Just a thought here...not only would the responsibility be overwhelming for one person, but the liability of one person controlling the money would be one job that I would never do! If you were to send out a notice to all the parents about what your PTO does (listing every specific detail) and end your notice with, "we are sad to report that if we do not have a full board of officers (list the duties) by such and such date our PTO will be dissolved and our students will no longer be able to have all of the extras that we as parents know that they deserve. You may have to change your by-laws concerning who is eligible to be an officer to keep your PTO going...If you still don't get enough responses I would dissolve until next year...after the parents see how the school would be without the PTO. It is hard to let the children down, but please remember that the parents are letting their children down not the PTO:)
I'd hate to see your PTO end, but if looks inevitable, maybe you could scale down and restructure later. You might try the approach of tabling all the routine PTO activities and just commit to one event - like a Spring Carnival or such that's popular(well, maybe not one quite that labor intense).
Next year, after the burnout fades, and you have a new crop of parents, start over. However, it does sound like you need to find a way to balance the workload so being an officer isn't so daunting.
If you have a very small Board that ends up doing all the work, perhaps you could expand who's on the Board. I've posted this before - what's worked well for us is to have a large board (35 people). Those are the key volunteers, and then we also recruit from the parent volunteers.
One good thing about being a PTO is you can scope your own work. You don't have to do everything every year. We traditionally have a big Spring event, but couldn't find a Chair this time. I announced that unless we had people to lead it, we'd just skip it this year. We've done a lot of good work so far. It would have been sad not to hold it, but hardly the end of the world. Luckily, someone stepped forward, so I think it will work out.
Good luck to you!
[This message has been edited by JHB (edited 01-11-2001).]
Without officers I do not think you would have a clear direction. When do you meet and how many come to the meetings? Maybe some changes need to be made to allow others to help out. I am a working dad who is in my 3rd year as pto president. We have our meetings at night and our school is open every night until 10:00 so I can go in and do any paperwork that needs to be done.
In addition I am the chair person for a couple of things that go on in the school.
We are have a great year and things keep getting better and easier.
It seems like it would be too much for one person to take care of alone! I think you could limit the number of chair persons by doing away with or combining some responsibilities. I dont think it is possible for a PTO to be one person. I cant think of why there would be no one interested!! Do you have many members? Sometimes people think if they are a chair person that it will be sooo much work. I think the only thing you can stress is that good people can run a very smooth PTO!
Do all your PTO's have officers, or are there any other suggestions? Our PTO is in the process of ending if no one will agree to be an officer. I have heard of other PTO's not using officers. PLease reply!!!
