I see two issues in your post: how to properly amend your constitution, and paying teachers/volunteers.
If your constitution is silent on the procedures required to make amendments, then an organization would usually defer to guidelines as set in Roberts Rules of Order. According to Doris Zimmerman's (little) book about RRO (pg. 101), "Bylaws usually require previous notice and a two-thirds vote to change." That means you must send out a very clear notice of the proposed change, and get 2/3 affirmative vote at the next meeting (2/3 of attendees, assuming you have quorum).
However, you say this was approved for this-year-only. That said, there is no change to your constitution, and any note written into the document by anyone is invalid. This issue would need to be voted upon each year, or included as part of your annual budget and approved when your budget is approved.
Ok, now to the second issue: paying teachers/volunteers. If your PTO is a federally-registered 501c3, or would like to become one, you may be crossing the line by paying volunteers. It's ok for charities to have paid employees, but the IRS frowns on members of the group benefitting personally from the group's proceeds (other than properly reported income). Aside from the IRS issues, I question the precedent your group sets by paying these people. Where will your PTO draw the line? If a volunteer coach is paid, why not the PTO treasurer or the chairman of the carnival? You could be headed down a slippery slope.
We are going to be revising our current constitution, which was last revised in 1995. In the current edition, there are several amendments which are one-liners -- no detail or explanation.
At our meeting last week, the former President made a motion that we pay stipends to teachers for attending PTL meetings and stipends to volunteer coaches. It got passed. It brought up discussion about the constitution, because of the argument "we've always done it". Coaches stipends are not in the Constitution. Well, they are now, because she hand wrote them in at this meeting. (Our motion was not to make a amendment, but rather to pay them this year.)
Anyway, my question is, can someone tell me the correct way of revising and making amendments to the PTL constitution? This is my first year as President of a PTL, although I've been head of other committees. I want to make sure we do this right.
