How can our school get away with charging dues to every family but having closed meetings? It isn't fair.

It depends on which meetings are closed. If it is the executive board meeting then those are usually closed...our executive meetings involove preparing our agenda and hashing things out before our general membership meeting. Now if you are saying that your organization is not allowing paid members attend a membership meeting then I would have to say that is totally absurd!! If that is the case why do people pay dues? How can they even call themselves an organization? I wish you could post again and be more specific and perhaps we could be of more help to you....

CHECK YOUR BY-LAWS! If you don't have a copy, ask for one. Some Executive Board meetings are "closed" to the general membership. But it may be in your by-laws that a certain number of general membership people are allowed to attend certain board meetings. Just depends on what's in your organization's by-laws. If they have closed general meetings then that is totally wrong and something's up!