I have had a few to sign up for PTO already. We have sign ups available at Open House so it won't be so crazy at the first meeting. So there is a silver lining. Also we had a few sign ups for committees. Hopefully they will show up. I've grabbed a few and told them they were helping. LOL! Since we are having a talent show in October I've already talked to one mom. I have no talent and had to put on a show about three years ago. Two of the three moms that helped me are at this school too. There is alot of deep breathing going around here.

C. Brooks, hang in there, it's sure to get better with start of school year. If nothing else, advertise to the parents that you need help and if no one steps up, then your board will step down. Easy to say, I know, and soooo hard to do. Please don't stress yourself out that it effects your family, it's not worth it. There's always next year!

I will probably use the samples. I got some off here a few years ago when we revised ours at the elementary. There are two elementaries that integrate into this school. What I really wanted to do is combine their bylaws and fix what needed to be fixed to suit our school's need. The PTO pres said she would email me those. I am sure she forgot. She works full time. The Robert's Rules book I have has an excellent outline in the back. Easy to understand too. So I figure I may need to make a really rough draft have some intelligent people check over it and present it to the general members. I still haven't worked up the nerve to go to the IRS website to see what all we need to do. I know we can't rush these things but I wished it was done NOW.

If you need by-laws, check out this thread:
Sample By-laws Sites

We also have ours posted here , but they are a bit wordy and written in "legaleese". I am hoping for a revision this year.

Yesterday was absolutely horrid. I felt like the village idiot. I babbled and stammered for what seemed like an eternity. I was so glad to get out of there. Last night the principal ask me why I was in such a hurry to leave yesterday. [img]redface.gif[/img] It was bad. I don't know if anything I said made any sense. Of course I had an agenda, but it did not do me any good while sitting on my desk at home! Glad it's over.

My secretary started the bulletin board during Open House. She said she would pick up some border and paper. She didn't. Neither did she finish. The school sec chased me down as soon as I got there yesterday and ask me if I was going to change that "hideous looking bulletin board."

She brought the actual checkbook and records to the last meeting. I think we had about $7K. I am sure I wrote that down somewhere. My sec is great. She works full time though. She has 6 kids, 5 are adults. We have been communicating through emails mostly and she is helping me with Open House.

I am fixing to go talk to the teachers. I am a nervous wreck! Many of them I know from childhood and a few of them were my teachers. That makes me more nervous.

I dread telling the principal about the VP. He is really disappointed about the lack of parental involvement. I think that last year most people (including staff) was pretty much feeling things out and getting used to the idea of this school.