PTA - Changes to a constitution

miss_spooky

Hi all,

Quick question:- We've just had our AGM and as a result would like to make a change to our constitution. Can this be made by calling a Special / Ex. Meeting?

Reason: 1 person who only became active on our PTA in March decided to bring in 10 of her friends who have never stepped near the PTA to vote her in (They also spend most of their time slagging off the PTA & the events we run). Luckily we had a strong enough PTA committee to see what was happening & vote the correct person in.

Because we realised this was going to happen, we took the decision not to include a clause saying that "in order to vote at an election you have to be an active member of the PTA for x time & attend x meeting consecutively". Democratically we felt this wasn't right & all prayed on the day.

Now this has been done, we would like to safe guard the PTA from such attacks and now put this clause in.

Our Constitution does state :-

12.AMENDMENTS

ThisConstitution may be amended at a General meeting of the Association by atwo-thirds majority of the votes cast, but

12.1 The Members must be given 21 clear days’ notice of the proposedamendments

12.2 No amendment is valid if it would make a fundamental change to the Objects/clause2 or destroy the charitable status of the Association and no amendment may bemade to clause 9 without the prior written consent of the Charity Commission

12.3 A copy of any resolution amending this constitution must be sent tothe Charity Commission within 21 days of it being passed


Is this possible?

paddyrg

I would imagine if the change is well supported it oughtn't be an issue. It's not like anyone really is affected by your constitution amendments except yourselves, so you're not going to get a knock on the door from the PTA cops. To be sure though, doubtless one of the kids at the school has a lawyer parent who'll do you a bargain hour to keep everything legal.

Edit to add... I remember back at uni in the early 90's someone staged a minor coup at the union magazine, taking the council meeting by storm with his own support. The guy is now a well-loved national newsreader. These things happen!

DigForVictory

Ask the clerk who does the Governors meetings. They'll know the school, the drill & may even have template constitutional amendments. You will not be the first PTA to go through this, so ask those who see it enough to email you a few files!
All the best

Savvy_Sue

I'm not going to comment on the legalities, however I would suggest that the PTA is often seen as a clique, and if there is any way of harnessing these people who haven't previously stepped near the PTA then I would do so.

People help because they're personally asked to help, in my experience. So you can appeal as much as you like through the school newsletter and satchel post, but if you go to this person and say "I know you're keen to help out, can you get a few people to run this stall and that stall at the Christmas Fair?" then you've got a good start.

If people are slagging off the committee and the events you run, ask them to run one, or to suggest what they'd support and get involved in.

When I was chair (and treasurer, and secretary, and general dogsbody), there were often ideas suggested which I personally thought were not so great, but I didn't pour cold water on all of them. Sometimes I was right, sometimes I was wrong, the important thing was that other people felt they had a contribution to make.

Savvy_Sue

I have carried on thinking about this ... and if I understand you correctly you're planning to include a clause in your constitution which says:

miss_spooky wrote: »

"in order to vote at an election you have to be an active member of the PTA for x time & attend x meeting consecutively".

and your normal time for elections is late September / early October.

Personally, I think this could be a bit heavy handed. Whatever value you put on x, it seems to me that you are actively DIScouraging 'new blood', in particular parents who are new to the school. Whereas I would bite the hand off anyone who offered ANY help at all!

Also, I had some helpers who never came to meetings: we usually met during the day or straight after school, so that excluded all the working parents for starters. But for events, Jo would ask Jill to help on her stall, and Sally would ask Sarah, and Mary would rope Mike in. If the only way to be involved was to come to committee meetings, we'd never have been able to do anything.

I'm sure some people thought we were very cliquey, but I honestly think we did our damnedest to get as many parents (and grandparents) involved as we possibly could, and if anyone had an idea we'd give it a try as long as we could obviously make it break even. And if you offered to help, I'd find you something to do which you would hopefully enjoy!

Now, once the boys went to secondary school I didn't get involved at all, partly because I was still running myself ragged at the primary school when the eldest started. I think, however, that I offered to help at events, in writing, and never heard a dicky bird. I had neither time nor inclination for attending meetings, but I would have helped run a stall if I'd been asked.

As I see it, you don't want to put barriers up. Get those people involved!

Mistral001

I agree with Savy Sue. What the OP is planning to do is heavy handed and will reinforce the cliquiness of the committee.

Also the clause seems very vague and is open to interpretation in should have thought. I would seek legal advice before attempting to introduce it. People get very upset when they think that those in power are trying to prevent them from being represented and it is not unknown that they get so upset that they are willing to take legal action.