PTO/PTA Meetings ???

[disykat]

Actually our PTA board meeting are for board members only. This consists of President, 3 VPS, Secratary, Treasurer, school Prinicipal and any ongoing committee chairs. These are not advertised to the general public. Should any one other than board not want to attend they would most likely be turned away - that has not happened to date.

However - no voting can happen at these meetings. The board cannot vote to do something. That has to be done at the General meeting. We normally meet for about an hour two weeks before our general meeting (we have to do it this ways as our bylaws state this).

These are generally meetings where we set the agenda. review what has gone on at the district level, talk with the Prinicpal about current school issues/needs - from that info we focus on where to go and what/how to present all the information.

As for the school that has board meetings every month but only one membership meeting? That seems off to me. I cannot spend money or make a PTA commitment without the buy in the of the PTA as a whole.

Those things REALLY surprise me. Certainly we have certain things that have to go before the general membership, but why have a board meeting if no decisions can be made there?

 

[ChrisAlli]

Our school charges $10 a family to be a general member of the PTO. This is to offset the cost of copying???

The only General member meeting is at the end of the year, and I haven't been to one so I have no idea the purpose. The PTO doesn't include money information in their monthly news letter, so people have no idea what money is being spent on or what they are making on things.

I'm just wondering why be a General Member?? The boards votes amongst themselves I guess.

I do want to say, they do pay for things in the school and run several fund raisers, I just don't see the parent involvement, except when they need volunteers....and mostly that's just the same people anyway

 

[disykat]

I'm just wondering why be a General Member?? The boards votes amongst themselves I guess.

The big stuff is voted on by the general membership. Smaller details are taken care of by the board. It is like this in every organization I am part of. The general membership elects a leadership board that they entrust these details to.

 

[agnes!]

I did find out that they have board meetings once a month, closed and a general membership meeting in May.

Our school charges $10 a family to be a general member of the PTO. This is to offset the cost of copying???

The only General member meeting is at the end of the year, and I haven't been to one so I have no idea the purpose. The PTO doesn't include money information in their monthly news letter, so people have no idea what money is being spent on or what they are making on things.

I'm just wondering why be a General Member?? The boards votes amongst themselves I guess.

I do want to say, they do pay for things in the school and run several fund raisers, I just don't see the parent involvement, except when they need volunteers....and mostly that's just the same people anyway

I think that you need to check out the local PTAs bylaws and the National PTAs bylaws....this whole situation doesn't sound quite "right" to me.

agnes!

 

[Tinkerbelle's Mom]

Those things REALLY surprise me. Certainly we have certain things that have to go before the general membership, but why have a board meeting if no decisions can be made there?

We mainly need to sort through all of the information and handle the smaller details, budget issues, and that sort of thing. We get so many ads for fundraisers and such it would be too time consuming to go through all of that in a general meeting. So we research it down to a few choices and then present the info at a general meeting for a vote.

Our school charges $10 a family to be a general member of the PTO. This is to offset the cost of copying???

The only General member meeting is at the end of the year, and I haven't been to one so I have no idea the purpose. The PTO doesn't include money information in their monthly news letter, so people have no idea what money is being spent on or what they are making on things.

I'm just wondering why be a General Member?? The boards votes amongst themselves I guess.

I do want to say, they do pay for things in the school and run several fund raisers, I just don't see the parent involvement, except when they need volunteers....and mostly that's just the same people anyway

PTOs are run differntly than PTAs but thier records on how and why money was spent should be open to the public - even to non members.

The big stuff is voted on by the general membership. Smaller details are taken care of by the board. It is like this in every organization I am part of. The general membership elects a leadership board that they entrust these details to.

This is what I was getting at! If our board meetings were open to the public we would never get anything accomplished.

I think that you need to check out the local PTAs bylaws and the National PTAs bylaws....this whole situation doesn't sound quite "right" to me.

agnes!

I second that!

 

[disykat]

This is what I was getting at! If our board meetings were open to the public we would never get anything accomplished.

And, as I said earlier, it is normal to have board meetings that are not meant for the general membership. That doesn't mean people who wish to observe or visit are turned away! In all my years on PTA boards, it is rare for non-members to attend. However, they would be allowed to. I am still betting in is in your by-laws that visitors from the general membership are welcomed.

It sounds to me like your board IS making some of the small decisions, despite you saying they have absolutely no decision making power.

Again, there's a HUGE difference between not inviting the general public to a board meeting and not ALLOWING them to attend. It is quite risky to have closed meetings. It calls into question what is being done there.

I've attended enough "PTA and the law" workshops to how important it is to be transparent to your membership.

 

[Kae]

Ours are open to everyone. However they are during the school day which excludes any 2 working parent families.

You know we hear this all the time yet when we have evening meeting no one else ever shows up. I know sometimes once you get home from work it sure is hard to leave to go to a meeting which is why we figure no one shows up. the Principal & VP also attend our meetings as do about 4 teachers.

and yes I work full time but I am lucky enough to able to skip lunch & leave early once a month. The gal that runs are Book fair works full time.

So I quess my point is no one is trying to exlude anyone.

Kae

 

[marcyinPA]

We don't have an PTA, just a parent's group. Our meetings are advertised to the school community and are held once a month in the evening, with free child care. Unfortunately, because of the clique-i-ness of the executive committee, and the lack of parental involvement at our school in general, it's usually the same 10 or so people that show up every week. I stopped going when the new President took over. She is very nasty, back-stabbing, and just not a nice person in general. I refused to do anything with or for her. I do always offer my help directly to the principal, whom I have known for years and go to church with. She knows I'm there if she needs me for anything.