Originally posted by onesteph: Last year when we had elections she ran for Vice President. She did not win. Even before I became President I have repeatedly tried to get her to take a position. I've done this even more since becoming President. She has still refused.
So my thought is "what now?" I could really use any and all advice on this.
TIA
When are your next elections? Is there a nominating committee or any potential candidates for next year?
What do your by-laws say about voting, is it general membership or board only? At the point you are in, I would probably tell them if they want a vote they need to join the board.
Shoot from the hip....don't be shy because she's obviously not being shy about railroading you. It's easy for someone sitting there to complain about this and that. If they're not willing to help and offer options to your suggestions, then all they're doing is sucking up oxygen that could be used by someone else. Sounds like you're the only one left on the board?? Tough to run an operation like that. You either have to get the support or you might have to consider the worst part....shutting down the operation. Not something one should take lightly but if you're not getting any help and you're not getting anything but complaints....why put in the effort. I understand it's for the students but you can't do it all alone.
Be straight with her. Tell her that you are feeling like nothing you do is good enough in her eyes. If she starts telling you how she doesn't like this company you chose or the fundraiser you set up , just ask her if she would like to take on coordinating those things. I kind of feel that if people complain about how things are done, then they should step up and get involved. It drives me crazy when people sit in meetings and whine and moan, but never put their hand up when the call for help goes out. Some people live to complain.
Okay I will try and keep this as short as possible but knowing me it might get a little long winded. Either way I could really use some advice...
Had my monthly PTO meeting this morning as far as turnout I was really happy. Seems like the number of parents we've had show up has been increasingly declining. So this morning when we had over 6 parents and staff show up I was like WoooHooo!! However here's the problem.
I'm currently the PTO President. Last year at the nomination meeting I was going to run for Pres. but chickened out and ran for secretary instead. Well in less than one year's time we've had 3 officers quit or move out of the district which meant that I got this position by default. Even though i'm the last one left I'm doing my best to make it work. Seems like I can always find five or six parents to complain about an issue but I can never find five let alone 1 to volunteer for anything. I've got one person who's very active in the school. In fact until recently i had considered her a very good friend. Now I'm not so sure. This week she has complained to me about any and everybody. In fact she has even gone so far as to basically tell me in so many words "don't trust the principal because he's a snake!". Before that she kept telling me about things that alledgedly one of my child's teacher's was doing that was along the line of discrimination and assault (towards a student).
Now I've tried to offer what advice I've could to her. Even tried to ignore the comments she's made. Because quite truthfully until i see hard cold facts everything she says is just speculation.
At this morning's meeting she did promise that she would try and get a number of parents to come. Which she did. I was happy until I saw that for every suggestion I made she would veto it and then make comments to get the parents to go along with her point of view.
We only have a few months left in our school year. The district is making so many changes that it makes it hard to even plan anything. We've had alot of money mismagement until i'm operating with a budget of less than $200.
I found a fundraiser(candy sale) that we could have started next week that would net us 40% profit. By the time she got through railroading me and rallying the parents on her side no one wanted to even support me in introducing it. She even went so far as to say "I don't think anyone is going to support this because the parents all want pictures". So I relented and told the parents that if they wished I would cancel it. I'm really saddened by this and really feel like just not listening to the parents and continuing with it anyways.
Well I had already planned a picture day. Due to scheduling conflicts I was not able to get it done this month. I did however manage to set it up for next month. She is not in favor of the company I planned on using and once again when I mentioned it in the meeting did her best to railroad that.
I don't want to be a pushover but I also don't want to be a hard a$$ and not listen to anything the parents have to say. I'm beginning to think that she is purposedly trying to sabatoge any and everything I do. I don't want to lose our friendship but I also don't want to be friends with someone I feel that I can't trust.
Last year when we had elections she ran for Vice President. She did not win. Even before I became President I have repeatedly tried to get her to take a position. I've done this even more since becoming President. She has still refused.
So my thought is "what now?" I could really use any and all advice on this.
