Thanks for the input. We did our annual report at the end of the year the past two years as stated in our By Laws. This handout that was distributed at the April PTO meeting was just a comparison of the amounts made in the fundraising from last year to this year. We are a small (70 student) school, and as with most groups getting parents to lead on the PTO is hard. THe PTO board I was President on the last 2 years was wonderful we worked hard and made 55,000.00 for the school last year. Due to the bylaws we only were allowed to serve 2 years and a new board was to be voted on. THere is more in this picture but dont want to go into it all. Long story short, because it is hard to get people to serve on the board my thought was why put out this comparison at this time when we are nominating officers because it shows how much work is involved and may discourage those who are sitting on the fence about serving.

I published an entire newsletter on our budget issues to get folks interested in our end of year Family Bingo fundraiser. I wanted buy in by parents so they'd understand the controls we have in place, remind them of the free programs we've offered, give them ideas on the costs of our presentations for our children and encourage their support as we move toward this last event. We're getting nice support for our classroom baskets and so I'm hoping we had an impact. This is 'OUR' group and the money is certainly not going into my pocket. I think sharing the information empowers folks to feel they are a part of the greatness of the group.

At least I hope so .
d

We have found that it is extremely important to publish our budget each year. Our school is the only elementary in our district and houses 500 students K-6, small town . . . big talk The unfortunate truth is before we made our budget "public" there were many rumors raging across our town. These false statements grew quickly and began to effect our ability to raise the funds to host the many activities we offer our students, as well as gain the much needed volunteers each year. Now we make a point to publish our goals along with the necessary budget at the beginning of each school year, as well as an end of the year summary. We have found that being upfront and open with our parents is the best way to ensure a successful year.

Don't take ANYTHING PTO personally! It's a sign of a great group if they are always looking for ways to improve

Sounds to me like the VP either doesn't like the President or wants to be the President.

I also keep mental track of last year to this year although I've never published it. It helps me to gear if we are offering programs that are appreciated by the parents and support by both PTO and non PTO parents. Interestingly, some of our non PTO parents are our best sales folks for fundraisers. Also gives me an azimuth for next year (I don't think we will do a sales program). So we publish what we offer as free programs each year and then give folks how we've done fund raising to ensure they understand one pretty much equals the other. So far, so good...and we'll see how things go this next fund raiser which is a family Bingo with basket raffle...
d

I think comparing current year to past years is a good way of measuring a group's progress. It is useless without the correct data, though.

You should definitely not take what they are trying to accomplish personally.