Question: How can we interest people to join out PTO

We are a small board of 4 people this year, and have been struggling all year to put together our events and fundraisers due to a lack of community support this year. I was wondering if there was anyone out there with advice on how we could gear up people to join for next school year. If we can not add board members we will have to disbann the PTO and the teachers and students at our school will lose a lot. Currently with the budget cuts over the last few years or board has paid for a large portion of the music and libary supplies as well as we provide each of our teachers with an account for them to use to purchase classroom supplies. If the board becomes just me net year as it is looking like it may become, I wil have to disban. Per our by-laws we have to have 4 executive board members. Does anyone have advice on how I can recruit members, i know that word is harsh but I lack a bette term? I can not allow our students to lose anymore then they already have. Thank You

Asked by Anonymous

Answers:

Advice from PTO Today

Rose H writes:
Hi,
It might make you feel a little better to know you are certainly not alone and many a PTO leader has struggled with this issue. Recruiting volunteers and building parent involvement is a long-term process with usually small gains along the way. You can try a few different approaches to build your community. But, in the meantime, regarding the issue with your board, your bylaws say you need 4 executive members, but there may be some flexibility. In other words, see if there is any way you can recruit a few parents to come on as co-presidents or co-vice presidents. Sometimes, people are reluctant to take on the big job, but are willing to share it with a friend. You may be able to get four executive board members this way.

For longer term, you may consider putting together a quick end-of-year social for families. (It could be a picnic or ice cream after school.) Nothing expensive and with no agenda other than to help people connect. When families start connecting, they start developing a sense of community and it typically follows that they (or at least some) will want to help out their community. That kind of end-of-year event is just one small step, but it could be a great first step.

We have lots of articles with ideas for building involvement, including:

13 Keys to Strong Involvement

26 Ways to Build Involvement

Secrets that Build Involvement

Good luck!

Rose C.

Community Advice

caroline writes:
We did a few things:
We put up "member benefits" on our website:http://carolinestreetptso.org/about-ptso/member-benefits/ - this included how joining helps your child/school.

We enabled people to signup online and pay via paypal.

We also added what we privately call the "wall of shame" :) on our website. We thank everyone who joined by putting their name on our thank you page and then in our email newsletter and FB pages post the link.

We also give people an incentive to join. If you are a member things like bingo night are cheaper $8 per person for non-members but $5 for members. We let people know at each event that they can join anytime.

The biggest thing we did was build our website and add the e-newsletter. It gets people talking about each of them.