We have specific school positions on our Board: Principal, Vice Principal, and 2 Teacher Reps.

Our bylaws state that:

Nominees must be PTO members in good standing and may not be faculty/staff of {school name} or hold a management position with the school district.

Note - we have a large board of 25-30 people with all the officers, reps, and commmittee chairs. Only the 5 officers are elected and subject to that clause.

As far as experience, yes you can put that clause in, but you may want a safeguard:

1) either it's that the experience is "preferred" rather than required, which gives it no teeth but expresses the intent, or

2) make it a requirement, BUT allow yourself an override option.

Our group follows #1, but this passage also provides a couple examples of override options:

No officer shall hold the same office for more than two consecutive years, unless approved by a 2/3 vote of the Executive Board. Candidates for presidency should have prior experience on the Executive Board. Two members residing in the same household may not simultaneously serve on the Executive Board unless expressly approved by a majority vote of the Executive Board.

Our by-laws stipulate that the President must have served as an officer on the board for a year prior to the election. You can put your experience prerequsite in the by-laws so it would help you in this particular time but I think in the future it would hurt you. You're excluding alot of people when you require past experience when it's truly not needed. The President is a position where it really, really helps to have a good knowledge of what's going on.

I posted in the Principal/Teacher forum and got an answer that brought up more questions. We do have ByLaws, but they do not discribe the authority of a Principal. We do not seem to be getting anywhere with the district (Politics) and need some concrete advice and/or documentation. Also, I am trying to find out if it is possible to put into the ByLaws that to become President, Vice President, or Treasurer, one must have served in some form or fashion on the PTO for at least 1 year prior. This ensures that these positions will be maintained by experienced dedicated members. Don't know if any of this makes sense or not but would love to hear some input.