It sounds like your organization is setting up a structure much like ours. Our group has general meetings only twice a year - in August to approve the budget for the year, then in May to elect new officers.
Our Board (which is large: 25-35 people) runs the organizations and makes all the day to day decisions. Unless there were some special situation or something requiring a change of the constitution/bylaws (very, very rare), then we wouldn't call a general meeting during the year.
The monthly Board meetings are open to anyone who wants to observe, but generally speaking, if someone is interested enough to attend, they typically volunteer for something fairly signicant also.
The bylaws (or in your case, charter) define how the organization is organized and the rules by which it operates. They can be written to give the power to the Board or leave everything up to the General Membership.
I'm glad you've found a system that's working for you, whatever terms you choose to use.
I would ask do your by laws require the entire membership to vote on them? If they don't then they serve the same purpose as the policy and guidelines I spoke of. If they do then this is, in my experience, how they become unmanagable.
Essentially though with a Charter and either by laws or policy and guidelines you eliminate the need for the constant membership votes that many people seem to be afraid of.
Some helpful hints for the framework for a Charter.
A Premable - clearly state the purpose of your PTO - In this months PTO today is a good Question answer that can shed some light on the differences.
Article 1 - This is the membership and the authority article. Who can be members. As for myself I feel this should not be restricted to only parents, teachers and staff but anyone with an interest in the school. Also here is the authorization the membership at large grant to create a board. How to amend, and how votes (general membership) are conducted.
Article 2 - Establishes the board and the officers thereof and the basics for the elected positions as opposed to the non elected positions. As an example the Principal and Teachers rep are not elected by the membership at large. You may even consider granting the Principal veto power here. This clears up that pesky problem of it being the principals school and we will play the game their way! You state as much. Terms are also contained here for the officers.
Article 3 - Establishes the authority of the officers. What is the general authority of the officers. Myself being President am a non voting member except in case of ties, this limits the president since I also am empowered to create and hold the agenda as well as ex officio. This doesnt limit the president too much but it does let them know that they are primarily responsible for implementing the decissions of the board as the chief executive.
Article 4 - This article deals with the various administrative matters like audits, roberts rules, when the new board takes office, transfers of authority, impeachment, non profit etc! Most important is a non compensation clause. Rather than making this a by law or policy it was built into the Charter to make it very hard to alter or change.
Article 5 - This is the final authorization and when the Charter takes effect and the requirement that it be voted on by the General membership.
The idea here was to create a document where the power resides with the board as a whole, but the president or the principal can still hold executive authority as needed. It's not perfect but it serves the primary purpose of not holding up things like who does what and when that far too often have to go before the general membership to alter.
You make some good points, and it sounds like you've come across some badly written bylaws. Actually, good bylaws are exactly as you describe - they set a reasonable framework in which the organization operates without locking it into too much detail.
Good bylaws would never specify things like the dues amount or the day/time the meetings are held. You don't want to have to amend your bylaws every year when you routinely make decisions like those.
As I understand it, a charter is often the organizing instrument, parallel to the Constitution or Articles of Association. It often serves as a good common language statement of what the organization is all about.
I'd agree that an organization should "get rid" of cumbersome, badly written bylaws and instead replace them with good, useable bylaws.
In our case, our constitution is 3 pages long and covers much of what you mentioned. Then our bylaws are about 4 more pages and go into more depth about HOW things are done. (Many groups have evolved to a single hybrid document.)
After reading thought the posts of the past several days I see an underlining problem, either no bylaws exist, no rules exist or they are all so out dated they cant work.
There is a solution to this it is called a Charter. A Charter differs from bylaws in that they are not all that specific except in how your PTO is organized and defining roles.
Thats all you need! Leave the process of how each board operates up to that board, dont lock future boards into rules that either no one follows, they cant understand or dont agree with.
The first order of business of each board under a charter system is to review the policies and guidelines and vote to approve disapprove modify them! FIRST ORDER each and every board!
This means that the new board will be able to set its own operating proceedures within the general guidence of the charter.
I have seen by laws that are 30 pages long - a charter is about 3 to 4!
I have seen by laws with os many rules I wonder why you all got away from being a PTA, wasnt that one of the reasons?
Start to think out of the box when you become a PTO, the box thinking is for the PTAs [img]smile.gif[/img]
As for the policies and guidelines you establish, they ought to be in plain language - dont get wordy and dont assign responsibilities to specific people, instead assign them to a postiion it it is NEEDED. An example of this would be Petty Cash review policy: Where you periodically have the Treasurer or President audit each petty cash account! The requirement for a PTO audit is a part of the Charter and is not specific on who does it, but is merely required to be done (annually normally). There are state and federal laws that already explain what an audit is so dont reinvent the wheel. But an internal audit is not coverred by law so establish a policy statement dont put it in the "bylaws". I hope this example works if not:
Instead of saying in the charter what membership dues are instead say: Membership dues will be established by the board at the beginning of the school year and shall remain fixed for that year. Now the board may establish a policy statement that says: General membership in the PTO shall be $5.00 for individual members, $6.00 for couples. Teachers and Staff memberships shall be $3.00.
You do not need to modify or amend the by laws which needs to go before the entire membership to approve (If you dont require the membership to vote on that level of a change then you dont have a PTO but a fiefdom ruled by who ever is the current King or Queen).
Bylaws are way too specific for operating use, get rid of them, go to simplier a more common sense based system and many of those pesky problems will disappear.
