Why Your PTO Needs Term Limits (And Why You Might Resist Them)

Getting (and keeping) volunteers for your Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) is hard.

So why the heck would you want to limit someone’s involvement in your school parent group?

While it might seem a little counterintuitive to have term limits for both elected officers and appointed committee chairs (since that would seem to put a kibosh on participation), having a defined limit is actually a very good thing for a healthy PTO!

Let’s get into just why that is.

Term Limits Help Avoid Brain Drain

The very first reason is for PTOs to have term limits clearly defined for elected and appointed volunteers is that it grows generalists for the group rather than specialists.

This means there are many different potential leaders that can fill a specific role and volunteers can move from one position to the next.

Without term limits, your group runs the risk of having only specialists.

And that means only certain volunteers feel prepared to take on certain roles, versus any role, which ends up making it difficult to run the group fluidly.

If you have only one person in your group that’s really good at fundraising because they’ve done it for the past six years, what happens when their kid graduates from the school or when their family moves across country for a job opportunity?

Your group will be left scrambling!

Plus, there’s a risk of a year or two of decreased income while the new Fundraising Chair is learning on the job.

It’s much better if you have volunteers who can flow in and out of roles, who you can, during the nominating process when you’re selecting leaders for your group for the upcoming year, have people that can plug many different roles.

Having volunteers who know a little bit about everything and who feel comfortable being slotted into different roles will really help your group because then you won’t have like gaping leadership vacancies or like holes in your group where there’s no one who understands how to, say, run family events.

It’s a good leadership development practice to have the turnover in the individual roles so that no one is getting elected into a position or being appointed to a position and filling that role for years.

Term Limits Help Guard Against Bad Fits

Sometimes people might seem like they’re a good fit for a particular PTO volunteer role, but once in action, it’s clear that they’re not a good fit at all.

I can think of one time we had a Fundraising Chair who was not actually interested in doing the work of a Fundraising Chair.

She halfheartedly did a fundraiser, and it failed spectacularly.

And when my PTO was meeting after the fundraising totals had come in, it was clear there was a huge financial hole because of the failed fundraiser.

Our budget had to be slashed massively so that we wouldn’t urn out of money.

Our plans for the second half of the year had to be immediately re-worked because the fundraiser didn’t generate nearly enough income to cover anticipated costs.

One by one officers looked at their plans for the year and each had to drastically reduce their budgets for the rest of the year, figuring out how to make it work on a shoestring budget.

The Fundraising Chair didn’t look sad or bothered at all by this.

The rest of us were mad because she didn’t do the job she volunteered to do and didn’t ask for help either.

So if she had been appointed to a two or three-year term, we would have been hosed because she was happy just to give it one shot, and if it didn’t work, oh well.

We would’ve had to repeat the budget reduction each year and had to endure that unpleasant process.

Luckily for my group, the apathetic Fundraising Chair bowed out for the next year and we were able to recruit a real go getter for the position, and our income bounced back.

Term Limits Help Avoid Power Struggles

Term limits also help power struggles among PTO members and leaders.

With defined term limits for offices and committee chair positions, one person won’t just be sitting in a position for forever.

They’ll know that their power is checked.

If you have a not-so-good leader, they will be rotating out.

You’re not just stuck with someone until they decide to move on.

The term limit will make the end of their time in the position.

Without defined term limits, you don’t have this assurance of a new leader coming into that role.

Term Limits Make Your PTO More Professional

The last reason to have term limits for your PTO is that it just makes your group more professional.

And others will notice!

Larger nonprofits and organizations have term limits and a natural turnover with regularly scheduled elections or appointment periods.

So you can inject more professionalism into your school parent group simply by implementing some limits for elected and appointed volunteer positions.

Term Limits Prevent Volunteer Burnout

The next thing that term limits help with is they prevent volunteer burnout.

So many of my PTO friends, I’ve been volunteering with them for years and the vast majority have stuck around, but there are some that have gotten instantly burned out.

Keeping the turnover happening where you’re popping into a new role and learning something, can help things feel fresh (especially if you like a new challenge).

I personally try to balance volunteer roles out so that every year I’m not taking on a huge role. Now my husband would say that’s not true.

But what’s big to me, is not the same for someone else.

You have to feel personally rewarded by the joys and challenges of the position.

And I personally have gotten stuck in positions before and felt burnt out.

One time, I was President of one PTO for three years and it was far too long to be in that position, even though I was a seasoned PTO President by that point.

Sp in addition to having term limits in the first place, the length of the time in office needs to be considered.

Ideal Length of PTO Term Limits

Because each PTO is so unique, there isn’t a definitive length of time volunteers should be spending in a particular role.

It depends on the structure and needs of your group, but generally the ideal time is one or two years, max.

Two years for Executive Board positions and one year for Committee Chairs is a good timeframe to start with.

For the bigger roles that are normally Executive Board roles (President, Secretary, Treasurer, Family Events, Fundraising, Membership, and Communications), it’s good to allow the volunteer to get their feet wet, so to speak, the first year.

And then the second year, they’ll more fully come into the role and make good progress since they won’t be learning on the ob as much.

I suggest your group can try different term lengths out and adjust to fit the needs of your group.

Where to Document Term Limits

Once your group decides on term limits for volunteers, you’ll want to note them in your bylaws under each defined role for clarity, especially if different role will have different term limits.

This way, they’l be no question about the issue and potential volunteers will have a good sense of what they’re signing on for.

Watch This!

I made a video about this same topic!

Give it a watch here:

Over to you