Many thanks to all of you who replied to my question. We do have a membership listing, but have never, ever had parents sign in when they arrive. Basically our school has 750 students and it is total chaos when the parents arrive for the meetings. In the three years I've been involved in the school, the real reason parents attend the PTO meetings is because their child will be performing that evening. Nothing has ever been presented to the parents/organization to vote, on, etc. It does clearly state in our bylaws that the "organization" is all paid members of PTO in good standing and needs to vote on officer election as well as next year's budget. Should we have more than one person for the elective officers, we will do the ballot mailed out to paid members. Again, thank you so very much for your input!! Look forward to future chats!!

Hey Chrystal, I know ever PTO has little problems etc but the first rule of our PTO is that you need to have someone in the school to attend the meetings. We had a parent show up a couple years ago to a meeting, no one knew her so we asked and she said that her oldest would be coming to the school in a couple of years and she was just getting involved. We explained nicely to her to save her strength because we would need her in a few years.

Just a thought here...Does your PTO use sign in sheets?? Ours does along with a record of who has paid their dues. In our by-laws it states that only a memebr in good standing can run for office (has attended half of the meetings and paid dues). Because of previous situations we also added to the bylaws that people who join after February (unless new to the school) cannot vote at the election. We had a problem two years ago when our former Pres. had her neighorbors join (even though they had no kids at the school anymore) just to come and vote for her. Oh boy I think I got off track here sorry:)

We do not collect dues either, as long as you have a student in the school you are a member and a voting member. We hold our elections in May and rarely have more than one name for each office. As far as the board electing people, I can not see the membership agreeing to this, if this happened they would not be able to vote people out and the board could keep electing themselves.

AT OUR SCHOOL WE DON'T COLLECT DUES ANY MORE SO EVERY PARENT OR GUARDIAN OF A CHILD THERE IS A VOTING MEMBER. WE RAISE OUR MONEY OTHER WAYS.

It seems everyone is assuming you have kept a membership list. To me it sounds like you have no idea how to tell who joined your PTO. So really if you have NO idea I think you better let anyone who shows up and claims to be a member vote, so you offend none who may be. I would suggest they vote for someone who can keep a record of memebership! As for the board voting in new board members, your organization should not stand for that, it really sounds a little communist don't you think? I would also hand out ballots at the door, to members listed (or to any claiming to be on your case). Just be glad you have enough people to run!! last year we had to beg a secretary to work for us. --good luck!