PTA Advice needed, Calling all PTA parents!!!

[fourisfine]

Hello, We are having a bit of a problem with our PTA. We recently had our AGM, fab turn out, New Chair, Secretary and Treasurer all signed in!

Now the Secretary has done a runner and the Treasurer can't take on the position after all!

No-one is willing to take on the position of Treasurer except for a single parent who won't be able to make the meetings. The school liason with the pta says that the treasurer must be someone who can attend every meeting to give treasurers reports.

As such they want me to be co-treasurer because I always attend meetings, can work with the other parent and do the talky bit at meetings.

However!! We still don't have a secretary. If I was to be secretary could I also be co-treasurer and do the reports?? Or just do the report on behalf of the treasurer??

Could I skype the treasurer in to give her reports???

Any advice from PTA survivors would be greatly appreciated!

TIA

Our treasurer doesn't always attend meetings. She provides a printed report and someone (normally the Chair) reads it out. If anyone has specific questions that can't be answered she is contacted after the meeting and her answers sent round with the meeting minutes

I would think taking on 2 committee roles would be way too much ...

Our pta is so small we can't fill all the roles. In the end the head teacher has ended up being the secretary officially, but everyone pitches in. I am the chair, but have done the minutes for the last few meetings aswell. I don't find this is a big issue as I note down what's happening as a matter of course anyway.

Thankyou redskyatnight :) Nice to know your treasurer isn't at every meeting!

I totally agree, in theory tho I would just be a secretary who reads the treasury report too, so I would think it would be ok. My problem is that the school liason is saying that the other parent can't be treasurer because she can't make the meetings and that is the "rules".

I can't find any specific rules so I was hoping someone would have some hard facts for me, or could tell me what to google...

Thankyou pantaloons!! At the minute I think they are going to have to either accept our offer or end the pta, because no-one else will take on the responability.

The treasurer does not need to attend meetings. They can send a report beforehand.

We recently lost a treasurer - we advertised locally (library, church etc) and have found a pensioner with experience willing to do the job for free.

If you are registered as a charity, you MUST have a treasurer. But there are no official rules that the treasurer must attend meetings. However, if you are set up as a charity you will have a constitution (written by each pta) and it may say in the constitution that the elected people must attend meetings. If this is the case, then you must adhere to it.

I am the secretary at our PTA and I think if you had plenty of time, you could be vice-chair and secretary, but no more than that. And that depends on how busy your PTA is. Also, I am not sure on technicalities - does there need ot be someone separate for each role?

Aha!!! Thanks Pfft!! so it might be that the constitution for our PTA requires the main 3 to attend. If thats the case how do we make an amendment to our constitution???

Also yes the "someone separate for each role?" bit could be an issue!!

I'm really just trying to find out how this works iyswim, and find a way round the problem!

Really appreciate the replies!

we do have an attend 2 meetings a year rule as part of our constitution through the charity comm, but are currently in the process of leaving the charity comm as we are such a small group at a small school. I mean literally 5 people including the head.

TBH, I think she could manage 2 meetings a year, worst case scenario I could baby sit for her... I guess I need to see a copy of the constitution and go from there...

Thankyou everybody! :)

Could you hold the meetings at a time the potential treasurer could attend, such as early evening or after school with children watched over by someone willing to help but not be 'on the committee'?

maybe weekends?

perhaps a spare classroom with a DVD playing?

I remember meetings with crawling babes and toddlers in tow, it is choatic but not undoable.

From experience, a capable and willing treasurer is worth their weight in gold.

(so glad I no longer have to do PTA, but it was an excellent CV builder )

I'm jealouse of all this PTA roles talk, our PTA is so small it consists of me the head teacher and one other teacher

Well, that all sounds fine to me, but the "T" parts of the PTA insist it is childfree. I have taken my baby when he was cluster feeding through the whole meeting, but no-one else has taken a child afaik.

This person is a really experienced treasurer too.

I think the constitution needs to be changed.

