Honestly--PKZ--having this as an issue doesn't bode well for your chances of not having drama this year. I think your way is best--try it and see what happens but if you have to put the seats in a circle and sing kumebyya (how do you spell that) then I guess you can do that to. The fact that you even have to dicuss this however, shows that you as a board have a lot of work to do building a cohesive team to support the children. As to strong willed parents--they each get one vote. If they lose - they lose. Good luck to you girlfriend...maybe you can make a joke out of this to lighten things up just a bit...you sit amongst everyone gathered and just start talking....no don't...someone will get mad.
We did it both ways--everyone up front so folks could see who was in charge of what and then when we switched to the library--we sat and round tables and everyone kind of melded in. Never seemed to be an issue.
You mentioned that your board meetings and general meetings were consecutive. How much earlier before the general meetings did you meet? An hour, a half hour? We are going to try that this year...meeting right before the general membership meeting instead of on a separate day. Those meetings often lasted for 2 hours. I want to avoid that at all costs.
The first meeting of the year the board members were all introduced and sat together. For meetings after that, as soon as our board meeting ended and the general meeting began(they ran consecutively), the board interspersed themselves among the rest of the membership. We never seemed to feel comfortable with placing ourselves front and center. To us, it gave the impression that the meetings were going to be very formal and the board was running the show. Once the board meeting was over, the President was there to run the general meeting(standing up front) and the rest of the board took on their general membership role-their opinions and ideas given the same merit as any other member and their votes counted the same. If a board member had something to report on, they would stand to do it, so the membership could see who was speaking.
I am one of the new co-presidents for our PTO for the upcoming school year. One thng that the previous co-presidents did at meetings for the last two years was to have all of the exec board members scattered throughout the meeting. The presidents sat together, but no one else did. The rest of the board members just sat...wherever.
I don't care for this way of seating because people don't have a clear view of who their elected board members are. I think that the board should all sit together at the front of the room, visible to everyone, so that people know who they are and also that the board represents a united front and we are saying to people, "We are here and yes, we are holding ourselves accountable and expect you to as well."
The soon-to-be past presidents disagree with this method and feel that we will be alienating the membership. One of them told me that "word on the street" was all about this and people are nervous. Nervous about what, I'm not sure. My co-president and I have different styles than the current presidents, and the current presidents (one in particular) is very concerned that it will appear that its "us versus them."
Quick background: two years ago the school district redistricted and two schools merged into one. There is the feeling of "us" versus "them" (which I have never subscribed to) and we've had some pretty rowdy meetings and heated dicussions. The current presidents, in my opinion, tried to please everyone, and in doing so, couldn't really please anyone. Anyway, all I want to do is get the job done this year with as little drama as possible. We have some pretty strong parents who are determined to do things their own way, so that will be a challenge. But our new executive board recently met and we all seem to be on the same page about most things.
Anyway, I asked the new EB if they minded trying it this way at our first meeting (all sitting together) and everyone agreed. We acknowledged that if it didn't work, we'd go back to the current way.
How do most PTOs do it? Any insight would really be appreciated.
