Hang in there writermom. There will come a time when your fresh ideas and enthusiasm will be more welcome. In the meantime, sit patiently, make peace and be a PTO champion. Do your job the best you can and others will take notice.
Being a VP is often challenging because it's the board position that typically has a vague job description. I hate to think of someone strictly being on a board "in case" the president isn't available. What a waste of time and talent. We've put our VP(s) in charge of the PTO committees. The VPs are in charge of committee volunteers signups, they contact committee chairs for updates, gathers event reports from them, and generally acts as the liaison between the board and committees. It gives them a specific responsibility and keeps the lines of communication open (not to mention takes that task of the president's to do list).
I agree with KathieP - encourage your president to have Exec Board meetings. There are always issues to discuss that are best addressed in the privacy of the small group. Sometimes things need to be hashed out by the leaders before being presented to the general membership. Sometimes issues are confidential or controversial and need careful consideration by the leaders. We meet for about 1-2 hours a few days before our general meeting. The principal joins us for about 30 minutes. Maybe you could suggest this without the president taking offense. It will help her as much as the rest of the board.
Opps - you posted about exec board meetings while I was writing my response. Your principal is wrong. There are simply some decisions that need to be made by the elected leaders of the group - that's why there are LEADERS! It's impractical and inefficient to bring every decision to a large uninformed group. And too bad about your treasurer. If she isn't confident about her abilities, then she should be open-minded and learn. Hang in there. They need you; they just don't know it yet [img]smile.gif[/img]
I would like for us to have exec board meetings,but the principal told us not to, even if we hold them at someone's house, because it makes people feel like decisions are already made when they get to general meetings--the same principal who doesn't want to include more people in the decision on how to spend money.
I've tried getting communication going via email but the treasurer never checks hers and I've been told we send out too many emails to each other--by the principal,whom the president cc's on everything, even if the principal wasn't included in the original email.
The treasurer isn't comfortable doing the budget because this is her first year. She cannot consult the old treasurer because that is the person who stole the money. We have no way to see where money was spent because no records were kept last year and previous records disappeared over the summer. The pres sees no need to have a budget.
Seems like everywhere I turn, there are roadblocks--so keep the ideas coming! Maybe I'll figure out something that will work.
I was reading the posts and didn't see the one word I was looking for that would make life eadier and possibly the rest of your term....trust. I don't feel any trust. Okay granted I don't know you or your situation more than what I have read but, man, where is the "love"?
Does she trust you?
Do you trust her?
Can there be trust? respect? common ground?
Can this be worked on?
Yes, I too have been there and survived that and work well with this person, once she realized I was harmless we work well together.
A good solution would be to start having executive board meetings. My old PTA did these the week before the general meeting. We would set the agenda and talk about things that would be cumbersome to discuss in a general meeting. I'm guessing that your President is feeling defensive and speaking in a small group might work well.
As for the budget, I think it's easiest for the treasurer to put together a rough budget based on what was spent in prior years. Next step would be to show it to the exec board and then tweak it at the general meeting. There is such a thing as too many people when you work on a budget. I guess a budget committee would come up with similar results and if there's been financial trouble in the recent past then I could see how that would work but I still think the treasurer should do the first rough budget.
I'll tell you one thing. If my school's PTO had money disappear, I would certainly be there the next year demanding that the general membership have a say in how the money is spent and that we see a budget and get regular reports on the financial situation of the group. I can't believe parents would just walk away! I think the financial committee idea is a good one. We did our budget as a committee this year and it made it easier and we got a lot less questions about how the money was allocated. I think people were more comfortable knowing that a group put it together instead of just one person trying to think of everything.
Thank you for the good advice. After sitting through yet another frustrating PTO meeting, I have come to the conclusion that I really have no other choice but to just sit tight until next year, or I will spend the rest of this year in a constant state of anger.
Some of us tried to get together a financial committee--first one ever--to come up with a budget and advise on spending so that not just the board was involved in the decision making process. It was shot down. One parent said why should we let people make decisions about spending money if they didn't help raise it. This same parent commented at the end of the meeting that she has heard talk that parents don't want to be involved with the PTO because of the missing money last year. All the more reason to form a financial committee, in my opinion, but whatever. I'm done with this. I'll keep my position in the hopes that MAYBE somewhere I can do some good, but I'm done fighting. It's getting very embarrassing to be associated with this group.
