I am the president in question on MM1276 post,I have been working on the bylaws as a draft to bring to our board meetings. We are having a meeting next week so we as a group can sit and discuss these bylaws and adapt them to our group. They are much needed!

Hi Michelle,

Take a look at other PTO's Charters/by-laws for examples. The more you look at the more thiings you find to add in, or adopt, or say "absolutely no way!". All are valuable.

You can also do a web search to find them. There are many good examples.

Ours is located here (and I think it is a good example if I do say so myself . We are 501c3 (which you may not be concerned about yet - but you could be), so the IRS has approved it.

It is located at the following link:

www.macarthurschool.com/pto.htm

And then click on teh link to see the approved charter. It is in pdf format.

Good luck with the new group. It should be a very rewarding experience (despite the headaches!).

Hi MM,

Good for you and your cohorts for trying to restart the parent group. It will be a wonderful addition to your community.

dlf is right, it should be a committee that's working on the by-laws. If your group is still small and the president wants to write them herself I guess that's fine - as long as she's qualified!

However, regardless of who writes them, be it one person or a whole committee, they need to be officially adopted by your group by a majority vote of the members.

Also, because there may be old by-laws lurking out there, I would include a clause specifically stating that the by-laws adopted on such-and-such date supercede any pre-existing by-laws. You know, just to be safe. Right now everyone says they don't exist but those types of things have a way of resurfacing at inconvenient times!

Check your email inbox......

thanks, dlf
our school pto has not had a pto in 10 years. this past year me and three other people started it back. we do not have any by-laws to go by at all. our new persident is coming up with the by-laws by herself. i was just wanting to know how to go about seting up by-laws, and if one person is to do it by herself or should we all set them up as a pto.
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by the way my name is michelle

Sorry--don't know why I thought your name was Michele...d

Hi Michele--well by saying "find bylaws" your organization ought to have them readily available. If not then you may not have any. In most cases they are written by a small committee that forms for that purpose. Before we started as a PTO (new school 2 years ago) the first board worked the summer before school started to write the bylaws. If you already exist then now's a good time to write them (or yesterday was:)) if you don't have them. There are examples on this site of bylaws and if you post your email I suspect some generous souls will send you theirs. Our group's are posted at brentpto.com and this summer we will be working on some changes to enhance them. The committee you form will come up with the draft bylaws and then your PTO should review and vote them in as the structure for your organization.
It ain't fun---but it does make your group more legit.
d