semester. If you have use online account management software (APH, Omega Fi, etc.) then see if you can have the contract built into their accounts so that when they log in for the first time each semester, it prompts them to acknowledge and sign their financial contract online.

It's going to be very difficult to prove debt if a woman hasn't signed a financial contract for the time period you're trying to collect on.

[tag05]

In reading your post, you mentioned that your chapter was in debt. I don't know if what our company has would be of interest to you or not, but I would like to at least pass along some information on how your organization can generate a monthly income stream to help relieve some of the financial strain from members not paying their dues. You can see this information from the site on my profile. Hopefully we can assist you in finding a good solution.