Help! I am our PTO's President. Working towards the end of my second term. (I came into office when the previous group of officers left in the same year. Nobody else wanted the job!) Elections in May for next year's officers. I was concerned when I took over about how we were to operate within the school. I had never been President of any group! Scary! When I inquired about by-laws or protocol anything in writing. Nobody knew of any. My 1st term went well, no problems. I pretty much follow basic meeting protocol. My relationship with the Principal and Superintenent of our school is great.
But this one not so well. I would like to submit by-laws or something to outline how to become a member, who can vote at meetings,etc. We had a woman who missed our election meeting, last year and didn't inform anyone that she was interested in the VP position. We had no takers, so that position was tabled until September in hopes some new blood would become interested. Anyway there was a major stink! She wanted a special election, the works! Even went to the principal to complain! He upheld my decision. After all that I wasn't sure if I wanted her as my VP, but after consulting with some of the other regular members and close friends, we decided if she wanted it that bad and was willing to cause that much trouble to get it, maybe we should elect her and keep her close enough to watch her! But we need't have worried, she brought friends of hers, supposedly they were interested in joing PTO. So with their votes, she was elected. Anyway it's come to my attention that some people don't like the way I'm running things so they are going to bring a group and vote me out in May. I'm not concerned about being voted out,(my husband would love it, he says it takes too much of my time!) but I've worked really hard to organize things, (they weren't before at all) and to rebuild bad relationship with the school officials. I've done my best, and I hate to see that fall by the wayside.
Anyway a little background, we are a very rural school (farming community in Northern PA), with about 370 students K-6th. We have between 6-8 attend our meetings, 4 of which are officers. Our general rule has been that the whole group can vote. We have no dues, no membership agreements. Our parent participation is poor, we are afraid if dues is required we won't get what we have now. Nothing in writing, come to a meeting and join the discussion and help make decisions! I want to change this, whether or not I am re-elected next month, but I'm not sure how. Can someone send me a sample by-laws or whatever you think would help?
I did download a copy of Huntertown School by-laws thank you for the site location!
We've even talked of dissolving PTO in our school, we have a very hard time to get volunteers for even the most basic activities, so our events are minimal. 2 book fairs a year, a chinese auction is our main fundraiser each fall, the profits are what we use for that years activities. We hold a Holiday Shoppe in December, and ususally do something for Teacher Appreciation and Mother's Day. That's about all we can handle. The apathy in our school towards PTO is unreal! Even when I wrote a letter to each Teacher asking if there was a project or need that PTO could help with Financially, I heard nothing! Kind of makes you wonder why we try so hard if nobody cares!
[ 04-11-2002: Message edited by: CAAinPA ]</p>
