Question: Trying to revive a dormant PTO.

I am the recent President of an inner city school and I really want to bring it alive and help the underpriviledged kids in this school. I have been working hard to get the Board involved, but am running out of momentum to keep going with it and just give up. It seems that every time I decide to plan something, or try to schedule time for the Board or general meetings, something always comes up. Any advice or encouragement for me to keep trudging along?

Asked by graftonstpres

Answers:

Advice from PTO Today

Craig writes:
Anyone would get burned out trying to launch a new PTO and doing it all alone. You need allies. Focus your efforts. on recruiting two or three people who share your enthusiasm. Use your powers of persuasion to get them excited about helping the children and the school. Next, have a heart to heart talk with the principal. You say something keeps coming up -- you need to figure out what the root problem is and address it. Maybe people don't have confidence in your ability to pull off an event. Maybe they just don't consider parent involvement important. Maybe it's a simple communication issue. You'll make things easier on yourself if you can get to the root of the problem and address it directly. When you do plan events, start small. The important thing is to have a few successes to build momentum. Don't try to do everything at once -- a big failure will just confirm the preconceived notion people may have that PTO won't work. But small successes will bring more people to your cause and allow you gradually to do bigger things. Oh, and don't judge your success by how many people come to a meeting. You want them to come to events and activities first. Once people participate in that way, they'll be more likely to become interested in how the group runs. Good luck!