What do you do when a Brother makes a mistake?

[CrackerBarrel]

You elect someone you trust at the beginning of the semester, they budget out the set amount for meals and paying our cook, janitor and house dad, and then set the social budget, set aside a social slush fund, and what it generally costs to pay the utilities. Then you have officer salaries, money to go on retreats and to meetings and such, and then a general fund. If we're getting towards the end of the semester and haven't spent it, no one really minds if the treasurer spends some of the general fund running bar tabs or something.

And social chair and pledge trainer are no where near the job that treasurer is. I've been social chair, my roommate has been pledge trainer and I would never consider running for treasurer. It's easily the worst job in the house.

[jon1856]

Originally Posted by CrackerBarrel

You elect someone you trust at the beginning of the semester, they budget out the set amount for meals and paying our cook, janitor and house dad, and then set the social budget, set aside a social slush fund, and what it generally costs to pay the utilities. Then you have officer salaries, money to go on retreats and to meetings and such, and then a general fund. If we're getting towards the end of the semester and haven't spent it, no one really minds if the treasurer spends some of the general fund running bar tabs or something.

And social chair and pledge trainer are no where near the job that treasurer is. I've been social chair, my roommate has been pledge trainer and I would never consider running for treasurer. It's easily the worst job in the house.

There are several very good posts above this with some good points and observations. Can be re-read so no need to re-quote or post them here.

If the treasurer is going to "get paid", and given the way you explained your chapters policies in several postings, one of the ways to handle it is:
He is paid and he can use his monies any way he wishes to.
OR
As part of the open annual budget, he gets his own personal slush/entertainment fund set up. And that is the monies that he uses.

There is a comment made, several years ago, by a rather well known person: "Trust but verify".

And what is so bad about having a surplus in your buget? Why throw it away?

[nate2512]

Originally Posted by lucgreek

Maybe it's just me, but I don't pay dues to have one member use part of that money just for himself. If I found out my Treasurer was doing that, I'd demand that money back and if the fraternity didn't get it back, I'd get Nationals involved. That's unfair to have one person take money on the side for themselves when every member is paying dues.

What kind of brotherhood is it when one person takes money from everyone to spend on personal expenses?

You would make a big deal out of 12.50?

[nittanyalum]

Originally Posted by nate2512

You would make a big deal out of 12.50?

Where did $12.50 come from? The OP started this thread with this:

Originally Posted by jaynu

I was wondering, theoretically....

What would your Chapter do to a brother/sister that has stole money? and lots of it?

I found out that a Sorority's treasurer stole $300 dollars and was pretty much kicked out. Is that the right thing to do? or is there a better alternative? In another situation, another Sorority treasurer spent over $10,000 on clothes and accessories. On my campus, a certain Frat's eboard was caught in a money laundering and drug trafficking case. What would your organization, chapter, or nationals do to the brother/sister? Please be specific, if possible? Thanks.

[jon1856]

Originally Posted by nate2512

You would make a big deal out of 12.50?

Originally Posted by nittanyalum

Where did $12.50 come from? The OP started this thread with this:

I agree. I think lucgreek was talking about all the monies rather than just the portion that could be called their share.

[nate2512]

Originally Posted by CrackerBarrel

We have about 160 active with over $2,000 in dues a semester, so a few hundred here and there really doesn't hurt anything and it might as well be in the budget because you just kind of assume it will happen.

Originally Posted by CrackerBarrel

I imagine our treasurer probably spends between $1,000 and $2,000 for personal stuff on the house card.

$2000/160

$12.50

[CrackerBarrel]

Yeah, we trust them and if we run a surplus it goes to our housing corp (which is run by alumni that already have a huge fund for the house) and we can't ever get it back. And in the end it works out to about $13 a person going to the treasurer, a good bit of which will buy drinks for older brothers anyways. His salary comes in the way of reduced dues and the housing corp. won't let us reduce the dues anymore, so we pay him more (which we feel he deserves) by letting him have some of the surplus. Maybe not the most structured way of doing it, but in the end we all know what's happening and trust the treasurer to do it.

[nittanyalum]

^^^Ahhhh, got it. *wink wink* Not so much a "salary" in the stuffy old "paycheck/W2" terms, just more of a "reasonable access to funds" understanding, eh?

[jon1856]

Originally Posted by nittanyalum

^^^Ahhhh, got it. *wink wink* Not so much a "salary" in the stuffy old "paycheck/W2" terms, just more of a "reasonable access to funds" understanding, eh?

Now I too understand it just a bit better.
Took us all some time to get somewhere near each other on the same page
At least within this sub-thread.
As for the OP, the action of the treasurer is still way out of line.

[lucgreek]

Originally Posted by nate2512

$2000/160

$12.50

$12.50, $125, $1250. It doesn't matter.

I want to know what my dues go to. If our budget said, "misc treasurer slush fund" and my money went into that, then that's perfectly fine with me because I know where it's going. But if I was paying dues and didn't know where my money was going, I'd be leery about my fraternity's financial situation. Transparent finances are best for everyone.

Again, I'm speaking for me. If this is an accepted unspoken practice that and all members are aware that there is a Treasurer Slush fund, then by all means keep with it. But if members don't know about this then I'd question the practices.

[GooniePDT49]

Originally Posted by Kevin

Cosign. If we can stand for anything, we can stand for the proposition that stealing is bad. It's just never justified.

Also, take some steps to protect yourself. Require that all checks be signed by at least two officers, require that the treasurer fully disclose all activity in the fraternity accounts each week to the eboard, and for God's sake, never deal in cash -- never take dues in cash, never pay anyone in cash. Create a situation where it'd be impossible to cover up theft and theft will not happen.

In addition to what LaneSig said, I'd initiate civil proceedings against the guy to get the money back.

Any way you look at it, theres always something sketchy going on.

I think the greeks should use either cash or checks, although alotta times, from what I've seen, checks seem to bounce.

Keep your receipts as well, because my school also does audits, even if the student government doesnt fund the greeks, which at my school they dont.

I dont think the school advisors necessarly need to handle the treasurers issues in a greek organization. We had a few different faculty advisors who werent even greek, that didnt always make the right decisions concerning money matters.

It'll be a good learning experience for the students, when managing money becomes part of their college experience. In matters involving stealing money, make em walk the plank!

[Psi U MC Vito]

Yeah. You have to remember that stealing from your GLO is like stealing from ll your brothers and sisters at the same time. That alone shows disrespect to the org as a whole and to the members as individuals. The best thing to do is kick them out from your chapter and see if your national can strike them from our rolls.