Parent Organizations

[Mr. A]

Our parent group is considering becoming a more formalized entity and we are wondering what other teams have done.

Our functions include fundraising, providing meals during build, organizing travel, tracking finances, mentoring, recruiting additional mentors, providing additional supervision during build, and general overall support.

These our our initial questions we are looking for input on:

How do parent groups handle finances? Does everything go through the school account, or do you have your own account? To what extent do the team members do this? Who decides how money is spent?

Do you have a formal structure with officers and a charter?

Do you hold regular meetings?

Do you charge dues?

We are very interested in learning what we can from other teams before we move ahead.
Thanks

I would like to add one related question. Does your team pay the travel expenses of chaperons, mentors, and the team's school advisor?
Thanks again