I have to pipe in with a question here. We are facing some of the same issues at our PTO-
What happens if the event is a huge FLOP? The fall out will come back upon the executive board - so isnt it our responsibility to make sure that every thing is going to run well, even if they dont want our help?
lori - A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. ~Mary Poppins
As co-chairs of the parent group, you are probably ex-officio members of every committee and your involvement should be welcome. It's also reasonable to expect regular reports from the committee chairs and to expect that your well intentioned advice is postively received. When you do offer advice, though, make sure it's surrounded by tons of postive feedback, heartfelt compliments for their hard work and wonderful ideas, so on and so on.
As hard as it is to let go of some of the control, it's probably a good idea. These two ladies are the committee chairman and should feel as though they're leading the event. Outside of major safety issues and concerns, let this be a learning process for them. The whole event may not go off perfectly but they will feel pride and ownership of the success. This in turn will lead to even more future involvement.
Our PTO is sponsering a Trunk or Treat at our school. This event has been approved and is well on it's way. The question that I have is that I and another lady our the "Co-Chairs" of the group we have ran many functions on our own do to lack of perticipation by our parents. The ladies that came up with the Trunk or Treat Idea are in charge of the event which is fine. But, there are some key points that they are forgetting. When my co-chair and I bring up some of the issues at hand like food prices and safty issues (we are very polite and say things like you might want to consider this.. and so on)They tell us that we shoot down ideals and they get really offended. We want all the help that we can get and we don't want our members to leave but as co-chairs isn't it our responsibility to help them with the decision making process so that things run smoothly and also if anyone has any thoughts or idea's about trunk or treat let me know. Thanks in advance for all of your help!