I am wondering how your groups make big decisions without holding general meetings.
How would members bring new ideas to the group?
We have pretty poor meeting attendance. Our bylaws are written so that members have a say in a lot of our disbursement decisions. Last meeting, we decided to spend almost 10K on computers to help get a lab established. Only four non-board member parents showed, but it was mentioned in a couple of newsletters and e-mails, and the meeting date had been set for months.
Anyone who might have a problem with us buying these computers has really no leg to stand on in protest. We even have a system in place (other than me being at school like four hours a day) where members (all parents and staff) can communicate their ideas and/or get something added to an agenda, even if they might not be there.
I will keep running monthly meetings, even if noone comes. If I do not, we are not the open, member driven organization that we want to be. We built it, now they need to come. Hopefully they'll figure it out before my current corps of leaders moves on.
If you don't expect too much from me, you might not be let down. <img src=images/smilies/smile.gif>
Monthly General Membership meetings did not work for our group either. We decided it was more important for the families to attend our events or volunteer time. However, we do have a Fall General Membership Meeting during the first month of school. It is our Back to School Ice Cream Social. We provide the ice cream and ask each family to bring a topping. We ask the teachers to attend. This helps bring out more parents because they are anxious to talk with the teachers (the event is prior to the open house). We have a brief "meeting" where we introduce the board and present the budget for a vote. There is also a membership table on the side for families to join. Our Spring General Membership meeting is in May and is our End of the Year Picnic. We provide hot dogs, hamburger, condiments and ask the families to bring a dish to share. We do a quick meeting to vote on the next Board. Our parents were asking for another General Membership meeting so we added one on our Family Night during the week of our Book Fair. We had special readers in the library with the kids (who were dressed for "pajama night" while the parents shopped and listen to a brief update on how things were going. We have about 600 in our K-6 school. I have rambled enough. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions.
We have monthly meetings. Our PTO consists of fundraising,yearbook, landscape, library, spirit, alumni, and hospitality committees. All chairs are volunteers and parents of the students. We have an open house in September where we put up the information about the PTO. The PTO participates in the spring open house. We send out monthly newsletters about events, on going fundraisers (btfe, soup labels, etc). We do not charge any dues because every parent and teacher at the school is a member(plus we are a private school). We have great participation from our parents but only a select few who are "in charge" if you call on a parent for a specific task they will volunteer. Our room parents are liason b/w the other parents and the PTO. If a parent volunteers to do anything from make copies or subing it's part of the pto.
we have a newsletter that is sent out monthly to ever kid in the school. we have executive meetings with a couple of teachers every month. I just think it would be great if the parents knew what the pto did. I don't always think its that easy to see. We bought playground equipt, tv's for the teachers, now we are buying sound equipt... I just think 2 meetings a year would really make parents feel more involved.
One at the begining of the year to say welcome, give them a tentative calander for pto activities, and then one in the spring for voting. I am hoping it goes well.. I really want to have an awesome pto. It's really great now, i just think with a few additions it could be even better for the parents of the k-2 graders.
thanks for all the great ideas, and concerns. this way i don't feel like i am so crazy!
When I first joined our elementary school PTO, I found something similar in place. It seemed odd to me and I thought "of course we need to have general meetings". But actually, the correct answer for us was a compromise.
It turns out that general meetings truly didn't work for us. People just didn't come. But I wasn't comfortable with a handful of people running things behind closed doors.
Over time, we changed the structure so that the Executive Board was very large (25-35 ppl) since it included all the officers, committee chairs, school reps (4), and parent reps from each grade. The monthly "executive meetings" were more often just called "PTO Business Meetings" and non-board members were always welcome.
We also instituted 2 general meetings per year (Fall to approve budget and Spring to elect officers.)
And lastly we looked at how we were communicating with families and ways we could increase that (newsletter).
So, no, simply adding general meetings wasn't the answer. But a more strategic and open approach along with some change met everyone's needs.
