We met last night with the fundraising and committee chair (who seems to be taking a more pragmatic view of all this and thank God, seems willing to work with others to a point). The fundraising chair is just in it for the drama, and made it obvious last night that she's bearing grudges and unwilling to let things go--one incident in particular. She seemed to understand that certain things she wants just aren't going to happen; when the topics came up she didn't argue them. She had to get her snide remarks in, but in all behaved herself. I just hope she doesn't flake out and try to pull something like pretending we never had the meeting.

I can't see her going for the presidency only because she'd actually have to assume responsibility, plus have to work closely with the principal and more than likely a couple of other people she can't stand (at least we agree on something!). Besides, I think even she realizes that the president's job would be too much for even scary capable her. Starting a third group is out as well--it's hard to have a group with no followers. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Well the meeting is today with the principal--I'm curious to see what will happen. The committee chair has a very long history in our school, but hasn't worked directly with the principal much. I'm wondering if the principal will make all sorts of unreasonable demands (which I admit I sort of hope for so that someone else can see just how obnoxious this woman is). More along this woman's MO is for her to be agreeable, then at the last minute say, "I never agreed to that!" or, "You can't do that!"

The saga continues.

Tim brings up a very good point. Since rumor has it that all the PTA officers are quitting at the end of this year and you'll be getting a new board, how do you know that your fundraising chair isn't going to go for PTA Pres.?

I know you want her out and she's done a lot of bad things(I've seen it happen myself!)but there has to be a way of stopping her without really pissing her off. Someone other than you has to confront her and put her back in her place. She just won't listen to a thing you have to say. Just think, she only has 4 more months to go! You will survive, I have faith in you.

We can only hope that she doesn't go for PTA Pres. Let me know when that meeting is so I can be there and vote against her!

As pres of our PTO I see everything and it is voted on. I also chair alot of committees because of lack of involment and our meetings (all of them) are all publically announced and anyone is invited to come. If someone isn't wiling to share info it tells me they are trying to hide something.

Actually our bylaws have everyone with a one year term. Since our group is new and we wanted to make sure everything was stable before we left, we wrote a two-year plan for the originating officers--after that it's up for grabs. The reason we put a one year on our our fundraising chairs to be enforced now is that we wanted to avoid the trend of someone intitiating a fundraiser (to date nothing is recurring except our Tricky Tray) and then expecting it's theirs for eternity.

We're trying VERY hard to not become what our PTA is--this is why all the nonsense with the fundraising chair and committee chair has us bent out of shape. Being from the "old guard" they apparently want to keep this "theirs" and close out all the wonderful people who've joined and helped us. It's very threatening to them to deal with "new" people who may have better ideas, or aren't afraid to speak their minds.

The most important reason I'm so flipped out about this is that our fundraising chair has now put the group at risk. She has been making a LOT of mistakes for the past few months, and letting some major things slide by. This is the latest, and worst--if you saw this contract you'd understand why I'm so upset. She's been lying and playing people against each other--she's very careful to try and have only herself and just one other person in a meeting--then it becomes a "she said/she said" situation. We've repeatedly asked her to make sure ALL members of a committee are in on meetings--but she'll always arrange it for just one or maybe two other people to be there. If we'd followed her advice blindly on this one we could not have only been screwed out of a LOT of money--we could have also LOST money on top of that. Imagine explaining that to donors who helped you raise some $10,000--that not only do we not have a penny of it--we also had to hand over some of what we've made so far to boot!

Hey kmamom-

Do your bylaws have one-year limits on chairpeople but not on board members or president?

I'm asking because in reading all this, I can't help but think that your new group is slowly becoming a lot like your old group (Background: KMA's school has two parent groups, as there was a split a year or two ago when KMA and crew couldn't get support for a favored project.). Not trying to raise a ruckus -- and I'm not privy to all the particulars at your school -- but it might be worth thinking about. Will this "difficult" fundraising chair (I wonder if the president of your old group would have written similar stuff about you at the height of the debate you were having?) go and start a *third* parent group at your school?

This is one reason why I'm not in favor of multiple parent groups at one school. Now you have twice the drama. Ugh.

I'm playing devil's advocate a bit, kmamom, but maybe it's worth thinking about if your new group is slowly morphing into a lot of the habits of your old group (just with you on a different side now).

Tim

Tim

That would be me. There's nothing like all this glory to sweeten the deal! [img]tongue.gif[/img]