I am sorry your state is not responsive. We are a MA PTA and have so much support! If we have an issue we have representatives come out to do any of 100 plus programs for our group. There are also several courses and informational items on the PTA website. I don't think you are utilizing your PTA best you can! As far as the dues...MA only requres 1.75 per person per year...where else can you join a national group and receive the information you do along with the discounts of membership for that much per year? Also It is up to you to make sure all your members have a copy of the bylaws and rules...but those are rules you make they should be reviewed every 2 years if you don't like them you can change them.
I'd have less of a problem with the dues if more than 50% wasn't going out. Yes, there are the benefits that I mentioned, but if no one is utilizing them, what's the point? Your princpal was brave to take them on like that--it would NEVER happen here.
This is actaully one of the reasons our former principal had the PTA dissolved back in 2001. She felt that just the request for dues wasn't fair to families who couldn't afford it, and with a district of a 52% poverty level that means alot!
"When you stop learning you stop growing."
We're a PTA, and I just don't see how anyone can justify the money we're spending on dues. None of my officers have taken any classes, know the bylaws or read the guidebooks or manuals. Our reps who are supposed to help us when we come to them with serious greivances tell us, for all intents and purposes, tell us we're SOL--that it's up to us to police ourselves. It's for the higher-ups to make sure they're following their(PTA)rules. It's just so depressing. Getting people brave enough to actually take a stand or who care enough to bother is impossible.
I realize I could take it farther--but is it worth it? Being a pariah and having my friends eat sh!t because they stand by me? Yeah, I'm on the morally high ground here, which is comforting, but the whole situation is totally out of control. And all because I wanted to do something a little special for my kids.
