I'm a new President, but I had a great mentor and I was vice pres. last year. First, our bylaws state you can only be in any particular office for 2 years. I think this is very common. It's expected that after 2 years, I'm out the door and someone new has to step in. Secondly, we have 25 committees and about 29 chairs or co-chairs. It's always been our motto to let the chairs handle their own things and the exec board is there if they need us. That includes a family fun night chair, that would run alot of the things you mentioned. The creativity of different individuals make for great events. I think that, while noble, some of your items could be dropped in the interest of saving your sanity. Like the blood drive, it may be very worthy but not directly benefiting the kids at school. I say you just say "no", downsize and if no one steps up oh well! I know it's hard but eventually you won't have any kids at that school and they will have to get along without you. You are an enabler, they know you will get it done. Or you may have your hand in too much and are not allowing others to share new ideas, so they don't bother. I only say that because of your new vp worry about filling the place of the old vp. I can't believe you have something every month and 2 open houses and all these dinners. We have family fun 3 times (200 people) a year and no more than popcorn and lemonade. We get a huge response. Sometimes we just have Basketball with the Principal. Ident-a-kid is something the photography company provides and runs. We have 4 chairs just for Fun Fair (carnival). We meet once a month and the exec board about 4x a year. We have plenty going on daily but it is all organized by the specific chairs. I had to drop a couple of committees just to let new faces in and allow me time to do my pres job properly. I also would not be allowed to work as a sub or at the school professionally because it may appear as a conflict of interest.

Be a great president this year. Get your vp ready. Write up some new bylaws and downscale to something manageable until you can get others to help. Ask yourself is this really for the kids or is it something we've just always done.

Two years ago I was helping at a family fun night and my son asked me if we were there to have "family fun" (Bingo and board games) and shouldn't I be having fun with him. Since then I've done my part, probably more then my part. But I've always made my kids the priority. I let the chairs know how appreciated they are and let them run the show.

Sounds great but remember to have a "plan B" just in case a chair...let's just say be ready for anything!! I'm not bursting the bubble, just giving you $5 in case you see you need more air .

I would also plan one more meeting like before your regular meeting, to take the time to talk to EACH of the chairs to see how plans are going and who needs what. I would also enourage e-mail if you can, no unrecieved messages etc. (Well, that's the wish anyway)

Tammy, you are really on the right track here. Wouldn't this have been a great class to take in high school or college..."How to be a PTO/A Mom!"

i crack myself up.....

thank you for your help...

I talked to my vice-, I told her how I was feeling and what my thought were.. I was very open to her and to lisen to what she had to say and we had a great open talk... I also found out the she was feeling worried because the fromer vice and I, had everything running so well, she we scared that she might not be everything the last vice was.. we talked everything out and came up with options.

here are our thought, has anyone tryed this in the past and has it worked for you?

every month we have a major event to plan for exp.
aug. welcome back staff
volunteer brunch
sept. open house and pizza dinner
oct. safe halloween
read and feed
nov. ident-a-kid
dec. kid's korner
jan. read and feed
feb. open house and dinner
march. blood drive
april. carnival
may. awards
our thought was let's have a chairperson that would report to us, but that would take charge of a event. we could have a different chairperson for each event.

that would help us because then we could deal with the daly events: school store, yearbook. ext.
and the weekly events: board meeting, pto night meeting,
and we could also have more time to take cair of our other job duties.

?????how dose this sound???has anyone else tryed this???if so how did it work out???
:cool:

First of all, here are a great pair of oven mits for ya....you won't get burned. What you can do is turn to the ones that "voted" for you...okay BEGGED you to come back, and let them know you need their help!

My life wasn't as full but the year I was Prez I was surprised with baby #5, 9/11, my sister's wedding, a VP taking more than Prozax for depression, etc. I survived, the first thing that I knew I had to do was priorize things. Can I do a teacher luncheon or get donations for snacks for state testing? Well, that was a no brainer on this issue as I was due during their testing! The teachers had a great lunch!!

Put it on the line with your new VP, be honest and let her know what you had before and what you would like her to help you with. Just don't over whelm her or she be posting here how much of a slave driver her Prez here!!!!!! Seriously, ease into what your expectations or needs or issues (just really don't like that word) and keep your mind and ears open to her also.

You can do this. Yes, really, if I can balance the PTO books from my hospital bed, you will survive.....you may never want to do this again but you will survive.

One more thing (I promise)-your family is the greatest source of strength you have and don't even realize it sometimes. Your church family is also. You know your life better here than I do but just think about it, and smile.

Maybe someday they can start a thead on here just of easy recipes for quick dinners for us gals...between our two scheduals we could benefit BIG TIME!!!

ps. when you do find time, come see us here and feel free to vent when you need to, by November etc, many of us do [img]smile.gif[/img]

You sound a lot like me but we finally found someone to take my place as prez. I have been on both sides of the fence, I have been vp wondering what to do and prez wondering how I can get my vp to help without bossing or overwhelming her.

I kept a diary of sorts and gave it to my vp when she was nominated mid year. I think this helps. If you do that and make notes about events and expectations that will make you both feel better. Also remember committees are treasures! It sounds like you may have trouble getting people involved but with new blood in there that may help. She may know people that you don't that are willing to help do things that have been willing but not assertive.

I have been the Pto president at our school for a wile, I have had the same vice president from when I became president we were a great team, we both knew just what needed done and I never had to worry if a job she was doing was getting done or getting done right, we worked together for so long, everything ran like clockwork. At the end of the last school year I let everyone know that I would not run for a nother year because I had made the decision to go back to collage and finished my teaching degree, but no one would step up to the plate and take the president position. I was informed that if I did not keep the president position that our school would not have a active pto for this school year. I would not sit by and let that happen so I am sticking it our for another year but with taking cair of my family (the most inportant thing), working as a sub-teacher, going back to school, pto president, yearbook advisor, SAC member, church and keeping up with my two children and all of their after school social life. Not to mention I lost my Vice- president, I have a new vice-president who is very exicted to lurn everything about our school pto and will be a great team player, but I still have to find the time to teach her what I need and expect from her. With everything else I dont know how I will find the time and I am worried that somthing is going to be left behind. How am I going to do it all and not get burned out? How do you handle it?