Q&A

Volunteer wants to take over

There this one volunteer who has been helping us since the start of the school year but little by little she has started trying to take over the PTO. We've made complaints to our school principal and she simply nods her head yes at the PTO board as if saying she wants to part of this drama. Is this volunteer allowed to come into the PTO room and do whatever she wants to do, ie make popcorn when shes hungry?
- gpcats2010

It's not entirely clear from your question what the main issue is. Should a key volunteer be allowed to make popcorn when she is hungry? Yes, absolutely. The more comfortable you can make the atmosphere, the more volunteers you'll attract and the more likely you are to get volunteers to return. Is there another problem, like it annoys the office staff, or you were saving the popcorn for movie night? If so, you should deal with those issues directly and professionally -- tell her the reasons for your concern and suggest alternatives (non-smelly snacks / bring in a box and label it, or better yet, your group purchases a separate box that may be used by volunteers.) Beyond that, it sounds like you may have a leadership challenge. I have two articles to suggest that might help: Stop the PTO Drama by PTO Today founder Tim Sullivan and How To Deal With Difficult People by leadership expert Darylen Cote. Good luck, and feel free to post more details for a more specific response.
- Craig
Links in this post:

Stop the PTO Drama: https:/www.ptotoday.com//pto-today-articles/article/821-stop-the-pto-drama

How To Deal With Difficult People: https:/www.ptotoday.com//pto-today-articles/article/409-how-to-deal-with-difficult-people