Ahhh-much less nefarious....yes I believe in your by laws you can absolutely limit participation in votes and events to immediate family members or registered caregivers especially for votes and then on event fliers say "friends and families welcomed" when you want to extend out the invitation....
Oh, well that certainly makes a lot more sense!!! Yes, in that case, I would limit membership to parents/guardians and staff members. Some may go so far as to welcome grandparents as official members but my last school instead welcomed them as treasured volunteers.
I'm curious why anyone without children or a job at the school would care about PTO activities. Certainly, all voters and taxpayers should have a say in school board activities, but PTO?
It's nice, though, that you have such a suppotive community that so many people want to be members!
Perhaps instead, your group can increase the number of events that are open to the public, such as carnivals, bbq's, movies nights and such. Then these folks are still part of a larger social group and supporting your group but without voting privileges.
Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same."
"The ultimate aim of karate lies not in victory or defeat but in the true perfection of one's character."
Where we are having problems is, we are a small rural school and our students have been asking people from different communities to join PTO. Some of the people they ask to join are their family members and others may just be friends of the family. Last year when PTO election happened, we had complaints from some individuals about some of the people getting to vote had no children in the school. However, they were members of the PTO.
I agree, you're in dangerous territory here. I don't think any parent group has the right to say which parents can and cannot be involved in their children's education. We aren't running country clubs. We're managing parent groups. I'm assuming that your intent is to keep numbers to a manageable level and not discriminatory. If sheer numbers are unmanageable, then I think Roof 6 Pack has a viable solution.
Every group I've been involved with was the same:
Every parent/guardian of a student and all staff members are automatically members. Voting is limited to elected officers, teacher reps and committee chairmen. However, member participation is always welcome and encouraged, opinions are considered and while they don't offically have a vote, we always, always, always respected the voice of the majority and voted to reflect that.
I've never belonged to a parent group that charged dues. But if I were, and I paid my dues, I'd expect to have a vote.
My personaly opinion is that you have two choices:
1. Charge dues and every paying member has a vote on general issues (elections, budget, etc.)
2. Open membership with a governing board that votes on their behalf.
Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same."
"The ultimate aim of karate lies not in victory or defeat but in the true perfection of one's character."
Why do you want to? What we would do at our school to have more participants!
You may anger parents who are turned away, whether it be for membership or the right to vote... you will lose them for future funds and volunteer participation.
If the numbers are so high they feel unmanagable.. maybe after your first mtg. branch off into committees of need. Then have one representative from each committee show up to report & vote for meeting following your first. Have a whole group meeting again in the spring.
The only thing to be carefull of when doing this is to not overlap duties... you don't want your board members to be on a seperate committee. The board is it's own committee.
Well you can but it is called discrimination. Not to sound harsh but limiting which parents can or can't seems a bit like "only the haves". I suspect there have been "trouble makers" in the past that you're hoping to avoid...let's hope they don't all speak a different language or all don't have some physcial difference that is propelling your desire to stop their membership. What you can do is put a bylaw in your groups bylaws that defines and provides procedures for elimination of a member that is detracting from your groups ability to function properly. But, but, you need to be able to be very systematic about it and make sure that everyone is treated the same. Just not playing nice doesn't automatically elimination someone's option from being a member of a PTO.
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