I would only assign her tasks that could be completed easily last minute by others. Do not assign her critical tasks that will collapse the plans of the event and don't have her as chairperson of any event.
I've had three parents display the same behavior as you described and they did not redeem themselves when volunteering for other events during the course of the year. My VP, Treasurer and myself were constantly filling in and doing what they were supposed to do. The second year in office, they were not selected as chairperson and the tasks they were given were to handle on the day of the event. That way, if they failed to show up on time, we had a replacement. If they failed to come through with their task, we had a backup or enough other things that no one would notice the lack of their responsibility.
It was SO less stressful the second year and we were able to actually enjoy ourselves since we weren't on pins and needles hoping things were going to actually work out.
Depending on the position these people hold you may need to ensure you have back-up. If I had a parent or a couple that kept dropping the ball to the detriment of the project and felt that one-on-one discussion was getting me no where, then I would start ensuring that there was backups. For example...
If this person wanted to take on a committee I would make it co-chaired, even if I had to be the co-chair myself. If this person volunteered to be on a committee then I would talk with the chair or co-chair of this committee and explain the situation. I would request that the chair(s) of the committee ensure that any task that this person volunteered for was either verified as to the progress, or that it was something that more than one person was accountable for. Say the person said that they would take on contacting the local nuerseries for donations for the upcoming fall festival, then I would have at least two people assigned to this and have both in contact with each other. I would try to ensure that the second person was someone who could definitely be counted on.
By having secondary accountability hopefully you'll never get to the point where the ball gets dropped, blame is assigned and the Principal would ever be involved.
seems that removing ones kids is not the least bit of threat! principal would proabley love it.
anyway, have enough strong people with follow thru on each committee, so that if one or 2 drop the ball, the whole event doesnt fall thru.
you cant prevent parents from participating, and difficult people are all around us and part of life. smile and just keep bringing on enough do gooders to make up for the slackers. we all have a few
I have a similar situation. The past PTO President added an addendum to our By-Laws called Volunteer Accountability. It states that the Board can remove a volunteer from a position that they are not fulfilling and that they will not be able to chair a committee for 2 years after that.
I currently have a parent who falls under that category, but her two years have pasted. She now wants to chair a committee, that she has chaired in the past, and I do not know what to tell her. The committee she chaired was a Santa Breakfast and there was only food to feed half of the people, did not have enough crafts for half of the children and was late to her own function. Her approach is the same as what you seem to be dealing with. She blames others, ignores any constructive criticism and never follows through. I guess I am looking for answers also. Can anyone help?
We have a casual School Improvement Team group that is continuously having problems with a couple of parents and I don't know how to handle them any more. They have had meetings with the principal, and so far, she has totally supported us.
One particular parent volunteers to take tasks on, totally drops the ball and doesn't complete the tasks and then blames others. When she is confronted, she ignores us but then approaches the principal threating to try and remove all of the other volunteers or take her children out of the school. So far the principal is fed up as well but what else can we possibly do before it gets any further. One on one talks don't seem to help much.
