Well it is moving right along. The group decided to just change a few things for now in the bylaws and wait for a another rewrite later. This so that they could get the non profit stuff going. A fundraising sale will be started the monday before we have our general membership meeting. This I hope will be our kickoff to get other people involved and sharing in the responsiblity of creating the group. No, these are not the old officers. These were elected this year. There was no one else that wold run as is sometimes the case. I believe these to be all up and up people but, they have been headed in the wrong direction.

I'll give a wishy-washy answer.

In a perfect world: bylaws first and then operations.

But it sounds like there are folks who want action now, and i understand that. In that case (assuming that some people are in a rush for operations), it seems that your choice is to:

1. Rush your bylaws process, reducing input and buy-in from general membership etc. in order to catch up to operations; or

2. Still take your time with bylaws process and get good input and everyone on same page.

If that's my choice, I choose (2), even if operations are already taking place. It may be weird to have opertaions taking palce without formal structure, but that will be short term. In the long-term, you'll be better off with excellent, widely-accepted and understood bylaws.

My $0.02.

Tim

I'd like to hear what our resident experts, JHB, Critter and Tim have to offer on this subject.

Yes, it sounds like things are being rushed. A organization can function without bylaws, but I wouldn't recommend for very long. The membership mush vote on the bylaws and then only after they have been posted for review (usually 30 days). Are the officers from the old PTO? Is there going to be an election soon after approving the bylaws? Again, I'd hope so.

We are in the process of reviving an old pto. The officers have changed the name of the organization due to mixing of funds and other problems. They are meeting soon to rewrite the bylaws. These things are happening without input from the membership. We have at yet not had a general membership meeting. The principal has already had some officers meet with a notebook representative that he would like to deal with and is having them look at fundraising companies at what was supposed to be a bylaws meeting.
I look at the bylaws as being the first thing to be done and not mixed in with fundraising. Am I wrong to think we could be hurrying something as important as the bylaws especially when the group before had so many problems they disbanded. How long did it take you to draw up your bylaws and did you do any kind of business under a new name before ratifying your bylaws with the membership?
Feeling Hurried