Hi again,
Is it possible to have a sit down with the principal and get a more specific list of issues or complaints? If the issue is that this small group of parents thinks there should be an election of officers? Or are they looking to be more involved?
Instead of having the administration move to shut you down, reach out and find out how you can salvage this. What you don't want to see is parent involvement go away because it is so important to the school community.
Can you go back to this idea that you would like to have a meeting to discuss organizational issues, including how you will do elections?
-Sure. I hope I am not giving an overload of info now but here are some more facts. Our PTO was set up in 2014-2015.
---Parent involvement was low, parent - admin relationships could use help so we thought this group could help. 2014-2015 with Principal approval we had 3 main events. Cozy Kids Coat Drive, Weekly Parent Fitness Sessions, and a Uniform Recycle.
-We do not have the 501(c)(3) but I do beleive we have an EIN.
-2015-2016 > We had our first holiday shop and gained momentum with parent interest and involvement. By the end of the year, we considered elections but were not organized enough to plan the events and properly host elections(needed new teacher rep, more secretarial support). I would say this was a transitional year.
-"The way I'm reading this, it sounds like a group of parents started a group and a separate group complained to the school that you did not elect officers?"
---Pretty much and extremely early in the year. This was a small group (maybe 3) of individual parents not a seperate parent organization to be clear.
-2016-2017 > We are aware of our organizational needs and were amidst planning annual events and elections and our first open meeting to discuss all of this, when we were suddenly unwelcome.
- I know we were not intentionally doing anything wrong according to our bylaws. However, the only possible wrong could be if we needed that additional exception for foudning members in the bylaws.
THANK YOU
Can you provide a little bit more background so we can help? When was the group set up? Was it set up independently from the school?
The way I'm reading this, it sounds like a group of parents started a group and a separate group complained to the school that you did not elect officers?
This one is more like administration rather than just the principal(teacher, main office,and principal)
-An extremely small group of parents have gone to the office and accused us of so much, including not following bylaws regarding founding officer elections
-The administartion's reaction? Suddenly unwelcoming us to meet at the school or continue official business. This is after we had a principal meeting and an open meeting for all parents scheduled with the school
-Additional events have taken place to dissolve our PTO
-Our question is, did we need to make sure that the bylaws listed an exception to officer elections regarding the founders or starters of the group?
-Why we ask? Currently, our PTO bylaws have no exception for founders listed. We do not believe we have done anything unfair or illegal in starting our group without elections but we just want to know if we were supposed to put something like "founders do not need to be elected for 1-2 terms" or something like that in the bylaws to stay legal and fair. We have had many accusations and questions regarding this and following the bylaws. We would also like to respond accurately. Should we apologize for a misstep and correct it or clarify that we are still legal and fair?
We were approved by the IRS for 501(c)(3) without a dissolution clause in our bylaws. We do have a dissolution clause in our articles of incorporation, so maybe that was good enough.
