SECTION I: General Members shall be:
1. All parents, step-parents, or guardians of students.
2. All Northeast Elementary teachers, administrators and support staff.
SECTION II: Honorary Members may be:
1. Patrons and community members who take interest in Northeast Elementary.
2. Honorary Membership status must be renewed every school year and will be done at the discretion of the Executive Board.
SECTION III: Voting Members shall be:
1. All regular members who have attended 5 out of 9, or more meetings shall be designated as voting members.
2. Voting Members shall have the right to vote on all issues before the organization, to elect officers, and to hold office.
SECTION IV: Dues for members, if any, shall be established by the executive board. If dues are charged, a member must have paid his or her dues to be considered a member with voting rights.
In our yearly event guide we say: WE ARE NO LONGER COLLECTING MEMBERSHIP DUES: Every parent is considered a member of the PTO. To make your tax deductible family donation simply send cash or a check payable to Northeast PTO to the school in the amount of: $5_____, $10_____, $15_____, or $Other_____. We have gotten a very good response to this. We did charge $5.00 in the past for membership per family. We now have some families sending in over $10 donations now.
Hope this helps.
Also: SECTION I: Regular members shall have the right to vote on all issues before the organization, but shall not have the right to elect officers or hold office.
SECTION II: All regular members who have attended 5 or more meetings shall be designated as voting members. Voting Members shall have the right to vote on all issues before the organization, to elect officers, and to hold office.
SECTION III: President shall vote only in the case of a tie in a vote of the Executive Board or the organization.
SECTION IV: All members will have one vote and must be present to vote.
Well, last night our revised Constitution got passed. Of course we didn't have quite the turnout I had hoped for -- 4 parents besides the Ex. board. But one of the parents is the BOE Chairman and she was happy with everything, so that helps. She will now take the new Constitution to the BOE and on to the Church Council for final approval.
We did decide to charge yearly dues of an amount to be determined each year. We did not put in any specific use for them. But anyone who pays becomes a voting member. Seemed to please those at the meeting.
I'm very glad that portion is over! I just hope the BOE and the Council approve so it really is over!
Sure you can charge dues, unless your constitution/bylaws expressly forbids. Ideally, your documents grant that decision to the Board or to a group vote.
For instance our says: Dues shall be minimal and the amount decided upon at the first Executive Board meeting. You could do something like "Dues, if any, shall be minimal...". Or it might say it would be determined "at the first general membership meeting". But the point is, you don't want to lock yourself in too rigidly in the bylaws.
As far as WHO should vote, I'd agree with either of your two proposals. No way would I allow it to be tied to participation in fundraisers. That sends exactly the wrong image, aside from the logistical problem you've mentioned.
At our November 2004 PTL meeting, the new executive board was told we had a Constitution (so we were dumb enough not to think of this when we were drafted! but we were all very new at this) So we took a look at it and it definitely needed some revisions -- it had last been revised in 1995.
We cleared up some wording and are trying to define voting members. We are a small school - less than 50 kids -- at a Lutheran Church/School. Old Cons. had anyone who wanted to be a member could. that icluded parents, Congregation, Alumni and their families. We would like to change that to say parents/guardians of currently enrolled students are voting members, Alumni and congregation are consultants but no vote. Former President of the PTL has a huge issue with this --says we are eliminating too many people. (In truth -- I have never seen any alumni or congregation members at any PTL meetings.) Our intent was NOT to alienate people, but to try to clear things up so that the PTL would not be blindsided by someone with their own agenda.
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. The problem I see with that is you either hold all your fundraisers in the beginning of the year, or all your voting at the end. How else will you be sure those people who voted actually participated?
So I was thinking that maybe we should charge dues -- just a token amount less than $5 per family -- and whoever pays dues votes. (Which could then include alumni and the congregation) If that goes thru, I would suggest that we also put in the Const. that the money from the dues be earmarked to pay for something specific, like Teacher appreciation week or Lutheran Schools week, and that everyone know that up front.
I just don't know if we can legally charge dues!
Can anyone give me some advice on this! \
thanks
I appreciate your input and opinions about our policy. Yes, I have read most of your articles about cliques, and I too think it is important for PTOs/PTAs to be careful about this happening.
I wasn't heavily involved in the PTO my son's first year because of an array of personal reasons occurring at the time, but I did attend 1 meeting that year. I didn't know anyone at the meeting, and still don't really socialize outside of school with the members. I've never considered the group to be a clique and I've never heard any of the the parents who aren't involved with the PTO to ever insinuate anything about the group being a clique.
If I ever did hear anything, I would definately be making suggestions to try to improve that perception. Personally, I've never heard any negative input about our meeting times either, but that's not to say there hasn't been any.
I'm going to find out why we have the voting requirement in place, but I have a feeling that it is not something that any of the board members would feel strongly enough about to change. It might take a few years to convince people to change their mind about it; if ever! [img]smile.gif[/img]
you guys will love our policy...yes we have officers who are loosely used. our policy is that everyone is created equal. we have been around since 2001 and have never charged dues because our old pta did and our principal felt that it hurt them alot.
So everyone who is a parent/guardian/ associated with a student has a say. For any real important things like the budget, elections, changes in bylaws we announce 30 days prior that we will be voting on that item. this is done in the school newsletter, our minutes usually twice. that gives anyone the opportunity to try to be there or get in contact with their feelings. if they cant' make it we relay what they feel.
Truth is usually meeting attendance is the people who volunteer, we have about 53 core volunteers and they come to some meetings and soem come to all. Average attendance is around 22 people. Who is there gets to vote.
Is it right, roberts rules...heck no but it works for us.
Maybe someday we will have problems but when we get there we will handle it. wE try to stay open and equal, just because someone can put in more time doesnt mean they are more valuable. everyone gets along and are we a clique, not at this point and we try very hard to prevent. this year we started taking pictures of ALL school volunteers so that people who dont volunteer for pto activites are recognized. we have the pictures hanging in the lobby and constantly are adding new faces...it is really nice for the kids to see everyone.
"When you stop learning you stop growing."
