First and foremost, make sure that the two members who are proposing to be CO-officers are completely eligible to do so. Run through the whole member criteria. You mentioned not paying dues recently. Make sure that either of them are even eligible based on the dates of the nominating meeting and elections, and etc. Then, if they are indeed eligible then ...

Do your by-laws allow for someone to nominate themselves after the list comes out, or as a "write in" candidate. What is the cutoff for that? Has is passed already? Then if so, it is settled there.

If during the nominating meeting, there was not a discussion of having CO-officers this year, then there would not be a slate for them, ergo ... no CO-officers. If that announcement is made by the nominating committee, in order to "clear up" any misunderstandings, then that should settle it.

The only other option that I see, would be to hold a meeting and have it put to a vote how to handle the situation. This would depend on your by-laws for holding a meeting before elections. Would last year's officers get together in Executive session to handle this one?

the "co", i would think is already accounted for with president and vice president. they are the co's that are supossed to work in tandem....no need to ever double that effort!

In my opinion, running as "co" anything needs to be agreed upon by both parties. It isn't right that someone running should have a co forced upon them without a choice, especially in positions where they would need to work closely. If the folks running as pres and vice pres aren't interested in having a co-pres or co-vice pres, they need to state that, and then it can be announced by a neutral party so as not to put those running in an awkward spot.

Our bylaws don't state this either, but we haven't had anyone try it. In a recent election, we had people run as co-presidents, and people run alone. All of the logistics of who was running together or apart were worked out between the parties behind the scenes.

It will soon be time to vote on the slate our PTSO nominating committee came up with, but in the meantime, word has gotten around that two people whose names are not on the slate want to nominate themselves to be co-president and co-vice-president so they don't have to compete against the slated Pres and VP candidates.

No one wants either of these persons to be co-anything much less sole president/vp. One has never been involved with the PTSO except as a teacher on the receiving end of luncheons and appreciation gifts. She loathes the principal too. She did not pay dues until a few weeks ago (our bylaws state that dues must be paid at least 14 days prior to any vote for a person to be considered in good standing). The other person is confrontational and extremely hard to get along with.

Unfortunately, right now, our bylaws are not specific about the circumstances where there would be co-presidents or co-VPs. We know now that there needs to be more elaboration in SECTION 4, but that doesn’t help us now.

“SECTION 1. The [private] PTSO Executive Board will consist of not less than four and no more than eight officers.

SECTION 2. All officers must adhere to the Code of Conduct as stipulated in Appendix A – Code of Conduct.

SECTION 3. The Board must include the following officers: a President, a Vice President, a Secretary, and a Treasurer.

SECTION 4. The Board may also include any of the following elected officer positions: a Co-President, a President-elect, and/or a Co-Vice President.”


The appendix on the Nominating Committee says this:

“If there is no Parliamentarian, the President will carry out these tasks immediately following the meeting in which the Nominating Committee was appointed:
• explain the eligibility requirements to hold office, which offices are to be filled, and those sections of the bylaws that pertain to the conduct of the nominating committee…..”

The nominating committee – when it was formed – was told to slate a president, a VP, a treasurer and a secretary. Doubt that’s sufficient to put the kibosh on the “co” nominations….so any ideas are solicited and appreciated.