We had our election, and after telling them I was done and to find someone for president they voted me in again. They nominated me without even asking. Needless to say I'm president for another two years and my husband is really, really mad. He wanted me to slowly start backing out of things(I'm involved in 3 schools, girls scouts, cheering, etc.). Now he sees that's not going to happen! I seem to thrive on stress and confusion!!!

i will start a new topic monday regarding the parent run school board

you know AFTER I buy a new keyboard

Thanks, mi3sons! I had remember that there was someone that worked a lot of hours and had a few children and they were very involved in the PTO, I just couldn't remember your name. I'm going to go for it and see where it leads. I know that the Principal is very excited that I'm willing to go for it as are other board members.

Although by this time next year, I may just be eating my words :eek:

IowaTracy - Ditto to what SHC said.

The Executive Board usually has at least the elective officers or may be larger. But it's a subset of the PTO that facilitates making decisions and handling day to day functions without a giant meeting of EVERYONE. How much power they have depends. Some Boards make most of the decisions; others do the groundwork and then take actions to a General Meeting for a vote.

Ours is the big type. Our board includes the 5 elected officers, past pres, principal, vice principal, 2 teacher reps, all committee chairs, and a rep from each grade. So 25+ people. It's intentionally large as we only have general meetings twice a year (Fall to approve budget, Spring to elect officers). We feel the more power that is vested in the Board, the more representative a group it should be. For us all PTO business is handled at the monthly Board meetings (which are open to anyone).

[ 04-15-2005, 06:49 PM: Message edited by: JHB ]

Don't feel bad Tracy. I started this year as president of our PTO and after reading all these boards realized how lacking we were in organization, although we still get things done. We are whipping ourselves into shape. Usually the "board" refers to your Executive Board or Executive Committee, which in our case is the President, VP, sec'y, treasurer and past Pres. Now, we are going to increase it in size so it becomes a little more useful because right now with our board, 1 or 2 people don't come to board meetings and that leaves 3 of us to make important decisions.

I've looked at lots of school websites and it seems traditionally your "board" meets and discusses important business of the group and spending decisions. Some schools rarely even have general membership meetings (we have ours monthly). Everyone is different.

Maybe you're the one to whip your group into shape. Good luck!
Shelly

This is my first year in the PTO as my oldest son started Kindergarten, so I have a question for anyone who can answer: When you talk about "boards", are you referring to the people who hold the positions (Pres, VP, etc.) or is that a separate entity from the PTO?

I found this site a few months ago and am so new to all of this, but reading other posts makes me feel like our PTO is so lacking in organization. At our meeting the other night, the Treasurer position for next year was still up for grabs so one of the parents said she'd do it, so that was the process. No nomination, no election. Then again, I was asked to be secretary last year before I even entered the school. [img]smile.gif[/img] But I've never even seen or heard anyone talk about by-laws.

I will say, though, that we have a pretty good core of individuals who get things done (present company included ), but I just feel like we should be doing more "by the books".

Anyway, thanks for letting me babble beyond my "boards" question!

Tracy