It think you hit the 2 key points (or 3)

Yes the exec board is 'voted' in to take care of the day to day runnings of the boards but communication and rules are in place to govern that and to include the stakeholders (members).

Unfortunately city, state and fed govt are a horrible example of how its should work. (When was the lasttime that pork or earmark was communicated to stakeholders first? or city, state, federal policy? ie 85% of USA want illegals kicked out (or no amnsty) but the horrible bill was brought up (thankfully defeated) and is being revised to include amnesty and provisions that a majority of US citizens oppose)

The PTA and PTO's Ive been involved in have had a $ amount that board is allowed to OK anything else must be brought upto the membership (even though they voted us in they are stakeholders and have a right to be involved in the discussion/ decision)

The communication is key -- you cant see (or hear what the stakeholders want/need/or their ideas) if your managing the PTA/O from 50,000 miles in the air or away (as many corporate boards do)

The board at our elementary is allowed to make financial decisions on items less than $100, but all of the rest of our financial items are either on the budget we have approved by membership at the beginning of the school year or are presented to the membership for vote at a general meeting. The board puts together the budget for each year, so they basically plan out what the group will be doing and how much will be spent, but the membership approves that budget and is allowed to question items and even request for votes to change items if deemed appropriate.

Many years ago the group voted on EVERYTHING at general meetings. Needless to say, the meetings lasted forever and many times no decisions got made because of lengthy discussions. Finally a new board came in that presented the idea of giving the board more decision making power. It was approved overwhelmingly. Now the board weeds through the myriad of fundraising choices and presents just a couple to the membership. They plan out the events, programs and budget for the year and do the initial consideration of proposals and requests that are made.

I must recommend that your board be a larger group than just 3 or 4 members. Expand your board to include committee chairs for large events and programs, so that you have a good sized group that will reflect a larger portion of your school population. This will prevent just a couple of people from making all the decisions. Make board decision making and voting clear in your bylaws too.

It really does depend on your bylaws and how you choose to operate. My personal preference is a large (not 4 or 5 people) executive board that makes most of the day to day decisions. To start with, it creates a budget that the membership approves. Then within the context of those budget items, the board makes the decisions.

I think another area of confusion is that for a lot of PTOs, the general meeting often turns out to be little more than the officers/board. So even if it is a vote of the general membership, it starts feeling like it was a board meeting.

But it all depends on what powers are vested with your board. You can vote on things broadly at the general meeting, in terms of activites or budget categories. Then specify the board will make the detail decisions.

I belonged to two PTOs and one PTA. The two PTOs vested most of the power in a large boards. (10-25 people). The PTA was much stricter about following every parliamentary rule and PTA procedure. Every decision that affected finances and PTA commitment required a vote on the monthly meeeting.

For instance, an officer had attended at PTA workshop that cost $69. That was all planned and approved as an expense. Months later, somehow they got the $69 as scholarship or grant or from some source. There was a formal motion and vote to accept the $69 - because it changed the budget statement. (Note - while that sounds unbelievable specific, I must also point out that I served on their audit committee and the audit was a breeze because of this level of detail.)

Good luck.

A lot of PTOs will put a cash amount as the decision point. Anything over 500 dollars must be brought to the general membership for example. I too have been bothered by this and frankly have taken the large "goal" issues to the general membership but the board holds most of the other issues. Having said that, everyone is welcomed at the board meetings and if there were something t hat seemed to be controversial then I'd take it to the general membership (which is usually just a couple of folks more than the board meeting). We set a budget for projects and vote in the budget at the GM so there is usually no need to go to the GM for those types of individual votes and we have a 10 percent variance that the board can approve. I personally can authorize 80 dollars a month (not cumulative) and must inform the board at the next meeting about the expenditure.

So not sure if this helps...but it gives some insight -- I don't think the issue is a black and white and would worry that if EVERYTHING went to GM then you'd never get anything done.

d

I have asked this question in another thread but it was under a broader title with other questions and I thought perhaps if I narrowed it down to just this topic, I might get some more opinions on it. I've received a few different ways other PTOs handle their voting but I wanted to see more and have a discussion on something. I've done a LOT of reading of other school's PTO by-laws but have not seen how this is handled outlined in by-laws....the only voting mentioned in by-laws seems to be about electing officers. The reason I am bringing this up is that we are in the midst of revamping our old by-laws which I finally found last year dated 1996! I would like to make clear our voting in our by-laws.

I am a little perplexed on this issue. My original question was how do you decide what decisions the executive board makes and what you take to the general membership to vote on? For example, last year we decided to increase the per child field trip rate to $7.50...is that something your exec board would do on its own or would you take that to a general meeting and vote with whoever comes to your meeting. (historically, we get about 30 parents at our first couple meetings of the year and then it dies off to about 7 for the rest of the year...we've tried a different things to keep up attendance but that's probably a whole different topic!).

Some have said they take just about everything to the general membership for voting, others not. I guess I'm thinking (and this is just thinking out loud as I'm trying to work this through my head)...didn't these people vote "you" as the officers to make these decisions? Isn't that what we all do when we elect officials at various levels of government? Even in our city, only board members vote on issues once we've elected them in. Don't take this the wrong way or put any tone into this email...I really am just asking questions. I'm not saying what they have to say isn't important or valued or worth discussion....but if the exec board and committees are doing the research, volunteering and execution of the work and have the best idea of what works/what doesn't through experience, shouldn't they be the ones to make that decision after discussion with the general membership?

I realize we're not running a city here...but we're close to running mini-ones! I don't want to upset my members but I don't know if I want to be run BY my members either. I just want to some help working this thought through my brain ...again, I appreciate my members thoughts and discussions but whose decision is it ultimately?