Being a treasurer of a casual, informal or formal non-profit organizations
or even social groups has its risks that’s why many people decline to be appointed or elected as treasurer. First is if the funds of the organization are not enough to sustain the projects, there’s an impression that the treasurer will take care of it either mag-aabono or she will find ways and means to augment the budget. Second, there’s a risk that the treasurer could lose the money and sya uli ang mag-aabono. That’s why organizations always choose someone they think is financially able and with that comes the perception that either the person is good at handling money, trustworthy, or hindi nya kukupitin yung pera kasi mayaman sila.
It can be annoying to be a treasurer. There’s this arduous task of making sure every peso received must be recorded and acknowledged and every fund application must be recorded.
I was president of our high school batch for four decades. Every time we had an event like Christmas party, summer picnic, grand reunion, most of us contributed a little something and I was no exception, and most especially that I was president.
Two weeks ago, I received an invitation to our batch’s Christmas party. All of a sudden I just suddenly remembered that during the last party I attended, there was a financial report presented and I noticed that my name wasn’t there or maybe it was but I just forgot. So I messaged our former treasurer that my contributions were not listed. She replied that the full reports were posted on FB long time ago. She also sent some details which I acknowledged and accepted. I said “okay it’s fine”.
Yesterday at the Christmas party, just as I have expected it, she brought a bunch of papers with the previous financial reports summary. She showed me that the contributions I had made in the past were listed. I again acknowledged and accepted it as accurate. I have no time to go over those things and those were small amounts. I was only looking for my name because I thought baka hindi nailista. I was not asking where the money went. Hinahanap ko lang kung nailista yung pangalan ko. Since she said my name and contributions were listed, so okay na sa akin yun. I again said “It’s fine, no problem. It’s fine. Thank you.”
She didn’t stop there. She asked two officers to join us for a private meeting away from the other guests. She again spread the papers on the table and started ranting about why I kept on asking her. “Kept asking” means frequently. I asked when did I ask you? She said I’ve already asked her in 2015 and again two weeks ago. 2015 is 3 years ago. She was offended and wouldn’t stop ranting why I kept on asking.
Me, I tried my damn best to keep my cool but I must admit that if you are looking for a cool person, don’t look at me.
I said, “okay na yan, you’ve already said my name is there, so tapos na yun, it’s fine”. I said that a dooen times but she was still intense.
“Eh baka susunod tatanungin mo na naman eh tinanong mo na nung 2015 tapos tatanungin na naman”. She reminded me of one of our dealership’s managers that made my blood boil a month ago.
In frustration, I started raising my voice and I said “I’ve already said it’s fine several times, you keep on repeating, so what do you want? Ano ba gusto mo?” Inaaway nya ako at mukhang walang katapusan yung usapan. It was draining. I didn’t travel for two hours to reach Binangonan to just deal with that kind of unimportant thing. She was still hot. I left the room because I felt I didn’t deserve that kind of thing. My mother’s voice is always ready to keep me grounded when situations like this arise. “Anak ikaw ang nakakataas dapat ikaw ang iintindi”. Ha? Mayaman na sila ngayon at nakapag-aral din. It’s not about wealth. It’s about knowing our responsibility as treasurer and or officers of an organization.
Every person who contributed to a non-profit organization has the right to ask or inquire about their donation, kahit piso lang ito. The treasurer or president or any officer of that organization must be ready to show proof or at least to inform the donee where the piso went. It is every organization’s obligation to answer their queries whether they’ve asked that 10 x already. No reason to be defensive most especially if the records are accurate. so kung makukulit at tanung-ng tanong, okay lang. Just answer “nadun yung name mo, nakalista”. Di tapos.
Our former treasurer dreaded the thought that one day I would come back and ask her again. I offered neither an excuse nor a promise. I anwwered “I cannot promise that I would never ask again. If five years from now I woke up one morning and decided to ask, then just answer, just deal with it”.
