The most recent board I served on had the following positions:
President
2 Vice Presidents - one being the President's right arm, and the other the fundraising vice president overseeing all activities that involved raising money
Treasurer
Secretary
Social/Hospitality Chairperson who oversees all social activities and hospitality opportunities for the teachers (monthly teacher lounge snacks) and new families (welcome materials and phone calls
Committee chairs were not board positions, but were always welcome at all board meetings, as was the general public. According to our bylaws, at the beginning of the year the calnedar is set to announce all board and general membership meetings. We met monthly for both and it worked out well for us.
As for changing your by-laws, that depends on what those by-laws state. In my never to be humble opinion - I would leave board positions as they are and have committee chairs inviting them (encouraging them?) to attend board meetings. That way if there is ever a time when you don't have sufficient volunteers to fill these created positions, you don't feel strapped to do so. Just my two cents.
Thanks for the advice. Our PTO meetings have gotten so incredibly small- they are a waste of time. We have great support for functions, but no one wants to attend the meetings. I wonder if this might be a better option for us. Do all of your committee chairs serve on the board? Or are some positions not board positions? What does the parliamentarian do? Do your bylaws state that you will have a board such as this? I guess I should read our bylaws over better so that I know what we can and cannot change. I was handed this presidency without much knowledge of how a PTO runs. It has taken me like 6 months to really feel like I know what I'm doing!! But I"m very ready for next year. Thanks again!!
Pres, VP, Sec, Treas, Parli, Past Pres
Principal, Vice Principal, 2 teacher reps
All Chairs of standing committees (Directory, Fundraising, Track & Field, Volunteer, Hospitality, Community Relations, etc.)
Plus a clause in our bylaws allows the board to appoint other positions as needed. So at the first meeting of the year, we add any ad hoc committees (like this year we have science fair) plus a parent reprsentative from each grade level (6)
We end up with 25-35 people on the Board, depending on how many positions are co-chaired. It works great for us. We want a large Board because it transacts all the PTO business. We only hold a General Meetings twice a year. (Board Meetings are open if anyone wants to attend.)
The Past President is a non-voting member who heads the nominating committee and serves as Board Member. The idea is to keep that experience available as a resource for the next President. Our previous "past president" faded away, burned out probably, so I'm the first one to really fullfill that role since we've had these bylaws.
I volunteered for other assignments as well, and ended up being a voting member because I'm also the 5th Grade Rep this year.
We are fortunate to have a parental group that is overall quite supportive of our PTO. Our support with our fundraising and activities is great, our PTO meeting participation is very poor. Our school is fairly young (about 5 years) and I think we are ready to expand our board. We currently have President, VP, Secretary, & Treasurer as executive board members and 16 committees. I would like to expand our board to 6-8 members- perhaps 2 VP's and some other board member (maybe community representative or programming?). I would like for the board to meet once a month alone and then meet with the board and all committee heads and room parents at the PTO meetings. IS that too much to ask? For those of you with expanded boards what positions do you include? Do you have to change your bylaws to state your new board positions? I see some PTO's have a position called "past president"- what are that person's responsibilities? Is it the president from the prior year? I would love to hear how other boards are structured. Thanks!
