The question of who has voting rights in your PTO should be addressed in your bylaws. If your group has no bylaws, but you pay dues to join, then you could make a very strong argument that one of the benefits of paid dues is voting privileges (that's fairly typical). What would the benefit of membership be if not to have a vote?
If your bylaws don't address it, you might bump into an issue of how many votes per household. Is it per parent, or per household, or per student? What about divorced families? Should they have two votes? Probably sounds trivial, but depending on the "political" climate of your group, this issue could get ugly if it's not addressed proactively.
I have a quick question. Are parents allowed to vote who paid for a PTO membership or is it strictly the PTO Board members? Lastly, I know that we have to provide for the children, but where is the line drawn? The principal has a list of items, such as air conditioners, computers which teachers had an opportunity to attend some did not, glass cases for student work, white boards for classrooms, parent volunteering for teachers while they go to a seminar? Where do you draw the line?
Thanks everyone! I had already received a copy of the Minnesota PTA article plus a copy of the letter drafted by the Rochester PTA from a board member; however, it was nice to find the source of the information. I was hoping to find additional information, but this seems to be it. Although our PTO's relationship with the school and district is excellent, I just don't feel all of the information requested is necessary. I'm going to go the Rochester PTA route and send a letter with a copy of our 990, where it indicates we are a 501(3)c entity in addition to the financial information which clearing proves we are immaterial to the district. When I inquired about providing "summary" information in a letter, along with a copy of the tax return, the auditor representative indicated that wasn't sufficient. Being a past auditor I find the request ridiculous! We'll see what transpires from here!
GASB is the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, so it's a governmental accounting regulation. The gist of the reg is that certain legally independent tax-exempt organizations could be considered "component units" of other government units, if they meet certain criteria. And if they do meet them, the government unit must include the financial statements of the component unit in its financial statements. It went into effect a couple of years ago, but depending on when a school district's fiscal year runs, they could just be implementing it for the first time in this fiscal year just ended.
We were asked to provide an ESTIMATE of the financial information and if possible provide copies of the most recent financial statements. I gave them a general overview of our organization, where I listed the last three years income, expenses, etc. and our tax ID number. They never asked for anything else.
If you would like, I can e-mail you a copy of the overview form I gave them.
