Thanks for the words of encouragement. I'm glad I'm not the only one with this experience. I only want to make so many improvements. The parents are so tired of the same old thing and I'm bursting with new ideas. So after a day of sleeping on it, I'm back to putting the Fall Festival together and I guess I'll just have to do twice as much work at first to prove I'm worthy, then maybe these ladies will come around.
Thanks Again,
Christina

Christina-
Please don't give up on your team. I have four kids with 3 under the age of 5 and it was an issue for me to bring my kids to meetings. I was relieved when the President asked me if she could help set up a sitter (a high school student looking for community service time!). She is still the boy's sitter and I don't know waht I'm going to do next year when she goes to college!! Anyway, please tell me you have by-laws and they spell out officers duties! Otherwise you may need to ask what your Sec. thought were her duties and hopfully she will be open to what your needs are.
If I may, you may need to meet with these gals at a playplace- McDonalds works for me.

I too, have that young syndome (I have been told by new teachers to go to my homeroom until the Dean saved me!) and am following a parent that has been VERY active in the school. What keeps me going, I look at the the parents that give me the most grief and many times they have older children and there are even a few that are just beginning but I have baby Presley that will begin school in 2006 meaning I have 18 years (hopefully!) at his school...none of them have made that kind of comimtment.
I'm so sorry the former Prez. has been of no help. May that will change.?
I really wish you the best but don't give up!

I too was in your position a few years ago. I was 23 when my son started kindergarten. I was very intimidated by the "older members" as they did not make me feel very welcome, so I stopped attending meetings. Then I realized that I needed to be involved for my sons sake. So I took the bull by the horns and pushed my way in. I volunteered for everything! Now they can't get enough of me. The new pres and I have become good friends and I chair the fundraising committee. Did I mention that I'm now 31 and my son is in jr high! Although I have no kids in elementary right now, I'm staying invloved for my little ones that will be attending in a few years.
So now that I'm one of the "older members", I suggested that a new member orientation for our first meeting. When I first joined, I kinda learned about the PTA closet and mailbox over time, I didn't know we could use the office copier, etc. Now at the first meeting, I'm taking all the newbies around to show them all the stuff it took me 2 years to figure out on my own. I feel that younger mothers are a great asset to PTA, as they bring fresh ideas and ver few preconceived notions.
Don't be intimidated by your board members, you are the pres now...if they want to do things the old way, they can run agatinst you next election.
Stand up for your ideas and let them be heard, remember there will always be a few people who won't like your ideas(just for the fact that they are yours and not theirs), but find a few allies and stand up for the kids!!!
A good idea to, is to make up an agenda before every meeting and try as hard as you can to stick to it!
Also to cure your sec of not taking minutes, bring in a tape recorder and tape the meeting. Suggest to her that it might be easier for her to transcribe the minutes from the tape later on.(hehehehee, just trying to be helpful!)
Keep your head up and grow a bigger set of "bells". Stay enthusiastic, and if you get down come to this board and rant...we'll pick you back up. You are not alone.
As always...WE ARE IN THIS FOR THE KIDS!!!!!!!

sorry if i ot off track, but I know exactly how you feel!!!!
gotta go, baby just walked in the room bringing a horrible stench with her!
Take care,
SUZI

I'm the new PTO president this year and the lady before me was in charge for 6 years! So was my Sec. & Treasurer. When I won the election last year I just knew it wasn't going to be the easiest thing getting them to cooperate with me. Of course I'm young and some of them have children my age and I always feel like they treat me as if I was one of their children. The last president gave me nothing all I had to go by was last year's check book. And that's it. So I thought up all this great stuff (of course thanks to this site!) to help organize the PTO and make things easier for the committees and officers following me. So we had our first meeting last Thursday and of course my Secretary didn't take any notes and my Treasurer's kid was running around the meeting out of control. The janitor (a friend of mine) came to me and let me know that the kids messed up some stuff and told me if I took care of it she wouldn't tell the principal. So now I'm stuck in a bind. I have no clue how to approach my Treasurer about her kid and no clue how the heck and I can get my Secretary to take down some kind of minutes. It's like I'm carrying this PTO on my shoulders. I do all the work with some help from my Vice president. I had to draw up a paper for our first meeting and hand it out to my officers with something for each person to say typed on it because they had no clue how a meeting is to be run properly. I've only had one meeting and already thinking what a huge mistake I have made by running for president. And it depresses me because I was so excited. For the first time the PTO has everything planned ahead of time and they treat me like I'm a nobody and say that our meetings have never been run like this. The whole point is the parents have come to me and told me that they didn't like how everything was run in the past so I took my whole summer trying to improve it and I feel like I've been let down big time by my officers! Sorry this is so long any suggestions would be great! I'm at a dead end here.
Christina