Open Forum

I find that, as a theatre teacher, I'm forever collecting money from kids for various items...field trips (including our biennial New York City trip, in which case I'm collecting a LOT of money), school production souvenirs (sweatshirts, posters, etc.), cast dinner money, playbill ad sales, fundraising receipts and on and on.  (For tickets our big school musical we use showtix4u.com plus I generally have some parent support, so I I am blessesd to be out of that particular transaction.)  Depending on how events align in a particular part of the year, I may be collecting for a variety of things at once, which can mean 50 kids in a day handing me little envelopes of checks or cash (which, invariably, they want to throw at me during the four minute passing time in the hallway and which sometimes includes their name). 

In short, little envelopes (and worse yet, wadded up bills) are making me crazy.  I'm very disciplined about how I handle money coming in and always have dedicated receptacles for whatever items I'm collecting at that moment, and I'm very good about putting it immediately in the proper bin until such time that it can be properly processed.  Still, I wonder, are there those of you out there more clever than I (and perhaps more technologically savvy) who have devised systems for kids and families to pay for things electronically so that I'm not up to my ears in envelopes?

I know how innovative members of this community are, and I thought I'd throw it out there.  There must be a better way.  

I find that, as a theatre teacher, I'm forever collecting money from kids for various items...field trips (including our biennial New York City trip, in which case I'm collecting a LOT of money), school production souvenirs (sweatshirts, posters, etc.), cast dinner money, playbill ad sales, fundraising receipts and on and on.  (For tickets our big school musical we use showtix4u.com plus I generally have some parent support, so I I am blessesd to be out of that particular transaction.)  Depending on how events align in a particular part of the year, I may be collecting for a variety of things at once, which can mean 50 kids in a day handing me little envelopes of checks or cash (which, invariably, they want to throw at me during the four minute passing time in the hallway and which sometimes includes their name). 

In short, little envelopes (and worse yet, wadded up bills) are making me crazy.  I'm very disciplined about how I handle money coming in and always have dedicated receptacles for whatever items I'm collecting at that moment, and I'm very good about putting it immediately in the proper bin until such time that it can be properly processed.  Still, I wonder, are there those of you out there more clever than I (and perhaps more technologically savvy) who have devised systems for kids and families to pay for things electronically so that I'm not up to my ears in envelopes?

I know how innovative members of this community are, and I thought I'd throw it out there.  There must be a better way.  

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Ryan Moore
Theatre Teacher and Forensics Coach
Royal Oak MI
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I find that, as a theatre teacher, I'm forever collecting money from kids for various items...field trips (including our biennial New York City trip, in which case I'm collecting a LOT of money), school production souvenirs (sweatshirts, posters, etc.), cast dinner money, playbill ad sales, fundraising receipts and on and on.  (For tickets our big school musical we use showtix4u.com plus I generally have some parent support, so I I am blessesd to be out of that particular transaction.)  Depending on how events align in a particular part of the year, I may be collecting for a variety of things at once, which can mean 50 kids in a day handing me little envelopes of checks or cash (which, invariably, they want to throw at me during the four minute passing time in the hallway and which sometimes includes their name). 

In short, little envelopes (and worse yet, wadded up bills) are making me crazy.  I'm very disciplined about how I handle money coming in and always have dedicated receptacles for whatever items I'm collecting at that moment, and I'm very good about putting it immediately in the proper bin until such time that it can be properly processed.  Still, I wonder, are there those of you out there more clever than I (and perhaps more technologically savvy) who have devised systems for kids and families to pay for things electronically so that I'm not up to my ears in envelopes?

I know how innovative members of this community are, and I thought I'd throw it out there.  There must be a better way.  

I find that, as a theatre teacher, I'm forever collecting money from kids for various items...field trips (including our biennial New York City trip, in which case I'm collecting a LOT of money), school production souvenirs (sweatshirts, posters, etc.), cast dinner money, playbill ad sales, fundraising receipts and on and on.  (For tickets our big school musical we use showtix4u.com plus I generally have some parent support, so I I am blessesd to be out of that particular transaction.)  Depending on how events align in a particular part of the year, I may be collecting for a variety of things at once, which can mean 50 kids in a day handing me little envelopes of checks or cash (which, invariably, they want to throw at me during the four minute passing time in the hallway and which sometimes includes their name). 

In short, little envelopes (and worse yet, wadded up bills) are making me crazy.  I'm very disciplined about how I handle money coming in and always have dedicated receptacles for whatever items I'm collecting at that moment, and I'm very good about putting it immediately in the proper bin until such time that it can be properly processed.  Still, I wonder, are there those of you out there more clever than I (and perhaps more technologically savvy) who have devised systems for kids and families to pay for things electronically so that I'm not up to my ears in envelopes?

I know how innovative members of this community are, and I thought I'd throw it out there.  There must be a better way.  

I am very fortunate in this aspect. Our school district does not allow us to collect money and keep it in our classrooms. All monies are paid to the school bookkeeper and she keeps the records and credits it to the various accounts. I have been in your situation and had money and fund raising goods stolen, because of lack of secure storage. For a long time I didn't even do fund raisers because of that. My only suggestion is to get a couple parents to collect all the money and tell the kids they can ONLY pay when the parents are there.

