Madame,
What does a school president do? Do you mean the president of the school board? There must be some real internal problems if you have lost 4 or 5 presidents during their term in office. Seems to me that your best bet would be to have a one on one with the principal and express your concerns and get his/her opinion on how to proceed. Without the support of the principal, it would be extremely hard to continue as an organization. I can't imagine that a principal wouldn't want a smooth running organization. PTO's are extremely supportive in their gifts either monetarily or volunteering hours to the day to day operation of running a school.
This is my first year as PTO president. It looks like a lot of organizations run into the same probable with the "changing of the guards". I too have not been given information from the previous board. We have not been able to keep a president that will fullfill their term in 4 to 5 years. We finally have a new board and we want to change a few things and that has been very difficult. Change is very difficult but good. The only thing is trying to stay in there while the old members, who by the way are not on any committees still have control on what is done. There is a connection between the old members and the school president. It seems that the old board members (which consisted of only 2 - the others dropped out like flys), did not follow the by-laws which has cause a personality conflict. If we stayed by the by-laws then I believe there would be no personality conflict. I'm trying to change this situation by following the by-laws, but it seems the old board members disregard them along with the school principle. I am so frustrated, that I want to quit. HELP!!!
I get what she is saying about a "clique". We too have such a thing. I am defining the word by saying that there are several board members that were good friends. They in turn became friends with several teachers. Then they conspired to oust the pres, v-p and fundraiser. They held secret meetings, withheld information,and rigged the election in their favor. This year we have almost all the same members since a few spots opened up at the last minute. I seriously don't think that things will change much this year. In terms of one certain person who was the instigator in all this "trying" to regain control once again. I can only say good luck, try to remain civil, and remember that we are in this FOR THE CHILDREN.
I was PTO president last year and also didn't get anything from the previous president. The difference was that she was just not very good at writing things down. She did make herself available if I had questions, and she chaired a committee that no one would take on. So sometimes it might be that the person is uncomfortable with the bookkeeping aspect. It sometimes seems like we have cliques, but what happens at our school is people will group together over a specific issue. When the issue is resolved, they don't feel the need to stay on and contribute. That's really too bad, but I guess I should be happy they contribute at all. We have exec board meetings, too. That way we can present a unified message at the general meetings.
