Latest official national PTA membership numbers are actually just under 5 million. And you're right that that does double- and triple-count members who belong to more than one unit.
Well actually it allows the National PTA to brag of its nearly 6 million members; they aren't taking into consideration that they are counting 1 parent; twice or three times. I agree that if you're a member at more than 1 school, the national and state should receive dues from only 1 school.
You're right that you're forced to join the state and national levels multiple times. And that there is not a single extra benefit or the like to you for doing so.
And mum24 is correct that the reason for it is that 1) they haven't found a practical way to do otherwise; and 2) state and national make a good chunk of cash from that policy.
I've said for a long time that the much more natural solution for PTA overall would be for units to pay per-unit dues to state PTA and national PTA. The benefits of affiliation are almost all unit-based (one copy of the magazine, one back-to-school kit, one discount on insurance, training materials for the leaders of the unit, etc.), and yet the dues are per-person. A huge PTA winds up paying $2,000 or more in state and national dues while a small PTA might pay only $175 in state and national dues, while both groups get virtually the same benefits.
And if they went to per-unit dues, then the double payment for individuals problem that you outlined would also go away.
In a nutshell -- ditto to what mum24 said. It is a double or triple payment. But I don't think it's going to change anytime soon.
Well, if you can figure out what's not legal about it, you would have one heck of a class action suit to file, that's for sure.
From a practical standpoint, I don't know how any local unit would be able to administer a system whereby you would only pay State/National dues once. And if they could figure out a way to do it, then the State/National dues would have to go up anyway to cover the loss in revenue that they would experience. So either way, you're not going to save any money.
Before I make my next comment, which might get me flamed here, I'll point out that I have been very actively involved in converting 4 different schools from PTA to PTO in the last two years, so it's not like I'm some diehard PTA fan. But here goes--the dues that go to National are $1.75, and Virginia's dues are $1.00. It's annoying and confusing, but I don't know that an extra $2.75 out of pocket (times whatever number of extra kids you have) is worth very much energy.
When I join my elementary school son's PTA and they tell me I am automatically a member of the VA State and National PTA then shouldn't the dues I pay for my other son's high school PTA be reduced because I am already a member of these two orgs. Why are people forced into double/triple/etc. payment of these State and National dues? Is this legal?
