I'm wondering if maybe you've fallen victim to an overzealous interpretation of some kind of confidentiality rule? Our standing rules include one that says "discussions within committees shall be considered privileged and confidential information." And I was once involved with another nonprofit organization that had a similar statement about Board discussions. The intention of such statements is to protect truly confidential information, like vendor bids, or the criminal or health record of a specific volunteer, or something like that. But, if you have a general statement like the one above (which I hate and no one bothers adhering to anyway since it's so poorly worded), I can see where people can go overboard in keeping things quiet. If that's the issue, might be a good time to revisit the rule and rewrite it.
If you can't even get simple minutes of meetings to review, it's pretty easy to do a search on the Internet and dig up lots of parent groups who post that and more on their sites. Maybe you could use that as some ammunition.
ALL,
Thanks for you rationale words and objective perspective. Hopefully, the exec board and membership can work through the issue with the PTO pres. My initial take was that this is a counterproductive stance. I really appreciate the objective guidance to aid us in evaluating this situation.
Super
Super, I, too, agree with chrystal about the elected position statement. But I'd go further and say I would hope that there is a provision in your bylaws that addresses an officer that isn't conducting business as they should. If not, there are provisions are in Robert's Rules of Order. That being said, the organizations membership must be kept informed as to what is going on. Keeping personal information private is necessary, but so is communicating with the group that put them in office.
I totally agree with Crystal here. Also we dont know enough to make any other call. Like Crystal we have to do a lot of assuming here, but based on what you said the assumptions seem sound.
Your President will learn that trying to keep secrets is not going to work for long. I am not sure why they want to keep things secret, they must have their reasons, but in an organization like a PTO that is not healthy.
I'm answering with very little to go on but I will give it a shot... From how your post reads the problem is that the President of your group feels that the executive board should not have to answer to the general membership, is that correct? If this is the case your organization is not being run in the proper fashion. The executive board should be answering every questions and inquiry brought to them by any "general member". There are only a few rare instances that I have found myself keeping information confidential from the membership and it typically deals with people who write bounced checks, although I do let the group know we have had X number of checks returned, I do not share the names of the persons involved.
My best advice to you is to be point blank at meetings and ask the questions that you feel need to be answered. If the president cannot or won't answer the rest of the group will pick up on it and begin to asks questions of their own. The executive board is a voted position, their purpose is to manage the group and report all activities back to the membership and be held accountable to the membership.
What's the general perspective of a PTO president that has muzzled all of executive board with regard to discussing PTO business with the general membership?
I'm frankly stunned by the statement!
I sensing a decline general in support for PTO activities.
I'm just a general member, what can I do?
