Ok now this woman has written a 7 page typed letter stating her side of the story. She put this letter in the PTO box for all the board members. Her side of the story is way off. She is trying to get the board members against each other. The principle and the Ex. board told her she was not on the board, was never on the board, was just a volunteer.

Now she is requesting the following at the next board meeting:
Account balance (which is given at every board Meeting)
Copies of each statement since the month of August.
Signatories on the account/are doulbe signatures required?
How many PTO members are there at this time? Are all the teachers members too?
How many classes have full participation? How many ice cream parties have been given for class PTO participation?
How much money was raised with the first fund raiser?
How many boxes of candy bars have been sold? How many are there in the storage room waiting to be sold?
How much money was raised with the Book Fair? How much did it cost having scholastic help with the book fair?
How many t_shirts have been sold? How many hoodies? how much money was spent making the shirts and hoodies?
How many wristbands were sold for the fall festival? How much money was brought in the the silent auction? How much money was brought in with the concession stand? What were the expenses for the Fall festival? How much did the rock wall, 2 bouncies, prizes and food/drink for the concession cost? How much was donated?
How much is spent for copies/printouts?
What is the cost for the serarate PTO website,
What other expenses does the PTO incur on a regular basis?
What are the estimated costs for the "snacks with Santa?

The totals for the book fair, fall festival, fund raiser, and the t-shirts have already been discussed at meetings which she attended.

Also the PTO decided this year to spend all the money on the children. Pay for more programs, Pay for there parties and Sweets with Santa is free. We also made the fall festival very in expensive for all the children.

I am not going to have her pick the agenda for my meetings. Our books are open so she can take a look.

The principle never approved the letter that was sent to the board members and the principle is stuck in the middle. We are having a meeting with this woman and the principle next week to try and get past this craziness. And try to move forward not back.

Make her Volunteer Coordinator. If she's that persuasive to get people to meetings, maybe she can persuade some to come and help out with childcare.

Have her coordinate Teacher luncheons, all the things you want to do but don't have time for.

Send out emails to the people she has offended by stating that you appoplize for the confusion, you are thrilled to have such an enthusiastic Parent but any direction regarding PTO will come from you DIRECTLY. Tell these people that positions are open and they can come and officially vote her into that position.

post it on the newsletter all the positions available including HERS! this will make her pay attention that her position hasn't been created yet!

d

Thank you all for your wonderful advice. We have sat down with her and we went over the by-laws but she continues to do whatever she wants. I don't like the fact that she calls people 7 times to tell them they must attend the meeting, and calls volunteers not on my volunteer list. I don't think these people filled out the background check.

The parents who did come to the meeting just came to complain about non PTO Stuff. And it is hard trying to discuss things when there are 15 children running around. I do feel she would be a great asset to our PTO, However she has made all the board members upset by her tactics that I don't think she will be voted on the board.

The parents who do complain about her say that they don't need an updated roster every week and they don't need 7 phones calls telling them about the meeting. She signs her name on everything as Room parent cordinator chair person PTO.

Our PTO in the past was full of drama and we wanted to make things fun and simple this year. We thought she would be a wonderful person to work with and would be great on the board next year. Maybe if we gave her a position and the exact outline of the position things would be different.
I do agree she is good at getting people to a meeting.

Thanks again for the wonderful advice.

This sounds like a well intentioned person, that really wants to be involved. Maybe a little gun-ho, but afterall, she did bring out people to a meeting. We could go 6 months and not get a total of what she got. I'd try to work with her, after gently (attempting) to make her aware of by-laws, etc. Hey, she doesn't know the meaning of "NO", which always helps in this business. Volunteer coordinator position/telephone "tree" job available?

Remember this Parent is a member of the PTO (P in PTO). When she originally was given the blessing to help was she giving a strick set of guidelines for what was required or wished of her as a room parent other than it was not a board position - like a description / set of volunteer guidelines as a room parent? You didn't mention it in your original post other than she read the by-laws which is a different animal. I would suggest if you haven't discussed a full set of expectations as a 'room parent' with her to get them in writing and do so with the Principle present. Parents that get things done are hard to come by and it sounds like she is getting things done where there hasn't been success (ie more parents at meetings etc).

I agree writermom, we all know how hard it is to get volunteers to events let alone to actually attend meetings. Our PTO is lucky to have 3 parents show up. She is obviously getting results. I also know how hard it is to fill a volunteer coordinator position and she seems really good at it. We also know we will not make everyone happy, if its just a few complaints about her calling them then take them off the call list. I know our flyers don't work for our meetings.

But like I said above maybe she just isn't understanding that the group has to work as a group and follow by-laws.