The bylaws for the elementary group I belonged to are very similar: The officers can serve no more than 2 consecutive terms in an office. However, if I remember correctly, there is an out here-if the officer still wants the position and there are no challengers, the board can put them back up for that office with a 2/3 vote and then of course the general membership would have to approve. Also, it does not limit their board involvement to 2 years, just being in that one position, so they could move to another position if they so desired. Also, after a year off, they could put their name back in to serve in the position they held before.
I understand that some of your chairs might be upset. When you work on a program for a couple of years you do tend to take ownership of it and take any criticism personally. However, for the good of the group, it is wise to have ways to encourage and invite new faces and fresh ideas into your group. There are many posts on here telling tales of chairpersons and officers who have been in place forever and refuse to hear any new ideas or allow new members to move into "power".
I say write your term section to include that 2 year limit, but leave an opening for keeping someone if no one else wants the position. Make sure that it requires at least a 2/3 approval by the board for them to be back on the ballot for that spot.
So in our PTO in the past we have not followed the by-laws. We are enhancing the old ones with "guidelines" provided by PTO and PTA websites.
Big problem - The committee section - specifically- Chairperson for 2 years unless unchallenged. Lot of hurt feelings are being discussed. Statements from current Chairs like - "yearbook is my baby for the past 4 years" - "well guess I'm not doing the teacher luncheon again", etc....
As a new pres. I can leave it alone especially because this is my first year and I need the core group to help make the PTO successful or do I pursue the topic. I tried to explain that if someone else would like to chair an event that it's important to help them and let them try.
I was told by the current chairs not to put that rule in the by-laws because it will cause big problems - meaning current chairs will just leave and not help because of hurt feelings. Obviously, I don't want this to happen. And I don't even know if there is anybody "new" who wants to try a chair an event but I think there has to be some type of "rules" around "sharing".
Any suggestions to make everyone more comfortable with the idea of sharing? Also, we are what I think is typical (in our area) for a PTO -
5 core people run all the committees, 480 students most all parents work.
