PTO Today

Hi, Sorry for all the posts and questions! Our council PTA has made the expected call to ask for our books, money, etc. after we had our disband vote. Of course, I told her that she needs to follow procedure and file a change-of-status-disband form with the state, as specified in the state's bylaws. Her argument was that "you disbanded, you are no longer a PTA!"

Long story short, she will follow procedure, but my question is, when are we officially no longer a PTA? I was assuming it takes effect on June 30th, and not on the date of our vote!

Is there anything stated anywhere that a unit is no longer a PTA after the vote to disband, or after the forms are filed? I'd like to use this argument to tell her that we have obligations to fulfill as a PTA until June 30th, and that we cannot surrender anything until then. But I'd also like to have some back-up before I tell her that!

Thanks!

Jcarar,

I was reading the national bylaws the other day. It states that you can give a one time donation to another nonprofit group when you disband. The problem with that is that if you are a registered 501c3 then the federal government says you can't.
If on the other hand you spent down the PTA funds, prepay for events or something, then their will be no funds to take control of. As for the books they have the right and the moral obligation to ask for them. You should have had your plans all laid out before you voted to disband. If the vote had been on a question such as "Should we disband On June 30, 2007" then I think you would have been alright.

Invloved.Parent

"moral obligation"?????

I don't understand that statement. In fact, a 501c3 CAN make a donation to another 501c3. So the PTA, a 501c3, could make a donation. And if the new parent group isn't a registered 501c3 yet, I'd call the IRS about accepting the donation as a "pending 501c3" before I automatically assumed that the new group couldn't accept the donation.

Jcarar - if the disbanding is effective with your vote, why would there another form to file? And Robert's Rules says votes take effect immediately unless the motion states otherwise.

Hi All! Thanks for the feedback. But as far as when we are officially "no longer a PTA," what would that date be? As far as I know, it is June 30th. But the council rep seems to think that it takes effect the day of the vote.

Note to involved.parent--thank you, but I did have my plans all laid out before the vote, probably more than most. I don't quite understand the assumption on your part. My question was regarding what I asked above. Notice that the question refers to something that happened after the vote.

JC-

Why do you assume it's the end of the month?

If it were me, I'd get rid of those dollars now. My typical advice is to get the $$ down to zero/near-zero *before* the final vote. But since you've already had the final vote, my next advice would be to do that as soon as possible.

Basic principle is that if there are no dollars to claim, there's not a lot to argue about. The paperwork and the like is small potatoes. But $4,000 or $10,000 or something is not. Sooner you don't have those dollars in the PTA account, the sooner you're out of harm's way.

Tim

Hi Tim,
I assumed it was the end of the month because I thought that was the official end of the PTA year for our school, and also possibly the end of the fiscal year for our school. Regardless of my assumption, is there anything that says when we are officially no longer a PTA?

Also, we spent down as much money as we could, but we still have some last-minute deposits to make (front desk oversight), as well as a $5000 bill for our recent book fair. I imagine that we cannot write PTA a check for the balance until our deposits have been made, and our bills have been paid. In addition, don't we need to do our end-of-year audit?