Congratulations! We too have started a new PTO at our new school. Having been the president for two years at the prior school, and the fact the principal coming from the old school certainly have made my job easier this year. Take a deep breath and enjoy the ride.
We do not charge for membership. We feel all families are part of our school and should not feel they have to pay a membership fee to participate. Therefore no membership cards. This caused administrative work for the secretay and the cards weren't checked when it came time to vote.

Artilces of Association - We used the Articles from our previous school and three other schools in the district for quidance.

Our treasurer is wonderful. She has taken care of the Federal Id number, Sales tax exemption and 501(c)3.

Have you consider budget requests from the principal? Fund-raiser reps usually are very good at projecting your income.

Do you have all your board positions in place? Have parents had an opportunity to complete a willingness to serve form? Invite and encourage all parents to attend your board meetings! Introduce yourself to those you don't know, they might be the perfect person to serve as a committee chair.

Remember why you wanted this job and who really benefits from all the time and effort you devote.
Keep coming back to this forum - there are many people here willing to help.

We do not use membership cards. It was an added expenc that we felt really was not needed. We keep an updated record of all currnt year members. This list is available at all general membership meetings to serve as a sign in. This also lets the people know ahead of the meeting if they are eligible to vote. A lot of times we would have paople join the night of the meeting so that they can vote.
As for bylaws, this sight has so many examples to pull from. Just watch what you set your quorums at, that was one of the things we had to change this year. We set ours for regular PTO Board meeting at "a majority of the executive board members", which for us just so happens to be 7. We have a large Executive Board due to the fact that a lot of our positions were co-shared this yaer. If you need a copy of our Bylaws and constitution, email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Good Luck, and stick to this site, it will be your life saver!

First of all welcome!! Our group uses a standard business card that we designed online to meet our needs for membership cards. We ordered from Vistaprint.com. On the card it has a space to put family name, and school year ( 20___ to 20___). You might want to check out the site and get a price and bring it up at the first meeting for a vote.
If you were a PTA you should have some form of by-laws already, you could use these as a guide to draft new ones. I would also mention at your first meeting that your board is in the process of drafting new by-laws to fit your new status and as soon as you have the draft complete you will present them to the membership for their inspection. If you'd like a copy of ours please email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Hi, I just found this site, we are in the process of switching from PTA to PTO, and I need any advice anyone can give. Such as what do you do for membership cards? by-laws, please help we have our first meeting in 4 days and I really need advice