Thanks for your reply, SM1. I will probably be speaking to the chairperson prior to the next meeting though. I don't think this situation has come up before where there were that many requests at one time for vacant openings. Hopefully, I can get her to understand the unjust of the situation prior to the meeting.
Ask for the specifics of appointing members at the next meeting and put them all on the spot. Someone needs to be accountable and handpicking members is the first step most groups make to chasing away parents. Good luck, and remember that voting member or not, you are still needed.
The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating-in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life. --Anne Morris
I have a potential situation and would appreciate some feedback on this. Every parent of our school's PTO is considered a member. There are 17 board positions, as well as an additional 6 at-large board positions. The 23 board members have voting priviledges and the general members do not.
According to the verbal policy of the past, any member who has attended 2 consecutive meetings can request to be nominated for any open board position. However, this policy is not written into the bylaws. In fact, the bylaws address very little in regards to new board members, only who votes on them becoming board members. I still am not sure if a member can be voted in for a board position at the 2nd consecutive meeting, or if it is done at the 3rd consecutive meeting.
My situation is this - I have attended 3 consecutive meetings and have decided I want to become an at-large member. There are 5 vacant at-large positions. I had written a letter to one of the chairpersons because she had asked for suggestions for making new members feel more welcomed and to attract more members to meetings to fill the vacant positions. She sincerely thanked me for all the good suggestions and had asked that I impliment one of my suggestions of sending thank you e-mails to new members attending the meetings. I had no problem obliging with her request.
I had asked the chairperson if she would like me to send thank you e-mails once again after the last meeting. She said there was no need to since all of the non-board members had requested to her that they become at-large members. She had said all of the at-large positions would now be full. I asked her if that included me. She said I had not told her I was interested in becoming a board member. So, I then told her I was.
2 of the interested members have attended 2 consecutive meetings and 3 have attended 1 meeting. I have attended 3 consecutive meetings. Okay....I wanted to sit in on some meetings and familiarize myself with the PTO before I committed to jumping into the fire. Apparently, it is a discretionary call on the part of the chairman who becomes a board member since it is not addressed in the bylaws? It is apparently the policy of whoever asks first gets first consideration? How would a member know what the policy is unless it is written into the bylaws? I personally don't believe it is a legitimate policy if it is not written into the bylaws.
I want to address this tactfully with her and don't believe it is a personality issue. I am not one to go in with guns blazing and am currently working with her on the Holiday Shopper for the PTO. I believe it brings up issues of lack of credibility and lack of ethics, albeit unintentional, when policies are not clearly written for everyone to know what they are. The next meeting is in 3 weeks and I planned on attending all PTO meetings this year, regardless of my voting status. My frustration is in not having a fair playing field since I would have no way of knowing that whoever asks first gets first consideration. Comments or suggestions anyone? Thanks.
