Advice from PTO Today

Craig writes:
Smaller towns often have one PTO that serves two or three schools. But it's not common in larger districts with many schools. A more common setup is to have school-based PTOs and a district PTO council made up of representatives from each group. This can be very effective, allowing you to coordinate calendars, make sure fundraisers don't overlap, share ideas and best practices, etc. Toledo, Ohio, for example, has had a districtwide PTO council, called the Toledo Public Schools Parent Congress, for several years. (www.tpspc.org)

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Community Advice

firefighter464 writes:
I want to offer some additional info here, in case you or anyone else out there ever becomes involved in such a 'merger'of PTOs. I can't speak for PTOs exactly, but we merged fire companies in a small town--reason being lack of enough volunteers for both, operating/building costs for both, etc. And let me tell you merging two very 'proud' companies who'd identified under the individual names and membership was hairy at best. (And 'd presume just the same with perhaps 'rival' schools since they compete in sports, etc.) But, here's the catch: It was only that way for about a year and a half. We had strong leadership who right away used Roberts Rules correctly to maintain control and also hear --and respect with proper open debate --everybody's opinions. What ideas were adopted were truly a result of the membership agreement combined with careful study of facts--not just one person's control or more powerful clique. Our community businesses and individuals appreciated right away that they were 'hit on' now only once for fundraising drives for only one company and instead of us having to hear 'I already gave to such in such' we were actually raising more money with less effort. Not to mention enjoying new personalities and getting our hands on new equipment. The turning point was having a major firecall during the day and usual scenario had been sitting in station until we could collect a driver to get a rig out the door. Now we had 2 or 3 drivers show up and we got our job done faster and more efficiently. We felt great about what we had accomplished and it grew from that. Initial emotional heated debates about what name to give the new company became guys high-fiving each other at end of year 2 as we'd seen our efforts pay off in rising membership and funds and quicker response time and more successful outcomes on calls. The really big thing was communication and leadership. Choose your words and leaders wisely.

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