Really just have to emphasize (so that folks aren't making an inaccurate assumption) that the average PTA unit pays far more than $320 in dues. ($320 = $475 in your post above minus the $155 I believe you said your insurance cost.)
PTA reports approximately 6 million members in approx. 26,000 local units. That's well more than 200 members per unit. National dues = $1.75 per member (everywhwere). A very conservative estimate of average state dues is *at least* $1.25 per member. Plus there are often county/council dues. Let's call it $3.25 per member as a very conservative estimate (there are locales where it's over $5 per member, just as there are some like yours where it's lower).
$3.25 x 200 members = $650.
Shouldn't $650 in dues "going out" be at least the bare minimum for comparison purposes? The number you're using is less than half of that very conservative number. Is that a good reflection of the true cost of PTA membership for the average group?
I am also from KY. We have 2 elementary schools in our county. They were both PTA schools in my day but now they are both PTO schools. If you still need some questions answered just contact me and I can do some digging around for you.
I am curious. Are you a Title I school? Does the PTA interfere with you getting some of the funding that Title I or any other grants may provide?
PTOSIMP-
Is your school's decision to go PTO have anything to do with the situation with Donna Cockrel and the PTA's involvement in her being dismissal? I'm just curious...
If they follow their bylaws and they do things right, then they can say they did the right thing. If the people who run their respective state act inappropriately, at least the group can say they did the right thing by following their bylaws. PTA bylaws are very similar. Contacting the state is part of following the bylaws. I am more active at a state level and again, you are dealing with people. If you get someone like me who is interested in doing things, fairly, correctly and just, the transition should be cordial. I can't say what the reasons behind the e-mails you receive are. I can tell you that my experience is the school that is mishandling funds and when we intervene, they say they will go PTO. Without the state involvement, you as a regular parent, may not see what's really behind the decision to switch. Sometimes it is a few parents who initiate the decision because they have a problem with what's being done or dues in their state. Other parents after being presented the facts may not agree with the decision and may see a benefit. We as parents are only visitors, not residents. The decisions we make, we make for everyone now and in the time to come. Yes, you take a chance when you do the right thing and doing the right thing isn't always easy but it doesn't make it any less right.
I probably get 10-20 emails per week from PTA folks at some point in the going-PTO process. I'm talking about thousands of emails in the past three years.
I'd agree with you completely if it was so easy. The fact is that I've yet to find a single gone-PTO group who's said: "The state was great when we told them we were considering a change." These are groups that did do things to the letters of their bylaws and beyond, and they were still treated like children.
That's the crazy thing. These parents are volunteering at their school (these are the good guys in the world, no matter the acronym) and making a decision (or even just contemplating) to run their group in a certain way, and they're made to feel terrible by "state" -- even when they do everything by "state's" rules.
That's why I tell groups to follow the letter (and only the letter -- not what they're "told" they better do) of the bylaws and no more.
I won't even get into the whole "informal partnership" thing. Where's that come from?
