The elections should be announced at a regular PTO meeting (several, preferrably). The minutes of that meeting should also be distributed. Basically, you should use as many means as possible to let your group know there is an election.
For example, our elections are schedule in the May meeting (as per our Charter). We announced in January that elections will occur and activated our Nominating Committee. The NC is charied by the Principal and checks to make sure anyone who wants to run is eligible to serve.
We have kept the NC on our agenda for each monthly meeting since, so it has been mentioned. Our minutes are included in the schools monthly newsletter. And after the April meeting next week, we should be sending an e-mail to remind people the elections are in May.
Your by-laws/Charter should be fairly specific about when elections occur and what the process is. I also find it odd that the election meeting is not at the standard place/time.
Thank you all! All the advice does help,ALOT! We definetly need to get our act together, so our elections can be fair and equal for all. Thanks again!!!!
Elections!!
The way our PTO does it is we announce the open positions in the March issue of our school newsletter that we are accepting nominations for the election in May. Anyone who wishes to be nominated either can call the President, Vice President or make the announcement at the May PTO Meeting. At the May meeting we have each of the nominees tell us about themselves and then the election is done by secret paper ballot. The winners are announced at the end of the meeting and then are sworn in during the June meeting and officially take over on the first day of the fiscal year, July 1st. Hope this helps.
Of course you should announce in advance that elections will take place. You can do this through a flyer and/or your schools newsletter. You also need to think of whether you will take a nomination from the floor up until the actual elections- our cut off is just minutes before the ballots are passed out. Have you considered absentee voting for those who want to participate but can't make the time? Who changed it anyway and can it be changed back to a more convenient time?
As for the descriptions:
Hospitality= providing/arranging refreshments for meetings and to circulate at meetings to introduce yourself and others to newcomers. Will contact volunteers to help during teacher appreciation.
Membership= responsible for seeking new members, The chairperson will set up a table school events (Kindergarten sign ups, Open House, PTO meetings) to encourage parents to become members. This perosn will also be responsible for maintaining a list of paid members.
Parent Coordinator/Volunteer Coordinator= responsible for maintaing a list of volunteers to be matched with the areas they are interested in helping with.(school office workers, read a loud, library helper, dinners, dances, carnivals, field trips, yearbook, etc.) Will also solicit for volunteers at school eventsKindergarten sign ups, Open House, PTO meetings, etc.) , encourage parental involvement and notify volunteers when their help is needed.
Yes I would send out flyers! I don't think elections should take place without all current board members attending including the newly voted in. All should be present! As for the positions that have two running, you can do a silent vote (name in a hat).
