Our bylaws had originally stated that any office could be co-chaired except for President. We amended that last year to state that all office could be co-chaired and my friend and I are currently serving as co-presidents. It's been a great year: we get along great, and have no problems sharing the duties, in fact, it makes the job much easier. We take turns doing the newsletter and running the meetings.
I say go for it! Follow the RRO for making bylaw changes so it's all fair and agreeable to your members.
Roberts Rules of Order, which typically governs organizations when the bylaws are silent on an issue, stipulates that bylaw amendements must be made known to the members in advance of the vote. In our PTO, we take that to mean that we present the amendment one month and vote the next. If you're pressed for time since you're up against a deadline for elections, you might be ok to send out a notice that this proposed amendment is going to be discussed and put to a vote at our next meeting. The intent is to give members time to consider a proposed amendment before it voted. Otherwise, a handful of people could show up at a meeting and completely revise your bylaws themselvesin one evening!
On the subject of one president vs. co. Our bylaws specify one and only one president, but up to two VPs. This restriction was added to keep the focus on one leader, to push one person to accept the responsibilty for the group, and to keep it very clear to everyone that one person is ultimately in charge. It clarifies communication between the principal and the Prez and the members and the Prez.
The expectation was that, even when two people want to share Prez, one would be willing to be Prez and the other could be a VP. In practice, there's usually one person who ends up being the lead "co" anyway, so our provision just reinforces the relationship. No confusion, no hard feelings. It has worked for us for 5 years.
Thanks so much Cindy - we are going to request/suggest at our meeting on Tuesday....did you have to make a written change in the bylaws for this? The nomination chair is going to ask me I am sure so I want to be prepared!
As you stated, we think it will work out great! For the exact same reasons - we both have different strengths that would be a perfect fit!
