Sounds simple enough. I hope it works. Thank you for the info. I do not have the Presidents support. I plan on documenting everything! That is why I am always requesting forms from all of you. In the past we trusted each other to do what was right, but not anymore. It's been hard, I usually walk away from meetings with a migraine, but the end result is worth it. We are helping the kids. And THAT should be why we are here.
With a divided Board, your best approach may be a proactive approach to setting policies that everyone will follow. Rather than attack the individual or office, just treat as part of the normal start-of-year procedures. The public goal would be to clarify accounting and cash handling procedures, and especially to acquaint new Board members. This could include everything from who has authority to approve funds to the treasurer report. Most importantly - DOCUMENT - what you have agreed upon. You may want to contact your school district auditor to see if they have a handout that would serve as a starting point.
Lay the policies out clearly. (I like simple lists with headings and bulleted points.) Hold the treasurer, and every other member, accountable for following the processes.
It will be easiest if you have the President's support on this. If it's liable to be a touchy issue, you may want to introduce it with a set of policies, not just the handling of financial matters. It could also be targeted as information for committees - how funds are approved, cash handling, approval steps, what reports the treasurer will furnish to help them keep track. Who has what responsibility. In "educating" the committees, you can define the role and responsibilities of the treasurer.
But what do you do when there are only a few of us board members (3 out of 12) that KNOW there is a problem with a board member, and the rest refuse to listen because that was "last years problems"? The treasurer is our problem. She seems to think that PTO revolves around her, and that the rest of us are just decoration. Several of us were left out of the loop last year including Pres, Vice-Pres, Fundraiser. She told lies about us to get the rest of the board on her side, never letting us tell ours. Then many of us weren't reelected because of her. Fortunately, there were spots still available, and we snapped them up. We are currently doing a petition of the general members to get her out. How should we handle this situation????? I am at a loss. If you want more details, just email me. I could go on forever LOL. :confused: :confused: :confused:
When I was president last year I was in similiar situation.
What I did was Call a special meeting of our excutive board members (President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretery). I had the secretery take minutes and together we drafted a letter. We made sure that the letter did not accuse this person, and that is was clear it was the PTO not one person asking for resignation. It was very business like. If you do this yourself the person might take it as a personal attack. We also made sure that we put any bylaws that pretained to the situation. We sent the letter before our first meeting. If you do this by yourself at your first meeting the reaction from this person may not be good. We alsolet our Principal know what the situation was and gave him a copy of our letter.
Make sure that you bring this up at your first meeting (you don't have to give all the details) let other members know that a letter was sent and that this person is no longer a member.
You may also want to contact the fund raiser reps and let them know that this person has been replaced by a new person.
GOOD LUCK
If his child dose not go to the school why would he want to help?? Ask yourself that!! It's hard enough to get people to volunteer let alone someone who has no student there.
Did he handle fundraising funds-Is he hiding stealing funds?? What was so shady about him for people to ask him to resign, check your bylaws for members details our says any friend of the school who pays dues w/the schools best interest can be a voting member. But really only parents, a few grandparents & staff attend! You have to ask why would he still want to take on the huge job of fundraising!!
First, what do your bylaws say about membership? If they require the member to have children attending the school, this person is no longer a member (and no longer a chairperson) if his children aren't enrolled in the school.
Secondly, be sure that whatever he did warrants this action. If so, I'd approach him privately and tell him that his credibility has been compromised to the point that the Board feels he can no longer effectively serve. Thus, he can resign or the Board will remove him.
Safeguard yourselves as much as possible. Contact any companies with whom you have ongoing business and let them know about the change. (Do not gossip or get into details.) Just be very clear that Mr. XYZ no longer represents the PTO and advise who the new contact is.
A few years ago after an embezzlement issue, some Board members informally asked me (a minor chairperson) about asking the President to resign. I agreed, thinking they meant did I agree that it should be done. They meant literally, if no one else would, could I!
I wish it could have been handled privately, but we were way beyond that point. We thought the President had come to the Board meeting to apologize and resign. No one was prepared for his attitude that this was just an unfortunate episode and launch into the normal agenda. It was amazing.
Everyone looked to me to "handle it". I brought it up as business and asked if he thought he could continue effectively afterwhat had happened. We kept it all very calm and civil, and listened to what he had to say. Then we brought it for a vote and asked if he would voluntarily leave the room during the discussion. He did, and we voted him out.
It was difficult, but it had to be done, and we handled it as gracefully as possible under the circumstances.
Good luck with this.
P.S. Oops, forgot - check your bylaws as to what you need to do to remove an officer/member of the Board. It's probably just a Board action.
