Our PTO collects dues and any paid member is eligible to be on the board of directors and vote on motions during meetings.
We make it clear what the dues are used for. For example, our PTO pays for student planners for every 3, 4 & 5 grade student and homework folders for all students--our enrollment this year is 830 students! The planners and homework folders costs the PTO about $2,500 a year and no cost to the students. Some schools in our district require student planners and charge the students for the planners. Some teachers in our district have to pay for homework folders if they want them.
Anyway, in our experience, parents are willing to pay membership dues as long as they see tangible evidence the money is being used to benefit their children.
We agree. No dues (although in by-laws for another board to decide for their years in office).
Show up at a meeting and you get to vote: as long as you are a parent (guardian, etc) or staff member.
We laugh because when we go to vote on a matter, we tease that unless that teacher has disgruntled parents that purposely come to vote them down, they are a shoe in if the board has asked them to present their request at the meeting.
The teachers we especially love doing things for are the 5-8 of them who undauntingly support our group, not just for the $$$.
Parents? Usually just the 5 officers, if they all make it. Last time 3 officers, 2 parents, and at least 6 staff members.
If you don't charge membership fees, anyone is fair game to ask to help, everyone is a member.
I wouldn't want to try and keep track of who attended what!! :eek:
I'd have to agree with Tim. I'm ver anti-dues for the same reasons. I don't want parents to think that we're merely trying to collect money from them. As far as I know, we've never collected dues tho the subject has come up. We have a hard enough time getting parent participation without asking them to pay dues to be members. Our last meeting brought us about 12 people (including the 4 board members). Our membership policy basically states that if you have a child in the school or have a vested interest in the school (teachers and staff), then you can be a member. All you have to do to vote is show up to a meeting. As the President of the PTO, I withhold my vote in the event of a tie. We make every effort not to alienate ourselves from the other parents. We're understanding that people have lives and they can't be expected to make every meeting. I'm a firm believer in everyone should have the right to vote. Whether the parent or child helped us in any of our fundraising activities or didn't, we're there for the benefit of the entire school, not just for the select ones who helped to raise money. We get one vote, just like everyone else in our group who wishes to attend.
Jeff This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The person who objected to our proposed change would now like to revise it to say that anyone participating in X number of fundraisers in the year has a vote.
Big topic, BJ, but I just wanted to chime in on this proposal. Sorry to be so frank -- but I couldn't hate it more. Please fight like the dickens to keep this one from becoming reality.
I'm anti-dues, in general, but -- if groups are going to go the dues route (and many good groups do) -- you want to keep things as open as you can. One of the key challeneges for parent groups is to get away from the "they're just after our dollars" image. I can't think of a worst step in that battle than to make membership/voting contingent on fundraising efforts.
What if a great volunteer gives ten hours per week but never buys a roll of gift wrap? She can't vote? Ugh.
Our bylaws give the Executive Board the right to set our dues amount. Two years ago, our board voted to set the dues to $0, effectively making anyone who met our other requirements a member. Basically, that means any parent of a student is a member, plus our teachers. Prior to that, we charged $10 which included one copy of the school directory and a Note To School pad. We still produce those items, but we sell them "a la carte". It's nice to not have that artificial distinction between members and non-members since everyone who helps at school is doing it for the same reason.
I like the reasons JHB gave, though. They are very valid ways to justify dues. We just got tired of a we/them feeling. We had over 180 different parents sign up on our volunteer sheets this year, some of whom would not have ever paid to join the PTO in the past. Works for us.
We are a k-5 school with about 500 families. Our PTO raised it's dues from $1 per person to $5 a family last year. When we made this change the total number of members went from 400 members to 210 families. In fact, people said they would rather pay more in dues and have less fundraising. We now have 3 fundraisers is all.
