Thank you for taking the time to give me some feedback. Time is such a commodity when you have children!
I just finished typing a whole reply and when I hit the button to submit it I was given a "invalid code" and it wiped out my whole thing...... poking myself in the eye with a dull pencil....
Ok, so these are the facts (as I know them :])
1) Last year the District made a decision to "go green" and as a result PTO's were no longer allowed to send any PTO information, event, volunteer....basically nothing was allowed to be sent home to the parents. We were even forced to scramble at the last second because we were not able to send home the next year school supply order forms home like in the past. Mind you that the order forms were not printed by us but by the school supply company! It actually worked out because we were able to negotiate for a larger discount since the supply company didn't have the color print costs x 7 schools! Thank goodness that the school supply company we used (SchoolKidz/Staples) and our representative and her manager responded to our situation by helping us make a quick Order Form that the parents could download off of the PTO site! Of course, actually getting the Order Form up on the PTO site is a different story altogether! SK even put together a customized web page for all of the school's where the parent's could visit to see color pics of backpacks, etc.
Anyway..... so we can't send anything home. Absolutely forbidden. We cannot collect the data ourselves similar to what PTO Today's PTO MKanager or Newsletter software package does. We cannot contact parent's because they may have opted out of the "sharing info and pics" option at the beginning of the school year. As a result of that "opt out" the parent's info doesn't go into the district wide phone directory as well as yearbooks, etc..... (I think a lot of parent's just don't understand what they are opting out of or maybe it should be two different items...) We cannot use any emails collected for various activities (that parent's gave to us voluntarily!) to send out info, volunteer opportunities, etc... So how are we supposed to raise money for the school if the only way we can communicate is via a website where we are only given access to update during a school day and the weekly e-newsletter that the District sends out to the families that wanted a weekly or monthly update? It's like running up a mountain with your hands tied! Please understand that the PTO's are not intentionally being contentious but how are we supposed to raise money to support the school without critical communication avenues or tools?
If the PTO sends out something advertising an event is the District liable for content?
I'm rambling....
Sylvia