I believe that if your PTO intends to have events or any kind of functions you must have insurance to protect your self from being sued in the event that someone gets hurts. We are currently looking into getting insurance for our PTO. We have looked into several options and companies. We have discovered that there are very few companies that carry the kind of insurance that we need at a reasonable cost. One option is to go in with another local school on the insurance and the cost should go down a bit. Also there is the option of getting "single event" insurance through your local Chamber of Commerce. Which is what we will be doing until we actually get our insurance. I hope this will help you in some way. "GOOD LUCK"

Our PTO has an annual insurance policy too. I think it runs about $1000.00 per year. We have a student body of 1100+. As an officer, I am glad we have it.

I don't think insurance is ever a bad idea. I know it's annoying paying out that premium every quarter(month, year...whatever) never knowing if you will ever have to actually need it. But "what if................" When that "what if" happens, you will thank your lucky stars you've paid that premium.

We are a PTA and get a discounted rate of insurance through our state PTA. As a PTO, you would have to purchase your own policy. I would check out other PTO's in your area and see who they use....maybe you could cut a contract with an insurer for discounted rates all around. Also, maybe see if you could purchase a rider on the school policy...don't know if thats possible but it just popped into my head.

Suzi-back to caffeine

I took over as President of our PTSO in November. Unfortunately, it has been poorly managed for a couple of years and there is very little documentation on how or why things were done the way they were. As far as I can tell, financially everything is ok. I started back at the beginning with our ByLaws and Articles of Association and have been organizing and documenting. Things are going good, but there is still a lot of work to be done. We are working on our budget for the next school year and I spent some time with a friend who is a CPA to get some suggestions on how we should maintain our accounting for the way we are set up. One of the things she pointed out to me is the need for liability insurance. As an officer we could be held personally responsible for the mismanagement of our funds (whether we have direct knowledge or not). I just spent some time looking at the Non-Profit Law section available on this site and note that the recommendation is there too. I'm interested in knowing how many of the organizations out there are currently paying for insurance. Do you feel this is a risk you need to protect yourself from?