I Am In The Same Boat. I Joined Pta Last Year As A Chair Memeber But Had To Step In Into The President Role .he Could Not Come To Any Meetings,but Wait He Also Could Not Even Call Any . We Didn't Have All Chairs Filled,was Not For Lack Of Tring.my Idea Was To Look For Outsiders. I Got My Kids God Parent To Sign Up For A Chair Member Their Is No Law That Says They Can Not Do It. Look Around You May Know Someone Who Is Willing To Step Up.(i Took The Pres.chair For The Up Coming Year) Also Have A Question Has Anyone Heard Or Have Info About A Permit To Sale Hot Foods At A School Event.if You Can Let Me Know We Are Tring To Do A School Carnival In The Fall.
Personally I don't like this idea. History has shown that you really need that one person to stay on top of things. That may be the group's President or a Committee Chair. Someone needs to set the meeting, someone needs to send the e-mail. Sharing sounds great, but some won't be willing to do "their fair share".
Along these lines though you may want to try committees for certain things. For example, if you seem to be having problems getting someone to take on Enrichment, try an Enrichment Committee approach. You'll still need to get the one person to "lead" the committee, but with numerous members it will be easier for members to step up.
I feel for you. When I was given the post to rebuild a long forgotten PTO I had to find members. No one would step up. Even today at the end of the school year I only have 4 active board members. Trying to get volunteers is nearly impossible. I have tried to get parents/teachers to PTO meetings and get all types of excuses. We have honored people's wishes to change meeting times, days etc. Still no one shows. Remember you are doing this for the kids. Build a stronger community with the kids and the school. I'm sure the school administration knows how hard you are working. Ask some teachers next year to sit on the board. After all it is a Parent/Teacher orginazation.
We don't have anything in our bylaws regarding dissolution but I would like to add several things to our bylaws before I quit. Our new principal doesn't appreciate our PTO and all that we do for the school. We just can't take her negativity anymore. She hired someone to get more parents involved, so we will have to wait and see if this person's salary was worth it.
I've been the PTO President for 2 years, and I have really enjoyed it. However, I can't stand being made to feel that my efforts aren't important. I need to get back to work anyway and our Secretary is going back to school.
Wow, I am not the only one with this problem! I have recently been voted President after performing duties as secretary for to years. But the level of parental involvement has been the whole of our "Board of Directors." Parents have been solicited to volunteer, trained over 60, but when called upon to assist, you get every excuse under the sun. When we hold activities and cannot get volunteers to assist, the board has to take the load and then face the complaints because the event has some hiccups.
I digress. I believe it is not a good practice to have an association/organization without a formal hierarchy in place. A Board of Officers will provide the architecture, structure, vision and goals for the organization needed to steer everyone in the same direction. Having dealt with an absent president for some time now really opened my eyes on how badly things can get without leadership and direction.
Check your group's By-Laws regarding dissolution and go from there. Maybe you can just have a Parent Involvement Committee that works closely with the school to get things done. But let the other parents know what you plan on doing...what good the group has served. We had to remind our parents that without their support this year, we would not be able to host and fund this year's Honors Program for heir children. The would receive a report at the end of the year congratulating them on the good work they have done. Amazing how quickly parents volunteered to assist with our last fund raiser...raising just enough to pay for the medals, certificates and trophies for the top for each class and grade.
