PTA meetings may be board meetings, executive committee meetings, committee meetings or general meetings.
Check your unit’s bylaws to determine how many of each type of meeting is necessary. In general, only those individuals who belong to the group (board or committee or general membership) need to be at that meeting.
TIPS FOR RUNNING MEETINGS
- The president and executive board should plan association meetings ahead of time.
- Be sure meetings are informative and of interest to your community.
- If you have an event tied to the meeting (potluck, school district speaker on a topic of interest, Math night, etc.) you may get more people to attend.
- Take a moment to brag about what your PTA is doing and explain activities that are coming up. This will highlight the value your PTA brings to your school and may interest some new volunteers!
- Be excited about PTA and how members are helping to make your school a better place.
- Thank members for joining and ask those who have not yet joined to join now.
- Always have a membership table set up at events and provide the opportunity to join at every association meeting.
- Keep the meeting moving along by providing copies of the necessary reports, especially those the membership needs to approve.
More Resources
- Making the most of your association meetings
- Sample agenda and phrases to use
- Sample meeting minutes
- Effective board meetings
- Tips for reaching a quorum at your PTA meeting
- Chairing a tough meeting
- Secrets to building attendance
MINUTES
Minutes are the permanent legal record of all action taken by the association and the executive board and must be retained forever. The meetings of each PTA group should be preserved through the recording of minutes. Each group’s meeting is different and different minutes are required. The board meeting cannot be combined with the association meeting.
Minutes should contain:
- Name of the association
- Type of meeting e.g. association, executive board, special
- Date, time, and place of meeting
- Name and title of presiding officer
- Disposition of minutes of previous meeting – approved or approved as corrected; if corrected, next minutes should show corrections
- Treasurer’s report as given and list of bills authorized for payment and may place hard copy in minutes book
- Summarized reports of other officers and chairs; important reports such as budget should be attached to the minutes
- A record of each motion voted upon, the name of member who made the motion, and whether adopted or defeated; the maker of the second is not recorded
- Copy of any resolutions adopted
- Record of results of any election and numbers of votes cast
- Brief notation of program – topic, names of participants, method of presentation
- Time of adjournment
- Signature of secretary, using name and title e.g., Mary R. Jones, secretary.
Minutes should be complete, concise and accurate. Actions must be recorded in the order they took place. All corrections to the minutes are entered in the margin of the permanent copy, in red ink, dated and initialed. Corrections may be made at any subsequent meeting. Minutes must be pasted in a permanent book or bound at the end of the year.
Parliamentary Procedure
Parliamentary procedure is an orderly set of rules for conducting meetings for the purpose of accomplishing goals fairly. Learn more about parliamentary procedure.
Use of parliamentary procedure ensures:
- Justice and courtesy for all
- Maintenance of order
- Consideration of one subject at a time
- Rule of the majority is reflected
- Rights of the minority are protected
- Partiality to none.