Question: Eliminating officer roles

We are looking at restructuring our board to eliminate the traditional president, vp & secretary roles and go to a more loosely committee based structure. Has anyone tried this? Success/failures?

Asked by osutigger

Answers:

Advice from PTO Today

Rose H writes:
Hi there osutigger,

While we wouldn't call this approach common, we have heard of some groups doing this.It's a good option when groups are struggling to fill particular board positions. It's important to make sure you have a person designated to handle the financials for your group (and have a second team member who's name is on the bank account and can sign checks). Also, have a designated person (or some sort of rotation with the team) to run meetings and handle the president's role.

We'll bump this question over to our Facebook community to get some additional feedback for you!

Rose

Community Advice

tuckersbuncha writes:
We tried this due to lack of people willing to fill positions. It didn't go well. Our mistake was not clearly delegating responsibilities. It lead to a bit of bitterness about who did more work, stepping on each others toes, and sometimes wasting time because we were not exactly assigned tasks, so two of us would do the same job without communicating-just to get it done. We went back to the norm the next year. Although I often mention at meetings that our titles mean very little, we are equal. Unless you're the treasurer, they have alot of paperwork! Also having titles gives our members a clear understanding of who to go to with which issues. Every one who complains generally wants a president, or head, to address
their problems. So it's also better for your membership to have titles.

Advice from PTO Today

Rose H writes:
Hi tuchersbuncha,
That's really good feedback. Can definitely see how that could happen. Thanks for sharing!
Rose

Community Advice

Elizabeth R writes:
Be sure to check state & federal guidelines. As a non-profit organization you are probably required to have certain board titles. (We must list our officers on tax documents & other filings.) You may want to have a board, but also include many committees (fundraising, PR, room parents,...). We cut down on general meetings and let each event meet as needed. And, we always have at least 1 board member work with each fundraiser/event. They are not the chairperson; just someone to help if there are questions.