Talk to the fundraising reps, too, and let them know your situation. Provided they're both reputable firms with good products, service and pricing, perhaps one of the two would be open to your committing to them at a later date (next spring, next fall). Be sure also to read the signed contracts carefully. there may be out clauses that you can take advantage of or similar options contained in the small print.
Shouldn't be a huge deal. You clearly aren't going to run two fundraisers at the same time. Slow down, deep breaths. Communication is the key here.
Principal's decision is the presidents fundraiser will be cancelled, conflict with other activities at school. I guess this is a great reason to vote for elected members of PTO in the spring and not wait until September.
I know how you feel in this situation. I ran into it with the entire board from last year (I had been on the board the 2 previous years and felt the need to take a break). As someone with a large amount of volunteer management experience in various formats, I tried to communicate to the board several things that needed to happen. Needless to say, none of them did. The upshot is that myself and several parents were forced to simply wait until this board's terms were over and pick up the pieces (and yes, this ended up costing us - late fees for taxes, etc. that weren't filed on time). I truly don't like being behind the 8-ball, but realize that you may be in the same type of situation where all you can do is ride it out and pick up the pieces later.
Maybe there is some compromise that can be reached, but from your post it sounds like that will be a long time coming. Consider this - what would a fight over these issues do to the reputation of the group? Would it enhance the parents' perception or make the group as a whole look worse?
In our case, there was little we could do except offer our best opinions - and occasionally these weren't asked for - at the meetings, and hope that the board took notice. Hope this helps - keep us posted!
The parents wanted to impeach her last year. The PTO never knew what she had planned. We found out when bookfair was from watching the cart be rolled off the truck. She let it be known she would not be running agian this year. I am not trying to put her down, she is a very nice but extremely busy woman. Last year it just seemed she thought it was easier to do what she wanted when she wanted than to bring ideas up in meetings, vote, and recruit volunteers. We do have approval from the VP from last year, but she was moving and did not attend meeting. I was in contact with her all summer with everything I did. She has a copy of sample bylaws, liked the fundraisers I found to take to PTO. And has even helped profread and pass out donation letters for the Welcome Back Night at our school. No one can remember who the secretary and treasurer were so contacting them was impossible. I did my best to contact president, I just took all my unanswered phone calls to mean she was not intrested at all. I was approached last year by members and the principal and asked to run for president this year. If I waited until elections to start bylaws, fundraising ideas, forms, newsletters, etc... it would be another year of getting nothing done!
Which contract can you get out of easier? If you can't get out of one, I guess that you will be doing two.
My personal feelings are, the president was elected by the parents of the school. I feel that no contracts should be signed without approval of an elected board member.
We have a problem, There was a PTO meeting Monday with 7 members- No elected members. We had a lady from a fundraising company give a presentation, we voted and decided to do the fundraiser and set a date in Oct. Today we find out the pres from last year set a fund raiser for Oct. as well. She had no meeting, no vote. We had no officers but voted anyway because the fundraising company rep came from out of town, I tried to get a hold of the pres from last year several times but only got her husband once, he said they would come. Don't ask what our bylaws say we don't have any right now (I worked on bylaws this summer but they need to be voted in). HELP!!
