"I would recommend looking at becoming independant. Overall it ends up just being better for the children."

I have to disagree with that statement. Being independent or not has no direct correlation with "being better for the children". Our admin. costs this year were $150.00. The remaining money went to the school, playground, and teachers. If everyone knows his or her role and performs, why do you need an official title? Yes, one person was the liason between the principal and the parents and filtered the necessary information. Lastly, who better knows the needs of a school, a group of parents or the lead administrator - aka the principal. We have never been viewed as a cash cow. Very simple, we don't raise money unless the school has a need. What we make we spend. That in my opinion is the best for the children.

Groups that do not have a President and run the way that you are explaining are effectively running with numerous watered down Presidents. By having say four or five "leaders" running the meetings, giving updates, etc., all that is really happening is that there are numerous chiefs. Sometimes the chiefs will stick to their own thing, but sometimes not.

Personally I believe that you have to have the single point person, meaning a President. Actually my group did not have a President for a year and a half before I got involved, but the Treasurer effectively ran things. This is not ideal either as you lose some of the group's checks and balances this way. There needs to be that one person to interact with the Principal on issues that may come up, someone needs to define next year's calandar, someone needs to make up the Agendas and run the meetings. If everyone is focused on their specific function each may get done, and done well, but a PTO has so many things going on at one time that things will just have to fall through the cracks.

My recommendation is to think about who seems to be the person that takes the leadership role most often, and then ask if that person would be willing to do the same thing with the official title. Next, see if all of the other committee leaders would be willing to continue what they were doing with the offical title of Co-Vice President.

Also, with the way your group is presently run, it almost sounds as though the Principal is the President, at least as far as spending. I mean, a PTO should not be thought of as a cash cow for a school's Principal. And though she is not treating you guys this way, things can change, she may move on and you could get a new Principal who may not see things the same way, etc. I would recommend looking at becoming independant. Overall it ends up just being better for the children.

Good luck, PresidentJim

Yes we have by-laws but no we are not a 501C3. Our by-laws allow for the rule by committee. Our principal is wonderful and she makes the decision on how the money is spent. All money earned goes to the principal. We are basically her "hands and feet" to get the job done. I know it is a non-traditional way of doing things, but it worked for us. Thanks for your encouraging words.

Do you have bylaws and are you a 501C3 school? If yes to both, then you are in violation of your 501C3 status. When filing, you must supply a copy of the bylaws with it so they know that there are officers in charge to make decisions, monitoring the overall activity of the organization, bank accounts etc. To dissolve your officers is changing the organzation. You could lose your 501C3 status and really should be re-writing the bylaws and resubmitting them for review by the IRS!

Just to play devils advocate: Although everyone probably got along well and committees ran smoothly, somewhere down the road, money will come into play. Who gets what to spend? That's where you're most likely to get friction. Although this group may have worked well together, who's to say you will always get that?

It's great that you worked well together and everything was smooth. Hope it continues.

Our school operated this way and we were very successful. Everyone was assigned a task and did it. Different leaders ran the monthly meetings so one or two people were not required to always be at everything. Every event was well coordinated and successful financially. Our principal had no problem with our group. And with the exception of one parent, no one noticed or complained. Our school and PTO has been blessed with a great number of devoted volunteers. No one needs a "title" to be involved or help out. We received our direction from the principal and vice principal. They had a need and we met it. PTO without stringent rules and burecracy (sp) was very enjoyable. We had a lot of fun and got a lot done for our schoool. I recommend not taking PTO so seriously and enjoy your time volunteering!

How did it work? Did you have any issues that your group found hard to deal with. To be honest since we started on September of 2001 I have said numerous times we have grown so quick, that I wish we could go back to just being a bunch of parents who worked together with no titles. There are times it woudl be easier but now I see that as much as we have grown we do need leadership positions...but at times it stinks!!!