I have found the non-profit division of the IRS to be incredibly helpful. They have a separate staff and 800 number, and I've never been on hold for more than 2 minutes. I talked to a rep this year about concerns of PTOs who have never filed, don't necessarily have good records from previous years, and are wary of calling the IRS and raising a red flag. The rep assured me PTOs should NOT be hesitant about calling. He said the IRS isn't interested in retroactively punishing a PTO and will be happy to work with them on what they should be doing from this point forward. (1-800-829-3676)

As far as constitution and by-laws, typical things would include:

*Official Name of the Organization
*Purpose
*Policies (how the name is used, limits on political activities, dissolution clause)
*Statement of Fiscal Year
*Information on membership/dues
* Officers & Committees /Executive Board
*Meetings
* How amendments are handled

The constitution is the basic framework for the organization of the group and tends to be pretty general. The by-laws are more the day-to-day working rules. They get into more details on the areas such as membership/dues, how meetings are run, duties of officers, how elections take place, voting requirements, disbursing of funds. You may want to look at samples of by-laws from other organizations to get an idea of what would work for your group.

You want to be careful to have a good framework without being so specific that you lock yourself in. For example, if you put in your by-laws that dues are $3, then you have to go through whatever process required to change your by-laws in order to change the amount. More typically, you'll see language like "Dues shall be minimal and the amount decided upon at the first Executive Board meeting each year."

There's also a lot of great information in the existing postings on this Forum, so you probably want to find some time and just browse. Good luck!

[This message has been edited by JHB (edited 05-23-2001).]

I AM GOING TO BE THE NEW PTO PRESIDENT NEXT YEAR. IN FACT THE ENTIRE EXECUTIVE BOARD WILL BE NEW. OUR BILAWS ARE NOT VERY CLEAR ON CERTAIN ISSUES. I WAS ON THE BOARD THIS YEAR, BUT NOT AN OFFICER. THERE ARE MANY ISSUES THAT I AM CONCERNED ABOUT. AUDITS AND FILING FEDERAL TAX RETURNS WHICH I AM PRETTY SURE HAVE NEVER BEEN DONE. THE NEW INCOMING OFFICERS ARE TRYING TO PUSH FOR AN AUDIT TO BE DONE BY A LOCAL ACCOUNTING FIRM. THIS WILL COST US SOME MONEY BUT I FEEL IT MUST BE DONE (THIS YEAR AND EVERY YEAR THERE AFTER). FOR LEGAL QUESTIONS SUCH AS FILING A TAX RETURN SHOULD WE CONTACT THE DISTRICT'S ATTORNEY?? WHERE DOES A PTO GO FOR ADVICE?? I AM NOT SAYING THAT THE OUT GOING BOARD IS DOING EVERYTHING WRONG, I JUST WANT TO BE SURE THAT WE DO IT RIGHT!
HELP!!