While there aren't any required by-laws, there are some things expected by the IRS. So if you are even thinking about later becoming a 501(c)(3) Tax Exempt Organization, you might want to keep that in mind. We had to amend our by-laws as follows because our dissolution clause only said if we disbanded that the assets would go to the school. It didn't specify what happened if the SCHOOL (and thus us) ceased to exist. It was no big deal, but you may as well just include it from the beginning. Here's the clause we had to add. It's fairly boilerplate language:
"Upon dissolution of this organization, after paying or adequately providing for the debts and obligations of this PTO, the remaining assets shall be distributed to {school name}. If {schoolname} ceases to exist, remaining PTO assets shall be distributed for one or more exempt purposes within the meaning of section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or corresponding section of any future federal tax code, or shall be distributed to the federal government, or to a state or local government, for a public purpose."
[This message has been edited by JHB (edited 01-28-2001).]
FYI. There really are no "Illinois bylaws" for PTOs, since PTOs are independent. You may do very well to use sample bylaws from other schools as a guide, but you are free to build your PTO as you see fit (depending on your needs and goals) within the fairly general nonprofit laws.
Just thought I'd try to clarify, as "can we get a copy of the (fill in state here) bylaws?" is about the most frequent request we get.
PTOMOM2 I'm in Illinois and would be glad to get you a copy of ours if it would help. We are adding to ours so that a few area's are covered a little better. Just let me know if you would like a copy.
