There is likely other items within your Bylaws that might help here.
For example, does the Bylaws indicate who has complete control and authority over your group? For example, my group's Bylaws state the following:
"The Board of Directors shall have the entire charge, control and management of the corporation and its property and may exercise all or any of its powers."
This pretty much means that the Board can do what you are looking to do, at any time, as long as they follow the proper procedures.
So, more than likely, again dependaing on the other points within your Bylaws, your Board or President can determine whether an amendment is needed and then follow the specified procedures. You may want to amend the point on amendments to indicate that they are allowed at any time so that this will not be an issue in the future.
Overall though, if the majority doesn't have a problem then this shouldn't be an issue.
Lastly, in regards to your Principal trying to control how your funds are being spent...
Does your group have a yearly budget that is created by your President and the treasurer before the start of the new year?
If so, then it is really easy to say to the Principal that his request is not possible at this time as it was not approved when the yearly budget was passed and that it can be looked at for next year (or something like that). By having a yearly budget, which indicates allocations for all of your events, programs, etc.; it sets the precedence that your group controls the $ and that any staff member, including the Principal whoi wants something, must come to you and ask, not demand or assume.
since you question what this means, you should take this concern to the whole board and ask all their opinions. I would think if everyone can be on the same page, that you could change the by laws by majority vote of all PTO members.
make sure this gets clarified when you do!
I'm not sure what the intention was when that provision was written, but I think generally, bylaws are reviewed and updated on a certain schedule (yearly, in the case of your bylaws), but changes can be made, upon majority approval, any time they are necessary. While you are making whatever changes you need, you might want to clarify the amendment procedure!
We have bylaws and lately we have been having problems with the Principals in our school telling us what we have to spend our money on. I already know that we are an independent organization and we do not have to spend funds just because the Principal said so. We would like to update our bylaws but not sure how to interpret the last sentence in regards to Amendments. It reads: "Amendments to the bylaws shall be reviewed yearly by the upcoming board and changes may be made in accordance by a majority vote of the board."
Does this mean changes can only be made by the upcoming board or can the current board, which I am part of, make changes at anytime in the year as long as we have majority vote, which is required.
