You should have a school official handling votes and nominations. Someone who is not under suspicion, possibly the principal? I feel its a good idea to get more people involved. I am a current President for our PTO and I want to get as many people involved as possible. I am at the school daily and I am willing to do the work in takes to make our prgroam successful. I certainly do not need a title to do what I do. I am glad to give it up to someone who wants to help out. I will continue to do what I do regardless of my PTO status. It's about involvement and getting jobs done. Our group doesn't have huge meetings, but we do have a lot of parents who help out. You can not judge a PTO by the number of parents you have at meetings.
You can see how successful it is by the amount of work that is getting done and the things you are able to do for your school. What makes up a great PTO is people working for the kids in the school. You don't have to all like each other! Everyone can do something different as long as it is for the school and its students! Too many people make assumptions about what the board should be doing..just get involved and do something other than bicker...and argue..its a waste of precious time.
This seems like the most fair way to do it to avoid being a clique- give everyone a chance to be involved. Maybe all of the old ones will be re-elected, maybe you will get some new blood elected. Either way it is fair and you are inviting others to be more involved if they want to be. Best of luck!
Well ...so last year we did have just one person interested in each position. Terms of office are one year so technically anyone can run for the position once the year term has ended. We have no mandatory end to positions (like a 2 year term). We do have folks that have stepped up for each position again this year, some the same one they are holding, others have asked to move (i.e. treasurer to VP, and a newbie for Treasuer). Since we aren't voted in for 2 years, only one, each year we hold an election. If there is no one on the slate that cares to leave, we still advertise that anyone may run for a position on the board and thus send out nomination forms for submission. Since reading this post I've implemented a procedure where the nomination forms are distro'd to everyone int he school for write in noms, they are turned into the school secretary and submitted to the Principal for recording. Then the principal will turn them over to our nomination committee for contact of each individual and their desire to run or not to run and that information is reported back tot he prinicipal who will verify the final slate for election. The ballot will be prepared including all of those interested (including current board members who desire reelection) and the vote will take place at our May meeting. Make sense...d
dlf: If you dont have any openings why would you hand out nomination forms? How can someone step up if there is no place for them? Are the current officers in for 2 years - is this why you dont have any openings or do all of you want to stay in therefore you are not going to have an actual election but instead will just keep your positions?
We have elections every year and even if an officer wants to stay on we hold nominations and a vote. We appoint a parent or 2 to collect the ballots and he/she will tally them with the principal -who keeps them for a week or so just in case. We also contact those who have expressed interest to explain the position to them and to answer any questions they have prior to voting.
Hi Dlf... It is good to establish protection for things like this for the future of your group. You and your board may well be 100% honest and have no desire to slant an election, but someday you will be gone and there will be other people in your positions. If you establish it in a way the protects the integrity of the nomination/election process it makes it hard for those who come along in the future to mess with these things. You look at groups who do have these types of problems and are basically just doing whatever they like because there was nothing in place to stop them from creating their own three ring circus.
