This year when our pto held elections in May no one stepped up to be nominated. One person decided to remain on the board as the secretary. I started on the pto board 4 years ago as secretary then co-chair and then chair. This past year I was not on the board. I heard about the empty board and approached a friend of mine and asked her to co-chair with me instead of having the pto go under. She agreed and together we enlisted the help of enough women(12) to have a complete board. We decided to have an informal meeting to exchange numbers and meet everyone. When the outgoing chair heard this she got upset and called for a board meeting to vote in officers. Our by laws state that when a position in unfilled or vacated after the elections there is no need to hold a nomination or vote. She is still holding the meeting. I have looked at robert's rules and our bylaws and have not found any helpful info. I thought she would just be happy to have a board for next year? Anyone run into this problem before? I am afraid that she will try to cause problems and then discourage the potential new members-what a way to scare newbies away. Any input would be appreciated.

That's great of you to step up and take charge of getting an active board together for the school. It would never be a good thing to have a PTO go under for lack of a board. If your by-laws do not state anything about when there are no nominations than I would think that you would be good. I would call the outgoing president and confirm things with her. Let her know how you feel, and that you hated to see the PTO fold-- maybe she thought you were stepping on her toes, since you scheduled an informal meeting with out talking to her first. I sure it can all be worked out-- communication has been a problem for us this year-- a lot of misunderstandings because items were not talked about and just assumed. Good luck!

Thanks so much for the reply.....some times I think we read into things too much. You are right, I probably need to just call her and talk with her.

thanks