You should read this month PTO today, it really does give you some wonderful advice. You will loose volunteers if you don't let them run their committees and be stuck doing all the committees with only board members and a few close friends. Guide her in the right direction and find good in something she does and praise her. She will then be more open to your suggestions. It will be a long hard road if you alienate anyone who has been around for that long. I have been involved with my parent club for almost 12 years now and learned the hard way early on. I know it is hard to kee quite but it is the best way. Good Luck

can i share one other thought (i agree with all above posts)

you mentioned you didnt like her first email of the year. BINGO, that is one bad way to communicate, just as your intentions were maybe misinterpreted or you posted badly, right here, perfect example

if you want clear non misinterpereted communicaitons with your volunteers, and you have such an issue already underfoot, i can highly suggest doing things face to face and on the phone, and not via eamil.

emails are very often misinterpreted, forwarded, and create havoc.
stay freiendly, professional, adult, and do more talking with her DIRECTLY, and forget the emails. it WILL come back to haunt you.

and just rememnber, poeple will judge YOU and talk about YOU, on how you handle this situation (just as you have done here about your voluneer).....if you fire a volunteer....that too will backfire.

Thanks for the comeback Colleen...you wouldn't believe how many times folks have been sure that others don't read these boards and then we face the confrontation of the two groups right here. Your comeback is much appreciated and does show your more balanced approach.
I too have had volunteers that don't seem to mesh with the goals of the organization. Sometimes it is best to find a co-chair that will steer things a bit more in the direction you're interested in. It is NOT wrong to let a chairperson know that you have concerns with the direction the committee is going. But there is a distinct line between mentorship and insult/injury to the group.
For starters: Don't say that you don't like what has been done. Say that with a new year you'd like to exploit some new ways to streamline the program so that you as a group can achieve maximum benefit. Have the numbers there so you can thank her for being directly responsible for XXXX amount of dollars in contribution to the PTC.
Let her know that one of your goals has been to set up guidelines and you'd like her input into the things that you've placed on the Boxtops plate for those years ahead when she is not available.
If you think she will find sitting down with everyone confrontational in nature; then do it privately with perhaps one other person, and move on from there to a larger setting.
Given the relationship, also have a name ready of someone that you know will assist (or even take over) if the new process seems too difficult for her to adjust to. The key here is if she ends up leaving, have her feeling like she spent good effort on a good project and walked away a hero. It is the only thing that works in these issues.

Good luck to you in your efforts!
d

Hey all....First I appreciate the advice. I certainly didn't mean to offend anyone. It was a stupid thing to do to use names but I can honestly tell you that no one mentioned in the email has ever even heard of PTO Today or even knows of this website but again, my bad and totally inappropriate.

As I started writing the message yesterday, I must have deleted and started over about a hundred times because without the full story and without others really knowing the person in question personally, it's not an accurate situation being described. No matter how I did it, I sounded like the bad guy and I debated even sending the email at all. But I have gotten such great info from reading the boards before that I thought it was a good place to turn to. There is a long history with this person that really cannot be put into an email. I was looking for some guidance with a situation that I'm sure some of you have had...a situation with a difficult volunteer under your direction whose ideas do not mesh with your board, whose outward personality puts others off, and who dismisses important issues with a "it's no big deal" mentality. I can see by my email yesterday that I should have taken a much different approach and my email was more emotional than tactful.

Just to clarify, our Box Tops is a PTC sponsored event, not a school run fundraiser so we do have say over how it is run. And we do have a problem with how she has been doing it and her ideas and our ideas do not mesh for the coming year which is why this has come up.

However, after sleeping on it last night and thinking it through some more and reading your responses, I feel that I should sit down with her and the board, discuss our new guidelines with her for her chairperson duties, discuss what we want for our Box Tops this year, find a co-chairperson or two to help her and see how the next year goes.

Please accept my apologies for offending anyone here on this board...I have the utmost respect for what you do and how you share your knowledge and ideas so willingly.....my email does not read well and that was not my intention. I was in a spot and needed help and wasn't sure what to say or how to proceed. Thanks again for your thoughts.

Colleen - CapeDad and DLF are right on base. I wouldn't be surprised if this post shows up at a meeting to bite the board. Honestly, you can not fire a volunteer. But you can bet on the volunteer being hurt, discussing their feelings with the Principle and their friends. Soon those people tell their friends and in the end volunteers will be hard to come by for any item your organization attempts.

I too was worried when I saw all the names and specifics. If someone has been volunteering for a long period of time and looks on these boards and sees what has been said about them it doesn't speak well of your organization and it will probably hurt their feelings (I mean really).

I think perhaps a meeting to discuss with the person, vice discussing what has come in via email or some other written forum with a group that seems to already be set against the approach of the volunteer is more in keeping with the spirit of encouraging cooperation.

After reading your email initially I was a bit put off and decided to let someone else answer first to see if I was off base. It does sound personal (goofy and odd Patty) and it just doesn't brief well. I feel kind of badly for her not knowing her and thinking that she's been doing this for six years.

I don't want to preach...Cape Dad is right. If you "fire" her (and do you even have that right given your bylaws) it doesn't send the best message.