Wow,

I feel your pain!  I've got two separate accounts:  the drama boosters and the school account.  All class fees, rights and royalties, and ticket sales go through the school account. Our school will not let us do any of the online ticket sales sites. These things have a LOT of paperwork attached to them, so I use the booster account for just about everything else:  shirts, set supplies, concessions, any fundraisers.

We did get a square account last year.  This is great to give people an opportunity to join our booster online, and I have an inventory of our shirts, a way to purchase a yard sale slot, program ads, and some other stuff on there. I'm an idiot when it comes to technology, but I figured it out pretty quickly.  

I, too, use excel a LOT to keep lists and keep track of money coming in to the booster account.  At the end of every school year, we have a few parents do an audit of the booster account that is then sent to the county for review.  

It's a pain, but SO much easier than needing to get approval for every purchase or receipting every shirt kids want to buy.  

I have kids try to stuff wads of cash in my hand or buy tickets from me constantly!  I have to tell them that they MUST turn in all money before the end of our lunch block.  Otherwise they need to wait for the next day.  I just get overwhelmed, and we are not allowed to keep money in our rooms overnight.  I make booster deposits at the bank on my way home.  

That said, I am very close with my school bookkeeper.  I think I go see her at least once a day!  And, yes, I often feel like I'm in a completely different profession with the amount of money I handle (especially last year when we had to fund raise over 100K to go to the Fringe!)

My only other thought is that our school's band boosters handles all the funds themselves, and the teacher is not a factor at all.  I am a control freak, so that doesn't work for me, but it might be a way to put the responsibility on the parents.

It sounds like you've got a flourishing program that is bringing in money.  Good luck:)

My kids have been trained to always pay the bookkeeper, then bring the receipt and turn the receipt into the Thespian inbox.  When they pay the bookkeeper, they have to state what it's for and give their student ID, so the receipt has their name, the amount paid and what it was for, which makes my bookkeeping very easy.  I then log it into my books and put the receipt into a binder.

The other nice thing with that is that if there's ever a question, the kids can go to the bookkeeper and ask for an audit of their student ID and it will show everything they've paid.  I do not accept cash or checks - if they try to hand them to me my automatic response is "bookkeeper."  It only takes a couple of months before the new kids are indoctrinated and has become very easy to handle.

Are you able to get a cash collection bag from your bookstore? I agre with Phillip, excel is your friend, then tally up the monies daily or weekly and deposit it (or whatever system works for you). Our campus has an outdoor drop that can be used without having to go into the bookstore to make the deposit. If you have something like that, and maybe 2-3 bags) then you'd be able to drop one in and still have a backup to continue collecting. 

Do you have a private office? Maybe there can be a small area set up to allow you to organize...

Oh, trust me, excel and I are BFFs. And security of collected monies is a concern, but a lesser concern (only a couple of times in many years has money I've collected been stolen, which, admittedly, SUCKED and was a serious issue, but's rare. 

Someone mentioned control freakiness....I think many of us in this field are similarly afflicted---I actually flinched when I read the suggestion that parents pay the travel agent directly (even as I realize this was a perfectly reasonable suggestion in answer to the question I posed because I got the willies thinking about the families talking to the travel agency. Aren't we all our own worst enemies?)

Hi Ryan,

Handling money, accountability, and security are issues that face every organization (especially schools and arts groups).  As others have stated on the forum, using technology is the way to go!

I would suggest looking into my online ticketing company BookTix. (booktix.com)  While we are primarily an online ticket system built specifically for schools, hence our name, many of the schools we support nationally, sell workshops, and flowers, and t-shirts, and fund raising dinners, collect donations etc.

With BookTix you will be able to track every sale, run reports and most importantly see where every penny goes.

Check out our website.

Jason

http://www.BookTix.com

My official title is "Assistant Director" for our two mainstage show (and Troupe Director) but a more accurate description would be bookkeeper, or producer.  I really have very little to do with what you see on stage - our director likes to manage that independently for the most part -but I am constantly bombarded with random questions and payments for all things theatre... None of the other theatre staff are teachers or even HS employees - so I end up fielding questions about EVERYTHING that pops up during the school day!

When my sons were swimmers, the coaches handled all the "wet" business - actual swimming technique, practice times, line ups... and parents handled all the "on land/dry" business.  Basically, I am in charge of all the "dry" stuff.   Can anyone think of a catchy comparison that I can use to explain all of my responsibilities to the admin? ;-)

I, too, am a bit of a control freak - and parents have offered to help... but at some point, although I do get overwhelmed (this is tech week for us right now!)... I wonder if it would take more time to explain it all than to just do it myself.  And, since I am the only HS teacher on staff, all of the paperwork for anything must go through me.  The boosters do have their own account for concessions income - and have been helpful to help pay for things that district red tape would not allow us to do easily.

One little tip: I have started to save all those "extra" envelopes that come with the junk mail, monthly bills, etc. Since I do a lot of my personal bill-paying electronically, I take them to school and when a kid tries to hand me money at odd times, I tell them that they must put it in an envelope with their name on it, and what it is for  - meals, shirts, field trip, cast party, banquet, etc. 

Online ticketing has really helped to reduce the amount of work for me - we use Seat Yourself - we started last year and wanted to support an organization that helps to fund Thespian scholarships through EdTA.  But I have friends who use others, and all seem very user-friendly.

I have an excel file for everything also.  Sounds like we're all in similar situations.

Missy