im confused on which meeting was 1st addressed on this topic. our board meetings are 1 - 1 1/2 hrs long but our open pto meetings to the non-board members are short. these have become a joke basically! i would like some advice on what is done at these meetings by others. we have 4 open meetings a yr at 6:30 followed by a grades program at 7. its gotten to where its like 5 min.pres says hello, read boring secry report, announce a winner of a reading book(the class that has most parents on sign in sheet) & then done. is this a time we could do a parent activity,learning time, devotions or should we be letting all the chairs talk during the open meetings like this 2nd post was talking about and have an "open forum" by the public. is this what should be done or is that asking for disaster. Thanks SuZan

Our meetings (last year) were usually 2 hours or longer because the President would use the PTO time to air her personnal crap about stuff the school board wanted to do. I have been able to keep our meetings right at an hour but have been REALLY forceful about the fact I only have a hour and need to get home to my family.
We have open forum at the end also. I like this because the parents that have issues can chat and the ones that are ready to go often say "Is this it? I'll talk to you later!" and go.
I did try a guest specker in the first part of the year with little success. Many complained that they were there for the meeting not a "class" but I have some really honest parents if I ask what they thought of something.
I have never heard of meetings being to short...

Our meeting use to be long but we have not gone over an hour for a while. open forum goes at the end so you have to stay the entire time and it is starting to get late. Introductions are at the first meeting of the year. We never read the minutes and do not have new business and old business topics. We listen to chairpeople of upcome (close) events only. We have the treasurers report plus any topics/questions that were left in the PTO mailbox. Also, the principal has a few monents to talk.

Too Short? I can tell you how to make them longer if you will tell me how to make them shorter!!! Our meetings come in at just about an hour and a half and I would do anything, and I mean ANYTHING to get them down to an hour.
Our meetings run very long for several reasons. I think the main one is because it is hard to get everyone to agree on things. Everyone has an idea of how something should be done. I'm already called "The Dictator", so I try to let everyone have their say. And that of course leads right into the "My Idea Is Better Than Yours" game.
Another reason ours runs long is because I load the agenda with business. A typical agenda begins with an open forum. This is where anyone can speak their mind, be it compliments, problems, ideas, etc. We do not respond to this and it is recorded seperately from the minutes. At the next officers meeting, we discuss putting open forum suggestions, comments, etc. on to the business agenda. We follow open forum with an introduction of officers, the principal, asst. principal, any district office bigwigs, and guests. I usually give the principal a few minutes to speak, as well as the asst. principal.
We then read the prior month's minutes and do the treasury report. Next, I have the various Chairs give one or two minutes reports on their committees. Then we discuss fundraising as a separate issue, as I handle the fundraising on a day to day basis. Following this, is Teacher's Forum, where teachers get to ask for stuff they need. Followed by Old Business and then New Business. We usually play the "Can't Agree On This" game for a while, ending up with me getting ticked off, calling 5 minutes to finish before I shelve the dang thing. The only reason our meetings are getting shorter is because we are completing our events. We fill that time with working on the bylaws, or coming up, making gifts for our various Staff Appreciation Day's. Believe me when I say that this will eat up your time and you'll be wondering why the words Guest Speaker ever entered your mind...lol...

After our last meeting we had a few complaints that our meeting was too short.
Does anyone have suggestions on speakers to talk about things that the parents
would like to listen to and not be board?