THANK YOU to everyone that replied to my posting. I will take all of your advice! I'm looking forward to this year and I'm going to do the best I can even without all of their help! I'm going to keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best Open House and I'll just go from there. I plan to leave a large book for the new officers next year jsut to despite the OLD PTO members! I'll show em' that we don't need them after all! HAHAHA. Thanks again!

Here is a different spin on a negative situation.

Think of this year as being a time of reinvention. As you don't have any legacy information, you are not tied to the 'We have always done it this way' thinking. You can lead changes you think would be in the PTO's best interest. Can be daunting but also thrilling at the same time.

You have tons and tons of resources here in this website. Use them. And count yourself lucky to be rid of the small minded and petty people who are threatened by new leadership.

Best way to beat them is to best them.

We had the same problem a few years back. Our VP took a lot of things that didn't belong to her (including cash). But like they say "What goes around comes around", her house went up in flames and with that so did eveything she took from us!

Just do what we did, start from stratch. It's a lot more work but you'll get through it.

Along this note I have to say what I do, it may be something to consider. Since I started running our group shortly after it started I give our principal copies of EVERYTHING from event flyers, bank statements,990's, fundraiser contracts, monthly minutes, etc. All of the original copies of our legal papers are also in her office, you could say that there are two copies of all of the important papers that someone may need. After each event i would do a report on how many attended, expenses, games, crafts, how much food we had, etc...those are also there. With it being in her office and not the pto room that gives her the access as well. Old PTo notebooks are put in our room after a year, example this year i will put the 2003-2004 book with the others, keep the 2004-2005 until next year.Something to consider...
it comes down to just making another copy

I too would go to some sort of authority figure. Unless they bought those supplies and were loaning them the PTO they are theives. Simple as that.

I wouldn't worry about waiting on them to do what you need to do. You can wing it, trust me. When we started the PTO at the pre-K I was the only officer who had ever attended a PTO meeting. There are two elementaries in our county. 1 pre-k that consist of future students to booth schools. So what I did was talk to the Pres at my oldest son's school. She was extremely helpful (also a former schoolmate) and I visited the other elementary's PTO meeting. I got alot help there too. Now I am facing a similar problem. The PTO was started last year but there were no records kept except for the financial ones that are with the old treasurer(who won't return phone calls or emails) and here we are trying to do things because school starts tomorrow. The former pres is helpful though. That is a plus for me. What I have mostly done is talked to staff members to see what had been done about things. The principal at this school is great too. It is very important to have a good communication with the principal. Show them you can have a successful and fun PTO anyhow and YOU are not a criminal. :cool:

covp don't fret so much, yes it pisses you off and they are being petty, trust me speaking from experience here. after a year of no help from our old pta leaders (we were a new group after the principal disbanded them) only dirty looks, you know they stand there at events and wait for you to mess up...ha ha ha. Yes the records belong to the group but they may be jealous and afraid that you might show them up. No records...Just move forward and communicate to the parenst who are willing to help you, I started from scratch, my principal handed me a book with like 12 pieces of paper in it. You can go ahead and just adapt things as they come to you, now as far as the supplies that is just PLAIN WRONG...that belongs to the PTO. I would press the principal to help you with this.good luck...