Question: What's right?

There were people who wanted to debate PTO vs. PTA and vote on it at the end of this year. The PTA council agreed to pursue it. The Arkansas State PTA president came in and coordinated the most VICIOUS attack I have ever seen. Tried to depose the president and vice president of our PTA council and they eventually resigned in tears 2nd to the Horrible slanderous things said about them and the harassment they endured for considering PTO. What would you do after such a vicious attack? Everyone is in shock after the fiasco and nearly destroyed a very large PTA council.

Asked by Jeffdhamby

Answers:

Advice from PTO Today

Rockne writes:
Ummmmm, I know what I would do. But I'm a bit unusual. Somehting like that usually makes me 10X more willing to make a change. Sadly, we have seen that kind of action/reaction in the past. A couple of pieces of advice: 1) Don't lower yourself. Maintain your compusure and professionalism. (The bonus benefit is that usually drives the barker even more crazy.) 2) If you want to pursue, do your homework. The bark and the intimidation is much less effective, when the intended targets have the facts on their side. I've talked or emailed with literally hundreds and hundreds of groups considering this change. It usually goes one of two ways: Groups that do their homework and get informed usually are able to make their decision (either way) without much hubbub. Groups that kind of fly by the seat of their pants on this are often intimidated when PTA muckety-mucks come in guns ablazin'. Sounds like the latter is what happened here. If you guys still want to consider a change: a) it's perfectly doable; but b) take your time and do some background work first. Tim

Community Advice

Jeffdhamby writes:
Your right. We should have waited for a strong president to be able to handle the onslaught. We had all of the information ready for the presentation but the state PTA was able to keep us from having the meeting. I still think its doable but will have to wait for the dust to settle. Now the PTA council board is filled with pro PTA members and will try to squash a vote for the near future. It chaps my hide that we give over $9000.00/year to a political cause that I don't support.