I am hoping that everybody has some type of bylaws going on and that perhaps Roberts Rules of Order are followed. This does help very much during meeting. Taking turns while discussing an issue. Have your executive board know how to stop a discussion and go to a vote on a motion. Complaining is one thing but have them make a motion or move on. About spending that hard earned money. Many school districts and states have laws and policies about non-school organizations fundraising. Our city schools are in compliance with the state auditor demands and require that 70% of our fundraising dollars goes directly to the students. If you have something like this in place it would be a good defense of your expenditures. Keep up the great work.
It sounds like our PTA a few years back. They made the old look bad by doing what they do best-"The Job!" The old could not let it die and they disrupted the whole org.
Keep going and due what is "RIGHT" not what looks good. We did and now our PTA is better than ever!!! KJB
Said a prayer for you...I'm going through thr very same situation. When I became president the new board of officers and myself decided that we wanted to try new things and in our memberships packets we let everyone know it...we told them that we wanted to take the PTO into a new direction and despite the opposition of three former board members we have done just that. We have actual family nights now (former's did not like coming back to the school at night to have any functions), we made Santa Shop a not for profit event,we give free popcorn coupons to students who are caught doing something nice (former's would not allow anything to be given for free, they tried to charge our kids a quarter at our walk a thon for sno-cones, when these kids were walking in 90 degree weather), we had a t-shirt design contest and the pto is giving each child a shirt and water bottle). We have raised alot more money than they ever have and are willing to spend it on our kids,they tried to keep massive amounts of money and did not want to spend a dime on the kids,we now have 100% of teachers and staff who are paid members. We have had nothing but positive feedback from parents and staff. But, at every meeting these three ladies vote no on everything and argue the same old line....when I was president....
I have recently found out that many people have stopped coming to meetings because of their behavior...but not once have I joined in on their catty back stabbing gossip...even when people are trying to draw me into a bad conversation I just tell them you know the former's did work very hard and did great things for the school and no one should fault them for that. But I have not gotten the same mature respect for them...I finally had to confront the former president and her response was "It's hard to teach an old dog new tricks" my response was sometimes the old dog needs to either move with the times or get out of the way...before it gets run over!!! So...Midwest hang in their and hopefully your formers will find something else to occupy their time...
Since you said a "bunch of past presidents" are unhappy, it makes me wonder how things are being run now. Did you completely change the way things are done? Are you causing them to look bad? Are you doing something to make the old PTO look bad? Are you bad mouthing them? There must be more to the story.
Help- I am presently the PTO president. One day befor our last meeting a bunch of bitter past presidents got together and raised all sorts of hate and problems during the meeting. I answered each and every query but to no avail they have no respect for what we all have done and I alone can not remove them from a meeeting because all they had to do was pay the dues and be a member. Next is our election and they don't want to work all the want is the name. We earned more money than they ever did and we finally have 3/4 participation from parents. I need prayers. Thank You
