Our PTO is very small. Pretty much it consist of some of the officers in attendance at each meeting. Notice I said "some". For the past 5 years our PTO officers have been as such.
President- parent (always there)
Vice- parent (usually there)
Treasurer- teacher (there maybe 3 times in previous 5 years)
Secretary- (never there)
Principal (sometimes)

I am not kidding. I was President for 2 of those years and we have tried to vote in a treasurer that was not a teacher and the principal always insists that it is easier this way. Well we voted in our new officers at the begining of this month and we now have a parent that is treasurer and will be there.
I showed up to 2 of our meeting and was the only one there.

We never had a secretary to take notes, I tried and I kept some but i was the president not the secretary.

While I was president, the treasurer never came to 1 meeting. Never even sent a bank statement. We never knew how much money we had to deal with.
We never had minutes from any meeting so that we could go back for any reference. We didn't even have any by-laws until 2006 when I found some on here and re-worded them and we adopted them then.

It has been so hard, we want to do good things for the kids but we get NO help.

The previous treasurer would not give up the books and checks until just yesterday. Come to find out, she kept no books. Only bank statements and some receipts. So we don't have any previous records of past spending.

What really ticks me off are the parents (and teachers) that gripe about thow things are and what is purchased with PTO money, but they won't even come to a meeting.

Any suggestions!

skouve-
Wow - sounds like a frustrating situation. Hopefully with some new people in place, you'll see some improvement. Do you have a new secretary now? As for your treasurer situation, now is your chance to get things on track. Suggest that you pass along info to your new treasurer:
PTO/PTA Officer Transition Survival Kit | PTO Today

PTO Treasurer: Duties, Paperwork, Reports, And Help For PTO / PTA Treasurers

In terms of involvement maybe you could focus more on involvement and less on the PTO meetings. Check out this Tim's Tip:

PTO Today Blog Blog Archive My Tip of the Week: Stop Worrying about Meeting Attendance

Also, have you tried the "Two Hour Power" approach to getting more parents involved?

Lots of leaders say that this has helped them a lot to "bring in new blood".

~Lisa