Our PTO president spent almost $4000 in attorneys fees without consulting the membership. The attorney was apparently hired to add the legally required language for a non-profit organization to our bylaws and to file the necessary documentation with the IRS. The attorney is said to have told the president that Pennsylvania law required us to become incorporated in order to be a non-profit organization, and he went ahead and incorporated our organization as well.

This has turned into a major issue within our PTO, because the members were never given any notice that the lawyer would be hired, nor were we given the opportunity to vote on the expenditure or whether to to incorporate the organization. The president's actions are now being defended as legally required.

From reading this board and from experience with other non-profit organizations, I understood incorporation to be an issue separate from filing for non-profit status -- that it mostly concerned protecting the officers from personal liability.

Does anyone know whether Pennsylvania law requires incorporation? I'm interested in everyone's input, but if you have citations to the relevant law, that would be most helpful!