Short on time? Let me try and help.
First, here's a link with a lot of these answers.
www.ptotoday.com/ptofaq.html
Now, for your questions.
1. PTA bylaws and funds -- no, there is no mandate in PTA bylaws about how you can or can not spend your funds. Some state or county officials mistakenly (or intentionally in some cases) tell groups that there are requirements in this area, but there are not. PTA often refers to a "3-to-1 rule" (groups should do three programming activities for every one fundraiser), but that's a (good)
suggestion , not an actual requirement.
2. The National PTO organization and penalties for leaving PTO or PTA.
This is a common misconception. PTOs are independent. PTOs do not *have* to belong to any national organization. Mny PTOs choose to sign up with the National PTO Network (
www.ptotoday.com/npn
), but that's completely optional. NPN membership is most akin to AAA (the auto club). If you like the benefits and the price -- you join/renew. If you don't -- you don't. Nothing tricky about joining or getting out. There are no "penalties" for leaving PTA, but PTA certainly does all it can to make leaving difficult. Many artificially high hurdles and (often) hard feelings.
3. PTA dues
PTA membership dues are determined on 4 levels. National (set by national). State (set by state). County/council (set by council). And local (set by you. Your dues amount is the total of those four. The first three are paid out of your unit. Typical local PTA dues are in the $5 per member range with $2.50-$4.00 per member of that going out. Current National dues are $1.75 per member.
4. PTA keeping individual members informed on lobbying positions.
This is tricky for PTA, because PTA has direct contact with very few of its members. PTA typically relies on its chain of command to get the word out. So communication might be with state presidents or local presidents, and then the hope is that those folks will get word out to individual members. PTA also has a website with its lobbying efforts (
www.pta.org
), but I'd wager that very, very few individual PTA members use the PTA.org website for lobbying updates. PTA also has an email listserv for individual members hoping to get involved in that arena. Most of PTA's policy decisions are voted on at national conventions, where approximately 1,000 (of 6 million total) members participate.
5. Lobbying and PTO
There is no National PTO organization per se, but if you're referring to PTO Today or the NPN -- no. PTO Today does not lobby.
Hope that helpss.
Tim
