Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to reply to my question. You all have obviously understood how important this issue is to us and have helped tremendously with your suggestions. I think now that the first step has to be a meeting with administration before meeting with the membership at large because that could be viewed as antagonistic and challenging. We do view our current President as being "invested" in our school whether her daughter is here or not. Her beliefs and support are not dying because her daughter is leaving. Our school is a magnet school to which my family arrived just last year. We came from a private school where both the Executive Board and PTO had members and officers whose children were graduates of the school. So, I guess I've "grown up" as a new parent who saw lasting enthusiasm, passion and a willingness to volunteer as being good news for the school we were in which is how we were feeling at our school until the Principal objected. Thanks again for your support and we'll let you know how things worked out!

My interpretation of what you have listed as your bylaws is that even if you were elected, if you have no child in the school, you can not be a member of the PTO (and hence can't be an officer). This assumes that an officer must be a PTO member (th normal case), but it is possible for organizations to have "paid" employees that may not be members of the organization.

Some ways around it for some PTO's is that a paid employee of the school can also be a PTO member. If that is the case, the school could potentially pay him for some trivial job to make that 2nd year eligibilty.

On the other hand, I think it's a bad idea to have someone running an organization that does not have an investment (meaning child in this case) in the results. That doesn't ensure the best, but hopefully encourages better officers.

My 2 cents.

--Ira

Last years President transferred her son from our school because she didn't like it. In my opinion, as our By Laws state that a member is a parent or guardian, she should have stepped down at that time. She ran again this year and from what I understand a lot of people complained to the school board and she was told to step down. The situation is a little different as this person was all about the "power" instead of helping the school and the kids. If she was an asset I'm pretty certain no one would have complained.

It is hard to get good volunteers as we all know, so it is very disturbing that one may be turned away because of a technicallity. I agree that an amendment should be in place for the future. It seems to me that if she was voted in for 2 years then she should be allowed to stay as she was voted in when her child was a student therefore she should be able to finish her term. If the PTO Board and membership feel strongly about keeping her I would suggest that a meeting between everyone including the principal and school board be set up so that support can be shown.

Best of luck!!

No, I don't think a special meeting is required, but maybe easier to start with. Regular meetings are open to all membership and this might be an issue you'd like to first address between admin staff and your parent group's executive officers/board. If discussions proceed well and a bylaws ammendment becomes necessary, then a regular meeting of the general membership could then be called so everyone has a voice in the issue.

I think how you approach the admin folks will go a long way towards a positive resolution. Starting with a small, concerned, focused group is less intimidating that a large, perceivably threatening group.

It sounds like you have the best interest of your group and the school in mind. I wish you the best of luck!

CrewChief:

Thank you for your help. You've asked good questions about the bylaws that I will have to research. Do you think that this would require a special meeting separate from a regular monthly meeting and if so, why?

Hi CallieBG,

It sounds like you have quite a dilema. It's always difficult to see a treasured volunteer move on.

My response is based on interpreting just what you have here and not having read all of your bylaws.....

First, how does your group fit within the school's community? For my group, the principal and school board would have a say in this matter.

Second, it seems your bylaws contradict themselves. They are clear about membership requirements and term limits. Perhaps an ammendment is needed to allow for an elected officer to finish their term if their child does indeed move on to the next school.

My group's bylaws can be ammended at any time between the required bi-annual review. Do your bylaws mention ammendment policies?

Finally, while I'd take the opinions of the principal and school board into serious consideration I would also work with the membership on an issue they feel very strongly about. Perhaps a special meeting can be called to discuss it?