I understand what you're saying about the bylaws. I have asked several people if we have a document with "set rules" (bylaws). So far I have come up with nothing. We have run into other problems before, and I wanted to refer to bylaws. I have been told by past officers, they always discussed things during a meeting and voted on them. So they never felt the need to put them all together on one sheet. There are many decisions on meeting minutes if I want to go and put it all together?!?! I think cementing a set of bylaws is a good idea, I just have to get everyone else to agree with me. The whole problem is that we are just a small country school in the middle of farm country!

As for our VP, we have been dealing with episodes like these for 3-4 months. Several of us have wanted to do something for a while, but our principal asked us to be patient to see if she would find her footing. This latest episode shows me she won't. I have been VERY nice considering the type of person I am. Several people have asked me why we are putting up with it, especially me. I am trying to be professional and polite but we can't take much more of this!! If other people are noticing things, people that don't even come to the meetings, it seems like time to do something. I don't want to vote anyone out, I think it is a little extreme. But what other options do we have?

Hillview,

I am going to be what some might call harsh here!

How could you as the President not know if you have any by laws? Don't answer that! In matter of fact when I became President I didnt know if any such document existed. I spent a lot of time and effort to determine that it did not, I am betting that if you dont know if any such thing exists then it probably doesn't.

To find it though ask the existing officers to go through any documents they have. Check with past board members to see if they have it. Check with the school secretary to see if maybe they have a copy. Look everywhere you can think of and a few places you already know it cant be. If nothing pops up then act as if it doesnt exist. And if it doesnt exist go out and create it! Build a process for doing this with your board and anyone interested in helpingo ut. Take what others have done, ask questions, seek opinions on how you all want things to work, build a draft and spread it around ask for opinions, discuss, create!

Now as for your other problem. if you dont have any guidelines to work from - use and apply a lot of common sense. How would you expect to be treated in such a situation is always a good guide to work from. Be fair above all else, even to the point of being extreme.

I have the flip side to this post. Our VP has 3 kids in our school, oldest in 6th grade. She and her husband are local business owners. She came to her 1st EVER meeting (in the 6 yrs her son has been at this school) this September 2003. She decided she wanted to be president but I was voted back in for another year. From then on, she has been a royal pain. We found out today that she took credit for and had her picture put in the paper for something she had no part of! She volunteers for jobs then pushes them off on someone else and steps up to take the credit at the end. She also told our PTO secretary that she (the VP) works full time and "you people should do what I ask!" Needless to say, our sec'y was extremely upset! It's not like the rest of us are glory hounds, but I don't feel I am overreacting! This woman has been trying to take over from day 1 and run things like her business. We are a small school of about 200, not her employees!! Unfortunately her attitude causes much of our PTO members to not like her. Can we vote her out? I don't know if this is in our bylaws, I don't know if we even have a set of bylaws. Can anyone help? PLEASE!?!?!?!? This is not a case of revenge of any kind!

I can feel your pain.

You need to ask yourself do you really need the grief that fighting this would entail?

If the answer is yes, then you need to read the PTOs by laws concerning removal of officers. Where you elected to the position (this can be an unchallenged election, makes no differance). If you all have just copied the old PTA by laws I am betting there is nothing on how this is accomplished. But I bet there is a clause which would require all such questions to go before the general membership since the authority has not been specifically deligated.

But I would recommend caution here, again is the fight really going to be worth it in the end? I agree that your suit and your position should be kept seperate and nothing in what you have related tells me that it hasnt been, but equally nothing has told me that it was too. The board is giving into pressure from the principal who will not give a reason for wanting you removed.

And the orginal poster is exactly the reason why when we wrote our charter we included a means to impeach (or recall) so there can be no quesiton about how this is accomplished. I wonder how many out there that read this thread have a process to actually follow that people can understand. The process protects the PTO and the member from being delt with unfairly or by a process they see as being unfair as in this case.

I had a lawsuit with the school over a special education placement for my child.

That could be reason number one.

If the Principal is a member of the PTO Board they are intitled to their thoughts and concerns. And um, I don't know how else to say this because I only know what you are telling us but, the Principal is hired to run the school you volunteer at. Like it or not they should have some say in what happens with PTO. Back to the law suit, that can make for an uncomfortable situation too. "Yeah! Love to volunteer but we did take the school to court over some issues we had."

If the suit was settled then take a break and let the Principal and rest of the school have time to rebuild their trust.

I WAS the vice president of our schools PTO. Our school principal has been harrassing me since the first day of school. I had a lawsuit with the school over a special education placement for my child. I feel that he has been trying to get me off the board since the first day of school. He called me into his office the other day and told me he would like me to resign my position. I asked why and he said he didn't want to get into it and that there were rumors but he would not tell me what. So I walked out of his office and told him that I would be talking to the Board (I really ment the Board of ED not the PTO Board). He then called in the PTO board and told them he asked me to resign my position. I spoke with the PTO president and she said she feels it would be best because she is afraid that the principal would make it hard on them if I was still on the board. I then received a letter from the PTO president asking for my written resignation. I wrote back saying I would not resign unless I received, in writing, the reason for them asking. I then received a letter from her telling me that the executive board voted me out and that I was no longer a vice president on their board. Is this RIGHT!? Does the principal have the right to force them to get me off? I am very hurt. I have still received no justified reason as to why they are making this happen. What are your thoughts?!