I am one of those members who is a Secretary but has no child in the school currently. I have a 6th grader at the junior high and I won't have my little one in kindergarten until the fall. We have it in our bylaws that way. Anyone in the "learning community" that means school, town, etc. can run. You have to be voted in regardless. Each of our Exec. Board positions are only held for one year terms. We vote every year although last year each position ran unopposed. Not sure what is happening this year as we have our next meeting Monday. So far no one else has been asked to be put on the ballot.
It just drives me crazy when someone is told they can't run for an office because someone has already taken it. It's nice to have someone in every spot if possible, but people should get to run for the spot they want, not what's left over. We rarely have more than one person in a spot, because as people are nominated or offer to run for the position, others who are interested on being on the board, but don't have a preference usually offer their services in vacant positions.
Check your by laws. I agree that it's a good idea have a student in the school to be an officer. I think being a member is fine, if your student has moved on and you want to still help out at school. Board members should be parents..its like having a City Board and not living in that city..you need to have a stake in the school or city...if not then what is the point of running?
Like YCmom noted, the majority of the time elections are not needed because most people run unopposed. The president could have handled this situation a heck of a lot better by saying" Our current vice president is running for the treasury spot. No one is running for the secretary spot, so why don't you go for that position".
The second line in our by-laws requires you to be a parent or employee of a student in our school. I agree this is something to look into. If anything you can always let others know you would rather be a write in for Treasure than run for Secretary.
Oh... when asking for the copy of by-laws, I would say i wnat to research the Secretary position. If this board is like the "old dogs" I have worked with, they will not only question your wanting to see the by-laws for the election proceedures BUT be a possbile pain about it.....
Even if that parent can be the Treasurer, I just hate it when someone tells someone else it's already decided who will be what. I know it's not seen often enough, but you can also run and it will come down to the vote. Of course, doing that can also cause whispers and bad feelings. I've been there and didn't run and that next year was horrible for those on the board as that person who was "picked" was lousy at the job. I didn't actually run for a board position until middle school and it's hard to get anyone to do the positions so it's easy to get things done.
