PTO Websites! I too am a new PTO President of an Elementary School that has had no PTO for 4 years. We are starting from scratch...almost, but that is another story...and what I did was visit these different sites and print out their bylaws and then took them to our first official board meeting and we read and chose all the different things we liked and made our own.
I have had one official General Meeting and we have done our first Fundraiser and are organizing our second...
It seems to me that there are many PTO/PTA groups that worry WAAAYYY too much about politics and lose sight of the reason they exist in the first place - to help improve the quality of the education provided by their school. Every group needs some "ground rules", but some get lost in these details.
Here's a link to "Colin Powell: A Leadership Primer", which I believe is an excellent summary of qualities that are necessary to be an effective leader. Some of them apply more to business than to a group such as PTO, but it's certainly worth a read: www.mce.be/article/powell.htm
My favorites for leading my PTO are numbers 1, 5, 6, 8, 12, 14, 15, and 18. I add: be accountable. Common sense goes a long way.
You might want to try checking your local library for books on meetings. One that I found that was very helpful was called The Meeting Manual. The Minute Taker's Handbook by Jane Watson is part of the Self Counsel series and is also very helpful. Chairing a Meeting With Confidence is another book in the Self-Counsel series you might want to check out. I am sure that there are likely to be others to that you will find useful.
I have to agree with "Themom", sorry Kelly. I am the President of a PTO and our lights are on too. There are seminars for PTO's, and this website is the most resourceful place I use. Thanks Tim. Our school prefers to keep the monies we earn in our school for our kids. We already give enough money to the government, call them dues or call them taxes. I called Tim today, I am going to ask him to address by-laws in his next issue. It seems that subject warrants some attention. I don't want to sound angry, but this website is to share and help each other. Whether you're a PTO or a PTA our common bond is the kids. Thanks.
I am new this year,too. There should by bylaws or a constitution somewhere. Check with the previous president(s). If not, there is your first official duty... set some up! I have viewed my main job as setting up the fundraisers for the year and getting people to chair them; we have alot that are standard fare- and some new ones that we're trying this year. Our bylaws are VERY old and project #2 is the revamping of them to include updates on the treasurer functions (previous chats) etc.
