ptonaive - you probably already had your meeting. But for discussion's sake, here are my comments.

First of all - Regardless of the election outcome, I suggest you pursue amending your bylaws to remove the 8th Grade restriction.

You say the bylaws require 2/3 majority to elect...is that 2/3 of all members? or 2/3 of members present at the meeting and voting (those who abstain are not considered voters and so don't count toward the vote count)? And does your bylaws specific quorum? Typically, there is a minimum number of members needed to hold a legal vote. It's 15 in our PTO, so if we have only 15 at our election, and all vote, and we require 2/3 to elect, a candidate would need to get at least 10 votes.

Assuming yours is the same, if any candidate fails to get 10 votes, she is not elected per your bylaws (and my interpretation). The 2/3 requirement is very restrictive. RRO reserves that for amendments that take away members' rights or to undo something that has already been voted and approved. You might want to consider changing the rule to majority (the one with more than 1/2 the votes wins) or plurality wins (the one with the most votes wins in the case of 3 or more candidates).

If your bylaws are silent on the specific procedures for the election, my version of Roberts Rules seems to suggest the President can select the voting approach. That could be by written ballot, even if none of the positions are contested. There's no rule about how your ballot should be formatted, but you do have to think about whether the vote should be for the whole slate or office by office. Sounds like you'd prefer each office be voted for individually which means you ballot would have little boxes next to each nominee's name.

You must still ask for nominations from the floor the night of the election. If any, they are write-ins to the printed ballot or you could rush to the computer/copier and make new ballots on the spot.

If some of the board officers are elected but not all (because the candidate didn't get the required 2/3), then you need to refer to your bylaws to see how officer vacancies are filled. In our PTO, the remaining exec officers vote to fill any vacancy. But if your bylaws are silent on the issue of officer vacancies, RRO says the job is filled by the highest ranking VP and the subsequent VP vacancy is filled by the same method used to elect the officers in the first place.

Hope this helps.

Help! Please look at my post on PTO elections and post some advice for me! It's urgent as we have a meeting tonight for pre-election planning. THANKS

HELP! I need advice! I hope Phil Bernstein sees this! We are about to have our elections. We have several positions open which have qualified candidates. But the President's slot has had no volunteers except one person who several of us do not trust or respect. She resigned from the Board early last October amid a self-created controversy. She wanted us to run a fundraiser for which she was the sales rep and would make thousands in commission. Long story short, a few of us strongly objected that it was a conflict of interest. Her allies included the teacher reps and the PRINCIPAL who forced us (yes, it's true) to go forward with the sale. However, just before the start of the sale the sales lady resigned and the Principal told us "there you go, no more conflict of interest". We suspect the school's legal team advised this so she could have her cake and eat it too! Well, now she is back and is running unopposed for President! Our bylaws are quite loose but they do say if we have an election, one has to win by 2/3 majority. The loophole is that it also says "In the case of more than one person wanting the position, an election will be held."
We thought we would have more than one candidate so we started down the path to an election. We are all under the impression that an election will take place, because that is how we walked away and I am usually the only to read the fine print in the bylaws!I feel we must go forward with the election anyway, but I hope someone doesn't pull us back based on that. Any ideas?

The bylaws also state the Pres must be an 8th grade parent (our PTO covers 6th, 7th &8th)so we can't just run against her as we aren't 8th grade parents. Many people have serious concerns about this woman but so far, we can't get around her. We do not trust or respect her. She is still signing checks for the position she resigned from in Oct 2005! We have to address that too. The problem is no one else in 8th grade wants the job because she has given our PTO such a bad name! We have some good people now and we are trying to turn it around. HELP! I have two specific questions and I welcome all comments/advice.

1. when someone is unopposed, what should the ballot look like? Simple boxes for yes or no after their name? Is this the way a ballot would always look anyway ? (I am new at this)
I saw another post from someone discussing "NO" votes leading to "no confidence" and that gave me hope. Does the position just remain open then? If so, the Executive Board can fill it and we'll be okay; we'll find a solution.

2. How do I convince her allies that if there is no opposition, there still has to be a yes/no because that is all we are voting on? That is the purpose of the election. I think they want (and think) that she just gets voted in because she is unopposed. The 8th grade reps (her supporters) will put up a big fight if we all vote no and try to leave the office open. Some of us feel the answer is to make a motion to remove the requirement that it has to be an 8th grade parent.

Any advice would be most welcome and needed ASAP!

We just had our elections for a 2-year term for all 5 Exec Bd positions.

Our Nominating Committee is chaired by the Principal and has 2-4 parents involved. No one on the current board is allowed to be on the NC and no one on the NC is eligible to be put up for election. Anyone who is interested in serving on the board needs to let the NC know. Their official job is to review eligibility but their un-official job is to recruit candidates. The full slate of eligible candidates and there positions are presented by the NC at the next-to-last regular meeting of the year (early May). Additional nominations are taken from the floor if anyone else wants to run at the last minute. If there is no contest for a seat, the election is held by voice vote, otherwise the NC oversees a secret ballot.

The new board is sworn in to office in front of the entire school at a special PTO meeting a few weeks later. The new board then runs the last regular meeting of the year (in June) and (hopefully) starts with a full head of steam in September.

Our Charter allows a parent to serve in a board position for no more than 2 consecutive terms (4 years). Once that time is up, they are not eligible to serve in the same position for at least 1 year, but can serve on the board in another office.

We also require PTO members to be in attendence to vote (and accept a nomination if they did not notify the NC earlier).

There is a lot of behind-the-scenes work done by the NC up front - it is all kept confidential and they try to find/present a slate of officers that will work well together. The actual election doesn't take much time at all - less than 5 minutes this time around (beat you mykidsmom!

Hope that answered all your questions.

Our by-laws are much simpliar than Crew Mom which is cool but really not much different.

I myself would like to serve another term as Prez but I still needed to be nominated and elected just like anyone else. It's only fair.

Our new Board takes their offices right at the May meeting, as a matter of fact the President begins the meeting and hte President- elect says good night. We do have in our by-laws that the new and old are to exchange information after the meeting.

We have the election close to one of the last order of business and when the election is announced we start by reading the names on the ballot and asking if their is anyone that would like to be written in. At that time such name is either written in ir we move on to actual voting. Our election is held with ballot voting and the ballots are cast in a ballot box. The ballots are then counted by two teachers and two parents that volunteered at the April meeting. They are excused to the library to count and come back with the results. The Secretary then keeps the ballots for a year with her other documents.

The whole elections really takes less than an hour...one year aobut 15 minutes!

Our officers serve a term of one year beginning July 1. Any existing officer who wishes to retain a position must inform the Nominations Committee of their desire to run. They are then a candidate and must be reelected.

Here's what our bylaws say about elections:

Section 6 - Candidate Slate
Prior to the April meeting, the President shall appoint a Nominations Committee of three to five non-officer members whose duty shall be to present a slate of candidates for the succeeding year. The goal of the Nominations Committee should be to actively seek a diverse representation of the membership to the organization.

Section 7 - Candidate Consent
The Nominations Committee must obtain the consent of each proposed candidate.

Section 8 - Slate Presentation
The slate of candidates shall be published in the school newsletter no less than 14 days but preferably 30 days prior to election.

Section 9 – Election
Membership shall vote on the slate of candidates at a meeting held during the calendar school year and prior to June 1st. The election meeting will be published at the same time as the slate of candidates. Written ballot voting is required. A majority vote of those members present determines those elected. No vote may be cast by proxy. A tie shall be broken by the drawing of lots.