Our PTO's by-laws say that Roberts Rules of Order shall govern the conduct of meetings of the membership and the Executive Board. You might check yours. If Roberts Rules govern your meetings then I would suggust that you buy a RRO book. It helped me alot last year. It has the proper terminology to use at your meetings. Plus gives you sample agenda's, treasurer reports and takes you thru a meeting script.
Here is a sample of what I used at our first meeting this year. It depends on what is going on.
I. Meeting called to order by President(your name)
II. Pledge of Allegiance
III. Reading and Approval of the minutes - Read by Secretary (their name)
IV. Reports of Officers and Committees
A. Treasurer Report - Read by Treasure (name) / Attached to Agenda
B. Budget - Attached to Agenda
V. New Business
VI. Announcements
VII. Meeting Adjourned
Our Executive Staff meets an hour before the members meeting. We have found that 30 minutes is not enough time with the extra conversations that go on when we all get together. I also make me a meeting script besides the agenda. This helps me remember all the exact terms and procedures to follow, or items that I want to say.
Good-Luck, the butterflies will pass. I hope this helped.
Thanks for the information. I am very excited about this yet very scared! I am both a parent and a teacher at the school and it is very challenging. I just keep in mind that everything I am doing is for the kids. My principal will be the only admin. there if he even comes. I sent home invitations to all of the parents and I am having the DARE officer there to speak. We will be having a board meeting 30 min. before the open meeting so we can decide together what is important and what we can take care of without boring and annoying anyone else. I hope this works! Thanks again for your help. I am so glad I discovered this web site. A lot of my questions were answered by reading everyone else's posts.
The first thing I did at my first meeting as President was to have a printed agenda for everyone in the room. It allows everyone to follow along as the meeting goes on. I begin with a brief introduction, followed by the Treasurer and Secretary Reports, we then discuss any old business, and then move on to new business. When all business has been discussed, I ask the principals of our schools, as well as the superintendent, who attends our meetings, if they have anything to bring up at the meeting. Then I open up the meeting to the audience to bring up any other items they have. Another good thing to remember is to listen to everyone's ideas and opinions. If you cut someone off, or fail to listen, they will get turned off from the meetings, and not want to return. Hope this helps. Good luck at your meeting.
This is my first year as PTO president and I am going to have my first meeting real soon. My problem is I don't know the proper order in which to run a meeting. Our past presidents have just done whatever and many parents didn't feel it was professional. I would like to start off on the right foot and get some parents to join our meetings again. If anyone can help me learn how to organize a meeting I would appriciate it! Thank you!
