a parent group board meeting that is closed to its parents and is run at a public school, would make we wonder why is it closed? (our school bd meetings are all public, after all, in our district anywyay)

there should be nothing ,other than deliberations or decisions of 'discipline' etc, ie confidential stuff ref RRO, that the general parent body should not be privy too.

otherwise, you might start to get that 'clique' image of the group.

also, so many threads talk about increasing general involvement, and also getting people to run as officers, isnt making things transparent and friendly, including not turning anyone awayfrom sitting in on a bd mtg, one way to get more interest?

i agree bd mtgs are not the time to address individual concerns, but the dr phil phrase, those who have nothing to hide, hide nothing, comes to mind.

and frankly, i bet there are very few people who want to come to board meetings anywya, if the laments about increasing general meeting attendance, are a barometer for measuring overall involvement and issues therein.

my 02.

I don't think you HAVE to allow people in. For example, our school board meetings are private meetings, but they are always held in public.(rather than a public meeting) I would say a good compromise might be to allow people at the board meeting, but make it clear that this is not a time for regular business or discussion and that they will have a chance for that at the regular meeting. And really, I think a Board meeting should just be nuts & bolts, internal issues etc.("boring" stuff) Anything having to do with money & stuff should be at the regular meeting and this would be what most people would be interested in. Perception is everything- if you don't allow people in, they might think you are being sneaky. If they think your being sneaky, then you are.(Even if you are not)

[ 09-15-2006, 08:10 AM: Message edited by: Lucella ]

I beleive that is correct but remember RRO was written originally for Executive Boards of Public and Private co's- closing your Board mtg off to members (whether they pay due or not) is not the best of ideas.

PTO/PTA are a bit different because of the volunteer member as opposed to a shareholder/stakeholder member- the easiest way to lose support is to appear to shut parents out

I'd try to make a set of guidelines so parets are informed of procedures at Board Mtg as opposed to a General mtg (maybe they just dont know when the appropriate time to ask questions, vent, etc is)

There maybe 8 -10 million or more PTO/PTA (I think is an estimate I've seen) members but I'd say less than 10% actually know anything about RRO or the difference between Gen and Board mtg

Can just anyone show up at Executive Board meetings? I was under the impression that executive board meetings are for the officers only to meet. Any other guests must be invited to the meeting and added to the agenda if they intend to speak about a topic. Then that guest leaves after his/her topic is discussed. Is this how Board meetings are conducted? (I read Robert's Rules and it seems to state that Executive Board meetings can be closed door, unless otherwise chosen by the Board?) We have parents showing up at Board meetings unannounced taking up our meeting time wanting to complain about everything under the sun. It's impossible to get anything done! Help?