Thanks for the advice! We were hoping that if the vote reflects a change to PTO, we could move ahead before the end of the year. It would be nice to have some funds available. The fact that PTA has some claim on these current funds--after our dues have already been paid for this year--is disturbing. We would like to have our non-profit status in place with a PTO account, so we could transfer funds and not have to spend all the way down. There seems to be differing views on whether PTA's who are disbanding can do that!
Our bylaws don't say one way or another, but we are still researching this.

Shelly, susie is right to follow your bylaws. Ours didn't require the visit from PTA people (even though they tried to say it was required, it wasn't).

Another thing to keep in mind is that you can start your PTO while your PTA is winding down. That way if the process is slower than you expected, you'll still have your PTO up and running in plenty of time for next school year. We did this and we ran all of our new fundraisers through the PTO to build its budget and spent the PTA remaining funds down to zero before it was officially disbanded. That way you get exactly what you want and you don't lose any money.

The state PTA tried to bug us at the end, but they stopped once they realized there were no members of the PTA and there were no dues coming in.

You need to check your bylaws...You cannot dissolve your PTA without an announced vote and a certai requirement of votes..You will most likely also have to bring in your District PTA leaders or State PTA leaders before you can vote on dissolvement--Also I know in our bylaws based on NYS PTA bylaws all PTA monies must be turned over to the District PTA upon dissolving..Meaning your PTO would start with a zero balance and need to start fundrasing to get start up cash.

We are exploring the change to PTO from PTA. How long will this process take? Is there anyone who can give us a timeline? We would hope to take a vote this year and have our new organization in place for August 2002. Thanks for all the great tips and advice I have received so far on this great site!