Thank you all for your support and encouragement. I appreciate all the helpful advice and am certain that with help from other like minded PTO parents such as yourselves, this will be a FANTASTIC year!
I am genuinely looking forward to working on the PTO for the upcoming year and improving parental involvement. I am going to school to become an elementary school teacher, so I hope that wherever I am working on day will have strong PTO members like you!!
Thanks again, and blessings to you and your families for the upcoming year!
I am also new to the position of President and got lots of information. Almost too much. I would be happy to share or help in any way possible. There are so many people that could help. Some are just waiting to be asked. Please contact me if you have any questions or anyone offering advice as well.
Hi there,
I too am a new President....actually, our entire board is new this year. We've gotten very little information from the previous board in terms of written materials, but I've been fortunate enough to have helpful e-mails with the past President. She simply told me to do what I felt was best, I needed to decide how I want things to run and make it work.
Honestly, it doesn't sound like you'll have that option with your past President, which is too bad. BUT, obviously not everyone took to heart your pot stirring label or you wouldn't have been voted in. You need to ignore the rumor mill and focus on what needs to be done to best help the children.
What you need to keep in mind is that you have certain ideas and expectations. You need to figure out a way to "sell" those to others and make them come to life ! If there are things you want to change, then do it....if you want everything the same, then leave it.
The only title you're missing there is Secretary. This is an important and detail filled position, perhaps you can hold a special election to get that seat filled ? I'd talk it over with the other board seats and see what they think too.
In terms of what you're supposed to be doing, well....what do you need to get done to meet your goals ? In terms of what information to ask for....what information do you need ? What information do you want ? There are no clear cut rules, not all Presidents follow the same path. While I am an avid researcher, not everyone is. While I want as much information on as many things as I can get, not everyone does. This board should have your personality and the personalities of your board on it.....not just that of those past members.
Cornell6981-
Welcome & congratulations! Sounds like you are off to a great start with some good advice from Mrs. B and caringptomom.
I wouldn't worry about how the past president labeled you. If you start out on the defensive, you're done. Sounds like you have some new fresh ideas and that you just need some help. Have you downloaded our
New Leader Kit
yet?
With just a few board members, it would probably be a good idea to kick off the year with the
Two-hour Power pledge program
-- great way to get people started with volunteering.
Here are a bunch of other links to get you started on the right foot:
As a current pto president, I can tell you there is often no manual on how to do things. The first thing I would recommend is reaching out to past board members--many times there are documents on their computers that they can provide to you. As a past secretary, you know there are meeting minutes. Try to get your hands on those as well.
If you don't have a current set of bylaws, that will need to be your first order of business. A meeting will need to be conducted and minutes recorded reflecting the new bylaws and new board members, so you can take those minutes to your financial institution to open/change the checking account in order to start operating from a fiscal standpoint. If you don't have a budget, create a simple one based on what you know today. Remember, it is only a budget of what you think may happen. Once you have that drafted, vote on it as well. Throughout the year, you can make tweaks and changes to the budget (remember to vote on those changes per the bylaws).
Check with the principal. Often, they are a great source of information. Keep checking back here too--we can all be a great source of guidance and help prevent reinventing the wheel whenever necessary.
While having binders of all of the committees certainly would be nice, I wouldn't stress too much about it. You can make that one of the "would be nice" goals for the year.