Anyone know how I go about that?

bump :)

Perhaps the "T" bit needs to get off its "a**e" and accept that without a bit of flexibilty on their part there will be no "P"

In the olden days there were more SAHP's to support things like PTA but life isn't like that anymore.

perhaps you need to have a candid chat with the "T" as they need to be flexible if they wish to receive the valuable fundraising and support that PTA's provide.

Bloody hell fire, your PTA is demanding! We have half our meetings in evening and half in day time (in a children's centre, so under 5s very welcome) to allow everyone to come along. And no-one is expected to make every single meeting - absolutely bonkers! Although we do try and have nearly all roles as joint roles, so that (hopefully) one person from the role can make it reasonably often. Out of all the roles, treasurer feels like one where it's especially easy to send in a report.

Don't let the "T" element bully you into doing everything - PTA is (imho) partly about getting the broadest possible community of the school involved. I reckon it's border-line discriminatory to not let this single parent have a role as they can't guarentee attendance ... surely any single parent is going to have serious childcare issues attending every meeting.

At my children's school the T is absent we have a PA! (though the head does attend I beleive)

You seem to be taking the school liason officer's word as gospel. Can she produce a copy of this constitution (or whatever it is) that she is quoting?

This was all dumped on me at 3pm, hence why I'm on here tonight trying to find out what the "rules" really are because tbh the "T" is a it bossy imo and!!! I do think its discriminatory that they effectively won't let a single parent take on a key role.

But, what I've found out from a bit of MN help is that it probably isn't "them" its probably the constitution which was set up by the original parent group.

I now need to get that off of her tommorow and have a little rummage.

So does anyone know how I go about changing the constitution if that is whats causing the problem??

Very interesting that you have joint roles iamcountingto3!! That could be very helpful!

Quite apart from the legalities, I'm not sure how effective a non-attending Treasurer would be. You pick up a lot of gossip in meetings which helps keep the accounts straight - you know that you are expecting this income or that expense. If you don't have your ear to the ground, you might miss something. Also, I find it useful to attend meetings because that is often where you physically receive money or hand over cheques to re-imburse people. How would your non-attendee organise this?

You should have a copy of the constitution. You should know where it is really. We have a gmail account set up with all documents online and copies kept.

If none of the parents know this, they the teacher element should know where it is. If they don't, then there is trouble. All minutes should be fed back to the governers after meetings, and copies of documents need to be kept.

I wouldn't think it is too tricky to change the constitution. I don't know for certain but you could just make a new one. As long as you keep the old one and have everything documented to show a change, you should be fine. TBH though, I would think it strange if it stated on the constitution that key members must attend meetings, sounds like this person at the school is just being an arse.

There is a need for a treasurers report at the meetings, and the treasurer should be reading the minutes so that they are up to date, but they don't have to be at the meetings.

I often find trouble with the T aspect of the PTA, we are having issues with ours.

We always meet in the evenings, 7pm onwards, once a month. No-one brings children as they tend to be in bed but if they need to, then they need to!

senua, we feed money to our treasurer via a dedicated PTA drawer in reception - the reception staff pass it on. Either that, or someone drops the money round to their house. It is do-able. Not ideal, ideally everyone would be there but needs must.

How about having the odd meeting at the Treasurers house??

The PTA secretary should have a copy of the constitution on file. It's possible that it's buried so far under a pile of paperwork that it's all but impossible to find, mind you. Maybe your new secretary did a bunk when (s)he saw the paperwork, OP! It would be useful for any group to be able to lay their hands on this document, as it's sometimes required when making grant applications.
We try to vary our meeting times and places so that everyone has a chance of attending some of them, and all of us with younger children have them with us if we meet after school. The T element with us is variable to say the least, but they do appreciate that we are by definition parents and there's a fair chance we'll be looking after them.

Good idea from lenniethelion...

IIrc, hvaing changed constitutions for other organisations I'm involved with, getting a vote is often all it needs... (although exact nature of voting requirements eg. majority vs 70% etc) would need to be checked

We have a dedicated PTA drawer - well, two cupboards actually in reception. Couple of drawers as in-tray for different things (ticket/purchases vs money to be paid in)