I hope everyone had a great spring break. This email is to remind you that we have a PTA meeting this Thursday, April 12th. Pizza will be provided at 6:30 pm. The meeting will be from 7 to 8:30. Childcare and Spanish translation will be provided. The meeting will be in the media center at the main campus. 

  

Nothing says Springtime like a Thursday evening meeting about bylaws and funding! While we have tried to stay away from "business" at the PTA meetings throughout the year, we need to have your input this month on several important items. Thursday's meeting will focus on funding for the new PTA, nominations for both schools, and new bylaws.

 

To make the process easier, this email includes a proposal for the funding and draft bylaws . We have also included contact people for each item so you know who to connect with. If you are unable to make the meeting, please email the contact person with your ideas, questions, or concerns.

 

Over the past few months, I have been receiving lots of emails with questions and suggestions. Please keep them coming. We are all working to make sure both schools have what they need next year. 

   

Thanks,

 

John

 

You can view drafts by clicking OT Bylaws or DCC #29 Bylaws.  The bylaws will be voted on at the PTA meeting on May 1, 2012.  Please send any questions or suggestions for OT to Michael and for DCC #29 to Tamara. Many thanks to both of them and their committees for all their work to get the draft bylaws written.

 

Please note that most of the Bylaws are mandated by the Maryland PTA and cannot be changed.  The mandatory provisions are indicated by a "#" in front of the provision. The bylaws for both schools are similar to those we have had for OTES in the past. Changes were made based on historical practices, flexibility, and to account for the fact that both schools will be smaller beginning next year. The proposed changes compared to the existing Bylaws are summarized below: 

• Article VI:  Officers and their Election  
• Section 2.b:  election of officers to occur at the June meeting instead of May meeting.   This conforms the Bylaws to historical practice and the reality that it takes longer to get the nominees.
• Section 3.c:  make a corresponding change to Section 3.c so that the nominating committee issues its report 10 days before the May meeting (instead of the April meeting).  This again conforms to historical practice and aligns with officer elections at the June meeting.
• Section 4:  change Section 4 "1st vice president" to "president-elect" to conform to the fact we have no vice-presidents and instead have a president-elect.  
• Article XI:  General Membership Meetings
• Section 1:  change "At least seven" to "At least six" to give greater flexibility and not require meetings for the sake of meetings.
• Section 1:  change 10 days notice to 5 days notice for changes to the dates of meetings because we have in recent years had issues with changing dates due to conflicting events and otherwise and want to assure appropriate flexiblity.  This also conforms to the other meeting notice provisions in the Bylaws.
• Section 4:  change "twelve members" to "ten members" since OTES is going to be about half its size soon and we want to assure an appropriate quorum at PTA meetings.  
• ARTICLE XII Council Membership
• Section 1, a. change "by two delegates..." to by one delegate because the school will be smaller.
• ARTICLE XIV Fiscal Year
• The current MD PTA Bylaws state that the following statement is mandatory and can't be changed.  "The fiscal year of this local PTA shall begin on July 1st and end on the following June 30th."