I am a first time PTA president. With the previous administration there were no volunteer procedures in place and there had been total chaos particularly with respect to how money was handled. So, one of the first things I did as a new president was to research other PTAs' policies for volunteer procedures. I settled on a set of procedures as a starting point, knowing that it would be a work in progress. My volunteer coordinator put it together and it was implemented for the first time at our annual Winter Breakfast, being run by our own Vice President. As things turned out, she did not stringently follow the procedure manual, but at the end of the day, she achieved what she needed to. Since then, we have had two more events, with successful outcomes despite the fact that the chairpersons had questions. I am a very hands-on person, and if people have questions, I make sure they get answered as quickly as possible. It didn't even occur to me to tell her to refer to her manual if she had questions. Right before our latest event held just last week, I received a critically worded e-mail from my volunteer coordinator stating that I need to "lay down the law and make them follow your procedures". I received a less critical but similarly worded e-mail the same day from my secretary. These e-mails came after a number of e-mails had been exchanged between myself, my treasurer (we were keeping everyone on the board "in the loop" because I had also received criticism that I wasn't keeping them informed), and a chairperson who had the manual in her possession but was choosing to e-mail questions to us instead of looking at her manual. There was no evidence that she was not following our procedures, she was just getting the information via e-mail rather than reading the manual. By the way, 2 out of the three events were being run by first time chair people.

I want people to follow our procedures, and especially with respect to money, we need to make sure we are in accordance with our bylaws. That said, these people are volunteers and at the end of the day, the board is ultimately responsible for making sure things are done properly, even if the chairpersons are not crossing every "T" and dotting every "i". We are having the same problems a lot of PTA/PTO's are having with respect to not getting enough volunteers especially to chair events, and I don't want to scare them away! It seems to me that if a chairperson has been handed a manual and still chooses to ask questions, even if the answers are in the manual, we still need to be helpful. What do you think - am I being too nice? If so, how far should the "rule following" be pushed? Your insight and helpful suggestions are much appreciated!