I was tired and busy and I went out of my way to be there to show my support, to bring my raffle prizes contribution and para makipag-kapwa tao. I was sweating from head to toe because it was humid and the party was in someone’s driveway. I wanted to leave right away but I wanted to wait till they serve the sopas. Because they cooked that for me. They all remember that sopas is my favorite and I am really touched when they prepare isang kalderong sopas for me. I stayed for 15 more minutes, I ate two cups of delicious chicken sopas with star margarine, then left. She apologized thrice and I accepted her apology. She said she’s just stressed out due to some family problems.
She’s such a nice person and I knew that she didn’t intend to quarrel with me.
Long time ago, maybe more than 10 years ago, one of the organizations I was active in embarked on a dinner-dance fund-raising project. My male colleagues asked their wives to get involved and it was very successful. The wives sold hundreds of tickets and we were able to raise more than a million pesos. I was put under intense scrutiny by the wives after the event.
There was a budget for the raffle prizes of 100,000 – 150,000 which we were not able to fully spent. We saved a lot. I had a bright idea which turned out to be not so bright after all. A friend of mine who used to have a big furniture store closed shop. The expensive Italian decors were all holed up in a warehouse. I approached her to sell to me some of her merchandise which she gladly did. Nakatambak lang sa warehouse ng family of her husband.
I was able to get a beautiful Italian crystal vase about 18″ tall for P8,000. Original price was P60,000. I paid her P3,000 for a porcelain table centerpiece otherwise would have cost P25,000. I got a Capodimonte clock for P12,000 with a tag price of 80k. Merong 1,500 lang but the original price was 10,000. Instead of going to Divisoria or to an appliance store to buy pots and pan, electric fans, wall clocks, I thought it was a better option to get made in Italy items since the guests were all rich people. Meron pang 18 ct. gold necklace for 3,500 but worth 25,000 at that time.
The wives of my colleagues thought I overspent and may be earned from the deal. When you raffle off expensive items, you announce the selling price and not how much discount you got, to make the winners happier. You don’t announce “our next price is a crystal vase made in Italy worth 3,000 pesos”. You announce that it’s 40,000. And you don’t mention you got it at 92% off dahil presyong magkumare.
The wives grilled me during the after-event meeting. I felt insulted to the hilt, but of course, who wouldn’t be. I tried my best to be calm and not to get mad. To begin with they were not our members. They were wives of our members. I just watched them feeling like a spectator. Pinanood ko lang sila. Pagnagtanong, I just calmly answered their questions. I could read their body languages, their glances at each other. It was obvious that even before they stepped into the boardroom they were prepared, ready and determined to attack my person. Me, I felt sad and insulted but I just sat there and looked at them straight. I didn’t steal anything. How much did I buy in total? Tila P86,000 if I remember it correctly. Nay ko po P86,000 and they attacked me as if I were a thief.
One of our female member was present during the meeting and she approached me and said “Annie bilib ako sa’yo, you were very calm, the way you answered their questions, very dignified, grabe ang mga tanong nila”. If she were in my shoes daw baka naiyak sya. Why would I cry? I cry when I am very angry. I didn’t want to be angry at them because I valued my decades-long friendship with their husbands who were nice to me. That was the only reason. Yung respeto ko sa mga asawa nila isina-alang-alang ko.
That’s the problem with being a younger woman in an organization ruled by men. The wives probably thought I was the poorest among them and that I would go out of my way to make kupit a few thousand pesos. If the one who shopped for the raffle prizes was one of my male colleagues, no one would even bother to ask for a receipt or a breakdown. No one would dare or bother to ask questions. Discrimination galore.
I’ve been a treasurer many times before beginning when I was in primary school.
Currently, I still hold a treasurership position in a non-profit organization. We don’t have a continuing fund generation projects that’s why the funds are not difficult to manage. Konti na lang pera. My job as treasurer is basically to just make sure we are able to dispose of the checks intended for whatever purpose the president and other officers deem proper. Once in a while, I voice out my sentiments on where the funds should go to preserve whatever is remaining in our organization’s meager resources.
