I have never had an issue with certain positions being co-controlled. For example, I have a husband and wife team that effectively co-controlls the Treasurer position. By the book the husband is the Treasurer and the wife is the Asst. treasurer. I have seen many groups where roles such as Fundraising and Reading Programs are co-chaired.

In regards to officer positions it's common enough, but I've never seen it a requirement.

The idea that it has to be one parent and one staff member is something that I wouldn't like. As you indicated, there is too much that can become an issue.

Now if your group is working with a private school, then you might be stuck with what you have. But if public, and your group is a 501(C)3, non-profit, then you should be able to control yourselves. My best guess is that a Principal, some time ago, helped define this odd set up. Having mutiple Treasurers can work, but only if there is constant communication. My old Treasurer and Asst. Treasurer used to be best friends who worked with each other, no issues. My present Treas. and Asst. Treas. are married, no problems. But one parent and one staff member, it's hard for me to believe that there is appropriate communication going on there.

Having dual Presidents can work, but again you would need defined roles. But in this case, who controls the meetings? Who is responsible for what?

This doesn;t really make too much sense. Having a Staff Liason for communication purposes makes sense, and maybe that's what the staff President is, but if this is how your Bylaws are defined I think you need to make some changes.

There have been many discussions on these boards about how having a staff member in any of the officer positions can be a bad thing. Sometimes what is in the best interest of the Principal is not necessarily in the best interest of the PTO, meaning the children in relation to the purpose of your group. Often PTO's fill the gap, but there are certain lines that we usually don't like to cross. For example, providing funds to pay someone's sallary. It happens, but most of us frown upon this.

So if your group has a staff member running it, how can that person be impartial when their boss is the Principal? This is why most groups try not to have staff members as officers. Should they be involved, most definitely. Should they have a vote, most definitely. Should the Principal be a partner with the group? of course.

The way I would handle it is to e-mail the entire PTO, including the Principal and the staff members and let them know that you are forming a Bylaw committee to update your group's Bylaws over the summer. Ask for volunteers to be on the committee, and allow anyone who wishes to be on it. You should personally chair this committee. Then update your Bylaws with normal officer requirements/procedures, voting, etc. In regards to this next school year, you may just be stuck with the situation as is, but you can define the roles of each officer. For example, put it in the Bylaws that the Treasurer must inform the President of any transactions. This way, if one of your treasurers provides a check to someone for something, at least you'll be in the know. Next I would start to lean more on the parent officers. Try to use them as your primary officer. Certain officer positions may not be an issue in regards to having a staff member. For example, Secretary. But president, V.P. and even Treasurer are all positions that can become an issue with a staff member in them.

Hope this helps,
PresidentJim

The "toes getting stepped on" problem was just as I figured. A friend and I served as co-Prez one year and did just fine because from the beginning we clearly defined what each one's role would be and what we would take turns at handling, but I know others who couldn't have done that. Perhaps your group could look at expanding the board positions. Look at the "job description" for each position: Could it be divided into 2 or more separate positions? Who handles fundraising-that could easily be a position all it's own. How about volunteer coordinator? If you clearly divide up the work and establish positions to handle each of the areas, you could still use those 8 people but each would have their own thing to do and you wouldn't have the overlap, duplication, and toes getting squished flat that can happen with the co-positions. If you want to keep the same parent/teacher ratio on your board, you can specify in the by-laws that certain positions are to be held by teachers and others by parents, such as: The position of President will be held by a parent of the school and the position of VP will be held by a teacher and so on. You could also just specify that the board will have a certain ratio of parents to teachers, but that could be harder to do.

There are many schools that have dual positions-- it normally comes up when 2 friends want to share the responsibilities-- but when their term is up-- then that's when there's problems-- because you get 2 new people who may not get a long as well.
Why don't you form a By-law committee to update your by-laws-- make changes that you would like such as 1 position for Pres, VP, Sec.-- we have in ours that the VP is to look over the by-laws each year and form a committee as changes are needed--- we then put the changes out the general PTO to look over and vote on to change-- it's worked well for us-- and we updated them twice now since we wrote them originally. We also have 9 PTO members-- Pres, VP, Sec, Publicity, 2 Room Parent Chairs, Historian and 2 Treasurers.

So far so good but it does get a little confusing and there are always toes getting stepped on. The issue of communicating w/8 people on every issue gets overwhelming. Our bylaws are way outdated so really wanted to address going to just 4 officers but I don't know how to deal with it.

I know of a lot of groups who operate with co-officers in some positions, but I have never heard having co-officers for every position or the parent/teacher arrangement you are describing. Does it work for you?

I am the President of a small elementary PTO that has been in existance for about 12 years. My question is has anyone ever heard of a PTO with dual Officer positions. What I mean is we have a parent and a teacher president, vice, treasurer and secretary and so on. Whic means we actually we have 8 officers.