We have a Bylaw committee that is currently making changes to reflect how we all want business to flow. All meaning the board and the committee. Form is sent out at the beginning of the year of all the committees and parents can sign up for all or any they wish to be a part of. Committee gives proposal to board and changes are voted on. We run according to the bylaws so there are no questions about procedures.

Update,I was going nuts but things are starting to flow. They allowed me a small committee to redo our bylaws. We will be voting on them the middle of the month. They state a specific date for meetings and specific about the month the nominating committee starts their work and when ballots will be done and the month elections take place. And that there will be certain committees. The principal is asking for some changes to what the committee and the board voted on we'll see what they are about. He still insist at this point we can not put out a newsletter because the school only does it every 3 months or so. Forbid we communicate more with our parents than the school. We do have a parent who moved in from a very strong pto she says she will get theirs off the web and speak to him about it.

A few on our board felt that they should be the ones voting on where the money should be going but, we are nw going to get a budget together and take it to the membership.YEA I think things are moving in the right direction. We'll see what the principal has to throw in. He definitely wants to be very involved in the pto. I think he is starting to see where to draw the line. He told the membership at our first meeting that the schools he was at always gave the money they raised to the school to spend. I think he realized some of us were willing to budget some to the school but we had a few of our own ideas.
We have taken a membership vote and will be keeping our positions next year. Out of 800 kids we have about 100 signed up for membership and about 25 at our meeting so hopefully things will get stronger.
sorry this was long

Our election is at the beginning of May. The new and old officers meet in the middle of the month and draft a budget. The new officers conduct the meeting in June when we vote on the budget. The new officers have the reins from then on, including meeting thru the summer. The old officers provide assistance whenever asked.
going nuts, I think you're bylaws are really confusing and could be simplified a lot.
Good luck.

Do you run elections for a group that is just starting out or do you appoint these positions?
By the time our school board makes a decision on whether or not our group can exist it will be the end of May and I will have a hard time getting the messege out to the families --let alone holding an election --any ideas?

Just came from our meeting, brought up the election issue. There were those who felt that because we started late we should go through at least part of next year if not all saying the principal had talked to them about it before they even got voted in.
To make a long story short, saying the IRS gets upset with those going for nonprofit status who do not follow their bylaws. And that I could not serve any further than the end of May without the approval of the membership. We will be going to them at our April meeting asking them to allow us to continue getting this org. off the ground. If the vote is no then we will ask them to vote a nominating committee in which our bylaws state and start looking for members to nominate.
Just wanted to say thanks for listening and replying

Maybe because you have a brand new group, the other people in your group don't understand what has to be already in place, not just starting, by September. What if you came up with a detailed list of all the things that have to start at the very first part of the school year so they see it in black and white?
At our school, we have sign-ups that go out the first week in school and to get THOSE out we need a VP in charge of volunteers. We need a President to speak at the open house, to talk to the new parents and to preside at the board and the PTA meetings. We like to have all of our chairs lined up so they can think about what they want to do over the summer. Good luck!