Last night at the Annual PTA Mtg Dist 215 of Illinois it was very disturbing listening to our President. Her examples of Diversity of inclusion were very wrong, uneducated and very old school. Examples such as; colored hot air balloons, the Hispanic culture seems to steps back from Americanized Education, idea of cultural fairs, reaching out to another color and taking time out to understand another religion. She obviously needs to do some research before giving a speech to a diverse group of people with diverse thought. It was obvious that she attempted to regain her image with an apology that she only researched it and did not want to recreate the wheel. What is that you’re our president and officer? You’re giving a speech in front of 50+ people and you have no idea what you’re talking about. Crazy! Let me explain my current involvement with a Diversity Committee in the corporate world and at least support some true and educated facts that support my explanation of Diversity of thought and inclusion of all. It is about looking beyond race, old scripts, stereotypes and understanding and appreciating cultural and individual differences. Diversity is about ethnicities, nationalities, races, ages, sexual orientation, religion, work experience, cultures, beliefs, different physical abilities and educational backgrounds. In taking all these factors into play we need to create an environment that our children can grow and understand this explanation. Her poor explanation was very embarrassing to me! Her examples where facts that she was in return saying what was not the case. This is just not making sense to me?
Our elementary schools are PTA and our middle schools, PTO. I was the president of a PTA last year and the President of a PTO this year. We are running them pretty much alike. The thing is, I am really glad that I did them in this order, because PTA has a lot of guidelines and support, where PTO really doesn't. I know that it is hard to disolve a PTA, because we have a school in our district that is disolving and the PTA prez is struggling to follow all the guidelines associated with doing that. This is one thing that you have to understand. The PTA money in your account either needs to be spend or donated to a 501c3. PTO's (unless specifically requested, up to a $500 fee) are not 501c3, so you can not just take the money from one account to the other. As this school was disolving, they were going to donate the money to the remaining schools and they could to other PTA's, not PTOs. That is a 501c3 guideline. Personally, I would rather be a PTA, but we just couldn't get the parent involvement in middle school. PTA requires 4 general meetings a year and no one showed up. It was not a problem in elementary school. But, people also use being a PTO as an excuse... We don't want to join because a group of few is making all the decisions and we don't have the opportunity to approve how the money is being spent. Anyway, good luck with what you decide.
I just spent a couple of hours all around this site because we have a new school and we don't know whether to start a PTO or PTA. It seems like both have their benefits, but why does it seem like PTA groups who want to leave are held hostage? There's almost a fear of leaving. Why would the PTA want to keep groups that don't want to belong? We might go PTA but one thing we're going to ask right up front is how do we get out if we don't find it right for us? If it doesn't seem easy, we're not going to do it. I guess I don't have a question here (just venting), but I'd be interested if any PTA members know more about getting out.
Just noticed your question. The key note is that you are guided by your bylaws. What they say is how you should operate.
I haven't seen yours, but most that I have seen define what's known as a "quorum" -- or the number of members needed to make decisions. If a certain vote requires a 2/3 majority that generally means a 2/3 majority of the folks in attendance, as long as you have enough folks in attendance to constitute a quorum.
If it was a 2/3 majority of all members, then there be virtually no chance of getting anything done. A good example is the national PTA convention: there's 6 million some odd members of the PTA, but a quorum at convention is far, far smaller. Typical national PTA convention has between 1,000 and 2,000 members in attendance out of 6.5 million total members. Because of the quorum rules, the group is able to make decisions. Imagine needing to get yes votes from 4 million people. Ugh.
I think if you explore, you'll find that the 2/3's that you need is 2/3's of a quorum, not 2/3's of your whole group.
I don't know Susan. I agree that tax paperwork and stuff should be about the same, but when we were a PTA seemed like we were always filling out membership forms and trying to get dues in on time and getting letters from the state PTA that some form was late. We don't have any of that as a PTO.
