JHB - we were posting at the same time so I missed yours. Theres an educational benefit as well with them helping. My oldest got lots of extra math with the sorting, collating and counting of flyers! In all seriousness, if they help in moderation, they look forward to it. It's extra responsibiliy and they like that too.
We do have sitting at the meetings. Generally it is an older sibling or someone from our afterschool program that offers to stay (our meetings immediately follow when they are done and they are all parents in the school as well). Depending on who is wathching them, they either play in the gym or at the playground outside.
For events, the kids (depending on ages) help out. They unpack/move boxes at market day, help pour juice or hand our plates, etc at other functions. And, sometimes they just run wild like all the rest of the kids.
Daddio44
Should we ever run into one another in the "real world", please do NOT tell my kids that spending the evening making posters or folding a thousand brochures isn't a traditional family night.
I was just re-reading Daddio and nonesq.. replies, I think you may be right. I remember when I taught preschool how my kids kinda felt like the school and church belonged to them. They rarely caused problems because they knew the pastor, youth director, school director, and everyone else on a personal level. My kids loved everyone like family. Daddio--does your group have a babysitter for the children at PTO meetings? I know we can't get approval to spend money on that for now, but I have been thinking about asking our principal about the honor society volunteers (I read somewhere here that one group uses them for babysitting).
I assume the school is a 501c3, but it is not truly the PTO's account that the money goes into. All money that the schools earn, be it 6th grade fundraisers, PTO (Coronado only), Cheerleading, etc... all go into one account and then the money is divied up in a ledger as far as how much of each goes where. The money for the whole district is jumbled up together. When I had our PTO books audited we found where $900 of the PTO funds had accidentaly been added to the 6th Grade portion of the account because the school secretary plugged in the wrong code.
As for our bylaws, as long as we don't have the money in a seperate account, our rules don't matter only the districts.
So true, nonsequitor, when my family is home together, we all seperate to our respective rooms, my husband with the computer and TV in the bedroom, my son is outside with his friends or in his room and I'm in the living room. We spend far more time together now that we are all involved in PTA.
NM- Is your PTO a 501c3? Does it state in your bylaws that you may not donate to another non-profit? If your answers are yes and no, then legally, you can donate the funds. I would double check your information with a non-profit lawyer.
For example, one of our PTAs is donating start up funds for a new PTO. It's perfectly legal.
Other PTAs donate the money to the schools (for example a PE Aide- The PE Aide cannot be an employee of the PTA but must be an employee of the school. We give the funds to cover the salary but she is an employee of the school.)
