our parent group stays out of ALL politics, as per our bylaws.

if yuor bylaws have such a clasue, make some courtesy copies of them for the boe memebrs, and let them have a read. or send them the link if your bylaws are on line.

they cant be faulted for not knowing your own rules, if in fact they have never read them or even know they exist.

educate them, is what i would do.

AS my bud MR Keith would say (with my revisions)

That this wouldn't turn out to be
The enchanted evening they thought it would be
Yes they sure will find out
They got a long way to go
We didn't say no
We said hell no


As a parent/ taxpayer of a PUBLIC school on the Board of a PRIVATE nonprofit- I'd remind the BOE or whomever this Inqusitional Zealot is-- of the PTA (and some PTO's) non stances on school budget, politcal and candidate issues/(non)endorsement.

I'd tell 'em 'thanks but our nonprofit can neither endorse or not endorse a political issue/ budget' -- we can only inform our members of the issue and when to vote -- see you on election day

or as in the lyrics above -- last line

zeekaboo I have a question

You made a comment saying this is being "suggested" by the board have you talked to your superintendent as to what you should be doing. I would think that he/she wouldn't be in favor of this in any way. Maybe you should go striaght to your superintendent. Just a thought.

Our bylaws specifically state the following and we can only remind parents of the date and time of the local school board or budget elections. Therefore, we would not have been able to make such a statement and I don't think as a PTO you can do so without having an official vote at your school. Otherwise, you may be misrepresenting the PTO as an organization if you find that parents feel differently.

The name of the organization or the names of any members in their official capacities shall not be used in any connection with a commercial concern, with any partisan interest, or for any purpose not appropriately related to promotion of the objectives of the organization.

C. The organization shall not directly or indirectly participate or intervene, in any way, including the publishing or distribution of statements in any political campaign on behalf of, or in opposition to, any candidate for public office, or devote more than an insubstantial part of its activities to attempting to influence legislation by propaganda, or otherwise.

We do not take a vote to see if the group is in favor of the budget. We do however send home fliers ONLY REMINDING PEOPLE TO GET OUT AND VOTE...not telling them how to vote. Also we do not pay for copying at all so that is not an issue for us. We will also distribute information about the budget, but it is only information in terms of what they are asking for and why. So people can look at the information and decide for themsleves whether or not they want to support it.

You are in a completely different situation. They are clearly taking the point of view that you should support them at all costs which no one should ever blindly do. Regardless your ballot vote should be acceptable to them. People should not be made to feel uncomfortable by having to publicly vote.

No way would I do this, first I can't imagine that 25-30people sitting at a table would all agree 110% on everything on that budget. I think you should all unite and no one raise their hands at all...hee hee.
On the serious side this is bascially asking someone to vote in public with everyone watching. Since this is coming from your school board I have no clue how you can get around it, I do think it is wrong. Heck my husband is on the school board and a month ago when he came home and I asked what the first prelim budget looked like I told him 'no way'...it has changed since then and I agree with it now.
I think mayabe you could say that you would help pushing getting out to vote, but not yes or no.that is what we do, even when my husband has ran I have NEVER told the pto how to vote, that is a choice for the people and by the people! Maybe suggest doing a flyer "xyz pto urges you to have a voice and get out to vote on such and such a day"