Is it best to keep the PTA account and run the funds to a very low balance (by paying for the rest of the years events) and put any new money that comes in into the PTO account (as long as it is under the PTO name)?
Right now we have both groups running side by side. Our elections are in May (gee pretty much same board running for PTO as PTA!). We are planning on keeping the checkbook open for the PTA for at least 6 months to a year.
Or should we??
Not sure I concur completely with blue. I haven't seen language exactly like that in the many difft state PTA bylaws I've seen.
pitt -- check the bylaws for your group. That's what you're bound by. Bylaws of other PTAs, especially other PTAs in other states, won't help here.
To blue's point the "used by the PTA" language could be read many ways. For example, it would be perfectly OK for a PTA to decide that it wanted to pay for a great performer (singing troupe, clown, magician, shakespearean festival....) to perform at the PTOs carnival. the performer would be in keeping with the PTA's mission of working for kids and building community and parent invovlement, and there's no rule that says a PTA and a PTO can not work together. PTA could also decide it wanted to fund all of the refreshments at the carnival or all of the face paint (or whatever).
It's doable, especially in the carnival angle. I'd make it a PTO carnival. And I'd have the PTA providing great/valuable/"for the kids" additions to the carnival.
We just went through this very thing one year ago. The bylaws of the PTA state that anything you "raise" financially in the name of PTA must either be used by the PTA or, when you dissolve, the funds must be handed over to the National and/or State PTA. So, no, you can't do a "PTA" carnival and put the proceeds in a "PTO" account.
Where are you in the dissolution process? Is the PTA dissolved? Has the PTO formed? Let me know, and I'll be glad to offer any help I can, since, as I said, we are recent travelers of this road.
We are wanting to switch from PTA to PTO. I have looked through these posts to see if I could find the answer to my question. I did not see exactly the answer I was looking for. My question is if we have an event that we are planning, such as a end of the school year carnival, can we pay for the expenses from the PTA, but put the income generated from it into the PTO account? Same thing with yearbook money - expenses were out of the PTA, can we put the income into PTO?