Our Fund raising VP signs the contracts. Sometimes it has been the President. We make a point of not signing any contracts with any fund raising company until the new board comes in. It's their decision as to what company to go with. You can get into trouble if someone takes it upon themselves to sign contracts that a new board does not want to honor.
Hello all! Question..... do a lot of these fundraising companies make you sign a "contract" or commitment for more than one year? I am new to the PTO board and going into this blindly.
Here is a little more on the fundraising thing. Our by-laws states that the VP coordinates fundraisers. Everyone on my end takes it to mean runs/decides the fundraisers. The new VP already runs 3 of our fundraisers and really doesn't want any help from anyone. Unfortunately she is the type of person who drives people away because of the way she acts and her (I'll be kind) "control" issues. I think that everything should be approved by the Ex Board, but that hasn't been the case in the past. Interestly enough the person who signed the 3 year contract a few years ago is now an ex board member and is in tight with the VP! Oh, well what a wicked web we weave...!
Like LUV, our bylaws do not address this issue either (at least not yet!). I'll propose that our president and treasurer both sign any contract on the PTO's behalf. If a different volunteer signs without authorization and the contract is unagreeable to the board, maybe we'd have some clout for getting out of the contract if our bylaws clearly indicate the only authorized signers. Any legal eagles out there who can speak to that?
We do the same as Scottsmom. The fundraiser chairperson does all the presentations to the membership and then signs the contract. Since some people are saying that it is in their bylaws.. I was wondering how many out there have a clause in their bylaws about this. I find this to be unusual actually.
When I was President I was unofficially required to sign contracts, etc. (after the Board made the decisions together; we did/do not have a provision for this in our By Laws either.)
I think the main reason given when I took over was that I was basically the supervisor so to speak and was ultimately responsible for the overall performance of the organization. If by chance I was not available the Principal was next in line to "approve" these type of transactions.
