Financial auditor Deborah McCarthy, who was contracted by the SMUHSD, visited Aragon to audit the school’s clubs on Thursday, March 5. The clubs had improved noticeably in areas where they were deficient in the previous year’s audit, when clubs either lacked minutes or essential information in their minutes.
Clubs are required by the San Mateo Union High School District and the state of California to meet at least every two weeks. They are also required to create agendas for meetings, take attendance and follow up with minutes. Leadership advisor Melissa Perino, involved in managing the clubs at Aragon, says, “Otherwise, it’s just a group a friends that are meeting and hanging out, and they just can’t be characterized or defined as a club.”
Clubs learned during their previous audit last year that they had room for improvement. Aragon site accounting technician Luci Tolfa, who oversees club finances, says, “Last year, when we were audited, a lot of the time the minutes were either missing or didn’t have all the information. The minutes need to have the meeting date, time, and place, needs to list the attendees, show the approval of minutes and they’re actually supposed to show what’s supposed to be discussed. A lot of times one or several of these things are missing.”
Although the clubs did not receive a satisfactory audit last year, there was encouragement for clubs to improve. “We got a written statement that shows what was missing and what we needed to work on,” says Tolfa. “I don’t know that there are any results from having a bad audit other than their pointing out what you need to work on. I don’t know that anybody was reprimanded or talked to about it other than just saying how to improve.”
With Tolfa serving as Aragon’s new site accounting technician and Ms. Perino as the new Leadership advisor, the 2014-2015 school year is considered a transition year.
Tolfa and Perino have been trying to ensure that the clubs have been doing everything necessary to fulfil the requirements. Perino says, “It has been a transition for the clubs, so we have tried to give as much support as possible, creating the club binders, which took us a semester to do and get out to the clubs, explaining exactly what their responsibilities are.”
Regarding the recent audit, Tolfa says, “The audit went really well, and I was really pleased since it’s my first year. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but the auditor was really nice, very helpful, and wasn’t intimidating. From the beginning of the year to now, she could see how we’ve improved, how our documentation has gotten better, and how we’re improving the minutes, so she was really happy to see the improvement.”
Nevertheless, the recent audit was not flawless. “We did get a few marks against us, one related to budgets, that clubs and the ASB should have budgets in place, and that’s something that we’re working on, so the auditor was happy to hear that,” says Tolfa.
The clubs also need to work on documenting the flow of funds in and out of the club. Tolfa says, “When the clubs are doing fundraisers, we need better documentation of what they’re selling and how much they’re selling so that we can look at the money that they make. Another very important thing that we can improve on is clubs approving expenditures before they happen. So even if you don’t know how much you’re spending, if you make a rough estimate and vote and approve the expenditure beforehand, that is very important.”
Sophomore Dina Zheng, president of the Aragon Leos Club, says, “I think clubs are more aware of club minutes and binders as it was emphasized more this year, though clubs aren’t very prompt with it.”
Tolfa estimates that close to 100 percent of clubs are using their club binders.
Zheng has suggestions for Leadership regarding the submission of minutes. She says, “Leadership should allow clubs to submit their minutes online instead of giving a copy to them. It saves time and clubs will be able to be more prompt with it. It also saves paper and would be more organized.”
Tolfa says, “Ms. Perino, I know, is working on updating the minutes this year, so we’ll have a new form next year, which will kind of walk you through what needs to be done or included.”
Tolfa adds, “It’s a learning curve. A lot of this stuff is new this year. I think we’re on a pretty good learning curve right now, and this is kind of a transition year, so next year we’ll be ready to go right into it.”
