When I say "hand-pick" I mean the "one-on-one" with potential people who might be interested in the job. Unfortunately, our "active" membership consists mostly of the Board! The school wide announcements and flyers we disburse to try and fill next years positions are literally not responded to. We are hoping the "she told 2 friends, then they told 2 friends, and so on, and so on" theory will work. It's really hard to get people to step up and commit to something they're not sure of.

Our by-laws provide for a specific method for nomination and election of new officers. The entire membership has the ability to nominate officers, nominees must be active (having attended at least half of the current years meetings), members can nominate from the floor at the April meeting and members of the nominating committee can nominate at their private meeting. Officers can serve for 2 consecutive years and can only serve a 3rd if no one accepts the nomination for that spot in the 3rd year.

I really think it is best to not allow current officers to "hand-pick" their board. The membership must have a hand in this in order for democracy to survive in the PTO.

Definitely think that's true. Encouraging the people who come into the school for field trips and room moms to get involved in your parent groups is great idea. Many times, they don't know waht we do as a group or they're afraid to come to a meeting because they don't know anyone. Our membership chair makes a point to invite tham and welcome them and follow up with them.

This perception that only "insiders" are on the board seems to be pretty common. Unfortunately, attendance at meetings is often so low that only "insiders" show up.
I've started to question whether standard PTA meetings are the right forum for recruiting potential board members or heads of committees. Perhaps more networking needs to be done on a one-to-one basis with people who have volunteered during the year?

What I'd be careful about is furthering the idea that your PTO is just for the insiders. The couple of times that we have made decisions for the whole group there has been some real resentment from people who weren't part of the process. It's made me try to get more people involved in all of our decisions. Your situation may be different, but just thought I'd share.

I agree that you'll probably get the best person for the job by having a setting president who has done a good job find some to fill the vacancy. Holding an election won't necessarily get the same result. Our school tried that and the person elected had never even been to a PTO meeting! They were elected by name recognition only. PTO board postions are too critical to the success of the organization to have people who not fully committed and up to the task occupying seats.