I am the only one on our board without a full time job so I email everyone about this and that. I try to have the agenda ready to show them a day or too before the general meeting. If not I just email them to make sure they don't have anything to add. I include the principal in on this too. We are also a new school and things are starting to run smoothly but we still have alot of needs.

kma I have seen both sides. Last year our President was so busy with work etc he often called me the night before to talk about the agend and I practically ran the meetings. When "stuff" hit the fan with the Administration THEN we had a couple Exec. meetings to keep our ducks in a row (if you will) and sanity/rumor check! THIS YEAR I'm the Prez and I love getting together with my Board to make sure we know what we need to talk about before our meeting with members. This has also been great with the new Director as he has taken a much more active role with the PTO.

I have been called a control freak but it's much easier going in front of 5-10 members and knowing what you need to talk about (also we report our activites to the School Board)than to walk in an waste time stumbling along.

We use our board meetings extensively. We hold them once a month and our general membership about 4 times a year. That seems to keep everyone focused and not overwhelmed with activities. Our board actually maps out the coming years events, intros good ideas and makes most of the spending decisions. I asked if folks thought we should open that up to the general population of the PTO and everyone seems to think that having a smaller group be the driver is the best way to go. Our Board meetins are open to everyone however, so folks can voice their decisions on the money expenditures. Our general meeting is usually our brainstorming/accountability meeting with the general population. They get to voice any concerns with the way the train is moving and achieve buy in on the directs via small group sessions. We are also VERY vocal via our newsletter as to what we are spending money on and the emails keep everyone informed as well. So far communication is terrific and we'll keep bounding the pavement to keep folks informed...d

We usually have one exec. board meeting a yr. & that is in Aug. to go over our plans for the yr. At our general meetings, it's usually just the board, princ., 2 teacher reps., & a few parents. The general meeting is where the voting is done because the teachers, princ., & the parents have the right to vote.

We have executive board meetings right before our general meetings each month. It's a chance for all of us to review our agenda for the general meeting, give any updates on issues/events that are being worked on but aren't ready for discussion or vote and discuss any topics of concern that may need to be brought up during the meeting. Plus it gives us all time to get prepared for our "time to report" during the genral meetings. This year we have reduced the time to 30 minutes, so we don't get bogged down in discussions of topics that need to be heard during the general meeting. We don't vote on anything.

I am at a loss to think what the executive officers would be talking about that should not be open to all the members.

We have had several versions of meeting schedules. I like the monthly executive meetings and quarterly general meetings myself. But we let it be known that anyone can attend the executive meetings. Otherwise, it is so easy to fall into the cliche reputation.