ya know I am with you there, I am starting my 10 year in PTO this year and we had our first meeting on Tuesday night and for a Back to School meeting we didn't get a dang thing accomplished and it was a total waste of my time. My son will be going on the middle school next and there are two moms who are always helping with this class already and I never get to do his grade, so I am thinking 10 years is a great run but this will be my last, it always seems that I get called for all the grunt work... I HATE doing what nobody else wants to do!!
If you're really not interested in the job, don't do it. But you wouldn't have posted here if you weren't struggling with your decision.
I was in virtually the exact same spot as you one year ago. I had already served as treasurer 2x, president 2x, etc. and was looking forward to enjoying my last year as an elementary school mom with little PTO responsibility. In mid-August 06, our elected treasurer resigned, leaving the new board with no treasurer just a couple weeks before school started. If it were any other exec board position, I would have just kept my mouth shut. The PTO would have been fine. But it's very hard to find someone to be treasurer, and especially bad if there's no one available to train the poor schmuck who is cajoled into the job in the 11th hour. Our PTO handles over $100k a year, and is a 501c3 so we have federal reporting requirmeents. I was afraid the new exec board would just try to do it themselves.
I volunteered to step in. I knew I could do the job and knew what my personal time commitment would be. It wasnt' the best PTO year I've ever had, in large part because our board didn't really gel. But I did a good job for the PTO, and have things organized so the next treasurer can take over August 1.
" A friend is one to whom one may pour out all the contents of one's heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away."
- Arabian Proverb
<font size=""1""><font color="#"black"">Liberalism is not an affilation its a curable disease. </font></font><br /><br><font color="#"gray"">~Wisdom of Shawnshuefus</font><br /><br><font color="#"blue""><font size=""1"">The punishment which the wise suffer, who refuse to take part in government, is...
Just explain to them your feelings about not wanting to have that "heavy load" anymore. If they are truly your friends they will understand and probably can identify with your feelings. The other option might be to offer to handle the duties until a replacement is found, but give them a definite time frame( I will only do this for the first month of the school year and then you must have someone to take over.)
From experience I can tell you that it is hard to step back without some feelings of guilt and even a little remorse when you sometimes feel "out of the loop", but you know what you need-a break from the stress and you should go with that. You'll be happier, better for your family and a better volunteer because you'll be doing the events and programs you really enjoy and have the time to give them your best.
I just don't want to be in the inner circles of the PTO anymore. I still want to help at events and am Market Day Chairperson. I don't want the "heavy load" anymore.
I had a position as Treasurer on the Exec. Board last year and stepped down at election time. The lady who was supposed to replace me in the upcoming year has backed out.
The rest of the girls are kind of pretending it's not happening, that I'll just stay. I really don't want to. Guilt is killing me because these are my friends and I don't want to leave them in the wind.
