Ally, the bylaws we wrote for our IRS app used wording similar to what you are talking about using. I don't have a copy in front of me, but they are something to the affect that items would be voted on at a general meeting and approved/disapproved by a majority of those members in attendance at the meeting.
I couldn't imagine the nightmares that could come up if a group tried to use absentee ballot type of voting. I guess we felt that we gave several weeks notice as to what items would be discussed and voted on at the meetings, so anyone who was interested in being part of the decision making process was welcome to come and make themselves heard.
Personally I advocate the idea of all parents or guardians of children attending the school, as well as all members of the staff, being automatically considered "members" of the PTO. By going this route, yes you lose the $5 or so membership fee, but you get to say "Hey, you're already a member, so why not get involved". I just feel that this open invitation is more important than the couple of thousand dollars that we would get by charging membership.
In regards to voting, I recommend ensuring that your Bylws indicate who has the right. For example, should the Principal and/or the staff members have the "right" to vote? That's a good question and may change from group to group. For my group the Bylaws state that all members have the right to vote if they are in attendance.
We are now incorporated and applying for 501C3 status. Our Articles of Incorporation stated that rights of members would be stated in the Bylaws. We are now writing those. To those groups who have recently been granted IRS non profit status, do you know if there are specific things the IRS allows or disallows in the bylaws in terms of voting rights of the membership? Our group would like to limit voting rights on an issue to those members present at any given monthly meeting at which an item is being voted on (as opposed to having the entire membership vote on issues via postal mail or email!). Will this restriction be ok with the IRS? Would any IRS approved 501C3s care to share their bylaws? I know there are a lot of bylaws presented on this PTOtoday site, but I cannot tell if these are IRS approved or not. Your help would be appreciated! Thanks.
Thanks for the responses. I feel that in this process to become an incorporated 501C3 I take three steps forward and then two steps back because a new issue arises. Normally I am fine with this, but because this is all in the state and federal realm, I am leery of doing anything incorrectly. Thanks again to those on this message board- without an office full of accountants and lawyers next to me, it can be difficult weeding through the process and you all have been great! I am sure I will be back with more questions!
As far as Robert's rules, I've read the book before moderating a business meeting with a lot of attendees where there was a lot of contention. This was very needed. It helps you keep your head and be fair to all.
For PTOs, the attendance to meetings is usually smaller. That is when you can usually get away with being less formal. I'd recommend you write this into the bylaws and vote to suspend the rules at the discretion of the moderator (aka president)
Then the moderator can pull them back out if they ever have trouble.
I haven't found that being incorporated really changes anything operationally for a traditional PTO. It's a business step, gives the officers some protection from personal liability, and means you have an Articles of Incorporation as your organizing instrument. And, of course, there's probably a requirement to keep certain information up to date with the appropriate state office - mostly likely your agent/primary contact point. But all that has very little impact on your day to day operations.
Incorporated or not, your bylaws are the rules by which you operate. Most of us use agendas. Most of us follow some semblance of Roberts Rules for running the organization. I think very few PTOs run their meetings with extreme formality - but we try to use basic parliamentary procedures.
