Our bylaws states what mcconmommy's said. It only says that about officers but not members. Which needs to be clarified because we have grandparents wanting to join.
Not that this reflects my personal opinion but our bylaws state as follows:
To be appointed as an officer you must be a member in good standing and in order to be a member you must have a child, step child or foster child in the school or be part of the academic staff.
I understand the logic in this - but it seems for special circumstances (such as seems to be your case) there should be away to achieve member status. Possibly after volunteering a set number of hours? I don't know - but good luck!
It all depends on the PTA/PTO and what their bylaws say. We don't have any restrictions about who can serve on the PTA boards, in my area, but that isn't always the case. I think anyone willing to volunteer is valuable and anyone (crazy enough?) kind enough to want to help run things is priceless. But there are valid reasons and concerns as to why this might be the case. Some people wonder, why would a person who does not have a child in the school, want to be on the board? It could be an issue of child safety, there are a lot of reasons but if proper procedures are put in place (no volunteer should ever be left alone with the children, two person money handling policies, etc) than perhaps there isn't a reason to fear.
I would ask to see the bylaws and see if there is anything in it that would prohibit you from serving on the board, and if there is, perhaps open up the discussion at a meeting to ammending the bylaws to include concerned family members.
I am a volunteer at my nephews school and enjoy it very much. At the end of last year i had asked about family members being on boards and such things to have more of a say than a volunteer. My nephew is my sisters oldest and she works 8 to 5 m - f and can not do very much for the school so i stepped in and have enjoyed it very much and there are many times i am there far more than parents. I was told that because i am not a parent i can not be an elected board member and i found that upsetting because i am there a lot of times when "regular" parents are not. Do other people see this as a problem or is it just me. I believe that a school should use all forms of help they have available and when i see that they dont it upsets me....let me know. thanks in advance for any answers/comments/suggestions.
