If you do bylaws first, are you going to take them to a vote in both schools (now) with the idea that you would go forward with these for next year? Or, would you just informally all agree to them with the idea that voting them in would be the first order of business for the combined school?
Are you forming a brand new group (identity wise) or is one group going to take over, maybe just changing it's name? (That would seem easier if it's already established with checking account, tax ID, etc.)
If it were me, I'd look at these questions, plus where the by-laws stand and where you want them to go. How comprehensive are they now? Is one of the groups already a 501(c)(3)? If not, and that's a goal, you probably need to invest some real effort in changing them and may want to wait until after your officers are in place.
Could you just do a comparison of the key points for the two sets of bylaws? And for now, just both agree to whose ever is more conservative on each point? Example: if one says nominations needs to be publicly announced 2 weeks in advance and other 3 weeks, go with 3 weeks and you are both covered.
Unless you have a set ready to go or one group is pretty much agreeable to adoping the others, I personally would probably have elections first and then work on the bylaws. (You would all have to be in general agreement for the rules elections.)
I think you could go either way, but part of it may depend on if you are talking about 3 entities (i.e. both the old ones go away and a brand new one is formed) or 2 (one goes away, the other evolves - in which case that one always needs to be in compliance with whatever Bylaws stand at the time.)
Our k-2 school and our 3-5 sister school will be moving into a new school in the fall. As of now we have 2 PTOs but will only have 1 at the new school. It is coming up on time to have nominations for officers. We are not sure how to go about having a fair nominations for both schools. Should there be bylaws for the new school in place first or go ahead with nominations 1st? We need help!! Would appreciate any suggestions!
