Here is what we did at my son's pre-k when it was in it's first year. The school only had about 60 kids. We finally talked the director into setting a meeting date, the meeting was announced through notes home and our local paper. The night of the meeting 5 people showed up and we decided on what postitions needed to be filled and who should do them. The president that was voted in was the director's favorite who had never attended any PTO meeting even though she had another child in 4th grade, then she declined her duties on everything due to "religous reasons". So the other officers and the members we roped in ended up doing her job. As far as the red tape, 501(c)3, etc. was done by the director. All in all it was a learning experience and a successful run. In four months we raised over $2000.00 plus the board of ed decided to give us $10K at the end of the year.