Rules that don't allow true volunteers to serve on a board after giving of themselves in the way you have and have a connection to the school ie. nephew are just plain silly. Anyone who wants to serve on our board is welcome you just must have a connection to the school and nephew counts!!

Lots of good food for thought here . . . Last night I listened to a demographics professor at the local university give a presentation on our area's changing profile--increasing numbers of unmarried (mostly divorced) parents with children, increasing numbers of children living in poverty, increasing numbers of residents for whom English is not spoken in the home--all of which we're seeing reflected in our schools and all of which present challenges of various kinds, including challenges to the traditional PTO model.

While we haven't had anyone who isn't a parent ask to be on our board (come to think of it, I don't think we ever have ANYONE ask to be on our board! LOL), perhaps we should think about that possibility ahead of time. And even consider actively recruiting other family members, who may be assuming they have no place in our PTO.

In this day and age our schools need involved people. Unfortunely, it can't always be the parents. Many children are in households where the parents can't be active in the schools because both parents work full-time. Many children are being brought up by grandparents and other relatives. And let's face it, some parents don't want to be active in the schools anyway. How many parent groups are struggling to get the parents to join?

Bylaws are not written in stone. Sometimes I think they were written by control freaks. Times are changing, so can bylaws.

The new president and I discussed this at the end of last year. We had some really wonderful grandparents, older siblings, and a terrific woman who was the girlfriend of a father who gave so much time and effort to our school but by our by-laws couldn't be a voting member or serve on the board. It wasn't intentional by any means, we had just never had someone outside the immediate family be SO involved. Since I put the original by-laws together, I have taken them and modified them to state that members can be parents, guardians, staff, or any community member who gives X number of hours per month to the school. We have to determine the number and then present it for vote.

I figure we struggle enough to get help in our classrooms and for events, we should try to make our organization as open and welcoming as possible to accomodate those wonderful people who just want to give their time to make life better for our kids.

As you can see from my name, our group is a PTCA, with the C standing for community. That way we can include seniors groups that volunteer, and others who may not currently have a child attending our school. They do not hold office, but can participate as members.

Michelle B, thank you so much and thanks to everyone else also. I really appreciate the suggestions and answers you have given and now i have some great ideas to think about. Mel [img]smile.gif[/img]