Question: Room Parents

We are trying to change how we pick our room parents. In the past I, the (volunteer Coordinator) have picked the room parents based on whoever fills out the volunteer form for each class. This year, we are going to let the teachers pick, and deal with all of the activities list, and volunteers. Since this way is new to me, and this is a big bulk of what I have done in the past, what else does this leave me to do? Also, I would love to know what works best for your school, letting the teachers deal with it, or letting the volunteer coordinator do it all. We are making the change to try and get more teacher's involved, and appreciate what we have done in the past. Any advice would be great! Thanks :)

Asked by Leaphart mom

Answers:

Advice from PTO Today

Rose H writes:
Hi Leaphart mom,

On the Room Mom front, schools have different traditions. But Room Mom selection can be a little tricky. Sometimes parents can feel slighted or feel the process is political of teachers or PTO leaders just pick. I may have mentioned in a a previous post that I can recall the PTO president at my children's school putting names of Room Mom volunteers into a hat and having the school secretary pick. This was to avoid giving the impression that anyone was playing favorites.

But, onto your bigger (and some would say) more important point about being a Volunteer Coordinator. If you are no longer involved with Room Moms, there's so much more you can do. You can conduct a survey to find out what volunteers are able to do. You can help coordinate schedules for events. You can start a program of thanking volunteers and showing appreciation so they feel like their contribution matters. You can work on recruiting new volunteers. If you take a look at our Volunteer Section on our website, I think you'll find some great ideas to make your job as Volunteer Coordinator really interesting and rewarding.