oh and one more thing on efforting.. Effort WAS used as a verb in 17th century English literature. It was more commonly used in the past tense " efforted".. but a verb, nonetheless.
First, dues and % of meetings attended in order to vote just SCREAMS exclusivity.. I do everything I can to welcome and encourage attendance- and if someone is there, and there is a vote, then their voice matters, and counts.
Grammar Police. from where did she come? LOL- and to dis Tim????? That just cracked me up!!!! If she's worried about grammar.. she shouldn't be on any message boards.. umm.. informal casual language.. I am guessing most people here are educated.. and generally, it's NOT ok to start a sentence with a preposition like " with"... hmm ... people in glass houses........
The object is Inclusion
of members (then stepping up to be board members) not Exclusion 'I approve this message and am not, nor have been, an English anything (other than speaker)' Shawnshuefus
<font size=""1""><font color="#"black"">Liberalism is not an affilation its a curable disease. </font></font><br /><br><font color="#"gray"">~Wisdom of Shawnshuefus</font><br /><br><font color="#"blue""><font size=""1"">The punishment which the wise suffer, who refuse to take part in government, is...
I completely agree. I believe that every parent/guardian/step-parent/teacher/etc. who has a child or is a professional in that building should be entitled to vote. After reading through other posts, it seemst o me that there are several other PTOs with issues concerning by-laws. It saddens me that so there are organizations that seem to have leaders that are in my book ignorant in how they run their organizations.
I also realize there are just as many that are totally the opposite and should be look up to and praised for their fine work. Kudos to all of you! Keep up the great work!
It's too bad that those making such poor choices in their leading can't sit back and realize what their doing by choice or by human error and commit to make a change for improvement. I would like to see all PTOs run professionally and fairly. I myself get tired of the soap opera atmosphere that at times accompanies these types of groups. Lets take the "I & me" out and make it "we". After all it's the many that lead to success not just "I".
I also am against the idea of dues. It just promotes isolation. Sure it may generate a couple of thousands of funds and it may make it seem as though a group has dozens of members when actually there are only a small handful that are active.
Personally, I would change the Bylaws to state what my group's does...
That "Every parent or guardian of children attending the school, as well as all members of the professional staff are automatically members of the Parent Teacher Organization". That way you can promote that they are already members and that you encourage them to be involved. At the same time any parent, guardian or staff member who wishes to be informed and has shown involvement should be included in the e-mailing of the upcoming meeting agenda and the post-meeting minutes. This way they can e-mail the President with ideas that they may have, or how they would vote, even if they can not attend. Not everyone can make the meetings and you shouldn't discount these people just because they have scheduling conflicts...
At the same time I can see this person's point to a lesser degree. I promote active involvement and I do believe that only those that are active should have the right to vote. Someone who pays five bucks at the beginning of the year shouldn't be allowed to vote just because they paid some money. I could see trying to track volunteers hours and use this to gauge who is and who is not "active". That way the ones who only come to meetings but never participate in committees are still considered "voting members", while those who particpate at the events but can not attend the meetings would also count. Mind you I would never promote this for all of the reasons Tim explained. The truth is that the President should know who is "active" in the PTO, and this includes both parents/guardians and staff members. These are the people that "deserve" the right to have a say. At the same time if someone never ever showed up to a meeting before, but then shows up on the night that you are holding an election, well they deserve the right to vote because #1, they should already be considered a part of the PTO since their child goes to the school or they work there and that they took the time to be there. Other than that the President should keep all active members, whether they attend meetings or not, aware of upcoming issues, meeting agendas and the decisions that were made.
Not sure of any of this helps but I hope so. Good luck,
PresidentJim
