Sad to say, it is the same all over. It is a living, breathing example of the 80/20 rule (80 percent of the work is done by 20 percent of the people). What we have done to promote our group, raise funds and limit the number of volunteers needed is to start working with our local businesses. Instead of the catalog fundraisers, we have been working with our businesses to sponsor an event, such as a shopping day or meal event where we receive a portion of the proceeds. It is a win/win for all. The business gets a boost, the schools get money and the volunteer situation is erased.
We have a large school (1,000 students) and were so excited to have a "full board" of 25 members for the 2008-2009 school year. We lost a couple and gained a handful of faithful volunteers through the year. However, come election time everyone, including me, wanted to step back, not out, just back (i.e. VP's wanted to take Chairmen's roles and Chairmen wanted to just be committee members. We were all exhausted and found that we spent so much time in meetings, getting organized, raising money and pushing for volunteers to help that we spent little time, in retrospect, working directly with our children and the students of our school.
Our solution was to reformat our PTA. We now have a four member board. We have made all other positions and activities optional events to be implemented as a parent volunteer steps up to the need. Thus far we have volunteers for a new musical theater production, Destination Imagination, two different art programs, monthly story time, science fair, dad's camp out, mother's tea, coffee with the principal, rock-n-read, scrabble club and geography bee. All of these are new events for our school and are the very kind of activities we all joined PTA to be a part of. We freed our faithful few to focus on one event that they were passionate about.
The board will work as a clearing house to raise a base fund for starting these activities. Each event will be responsible for raising any additional funds needed. The Board will hold in escrow any monies to cover the insurance and accountability issues. We will also recruit parent volunteers and make lists available for the events that need them.
We're looking forward to next year. I'll let you know how it works out.
We're in the same boat. Only two officers (the only two members of PTO left) are still on board for next year. Partially my fault because I've ran the show for the last two years when no one else stepped up to the plate. I really want to support my children, (only my oldest of 4 is in school) but what is really happening is that I'm spending less and less time with them because I'm spending more and more time trying to get things done for PTO. Perhaps it is time to step aside and let someone else take responsibility for running the show or at least helping out a little.
If you decide to go the route of telling people that if you don't get volunteers you will not have a Parent Group, you should also make sure that they know what that means. The average parent may not differentiate between what is provided by your parent group vs what the school provides. So make it a point when you put that information out to make certain that your parents know exactly what it will mean for your school not to have a parent group. What will their kids be doing without?
I did not use this method willy-nilly and never worded it in a way that was meant to shame someone into volunteering. There were a couple of situations where we had tons of parents wanting an event to occur, but no takers when the word went out for help. It was simply stated that at this time, we didn't have enough volunteers to insure that the event was going to be able to go on and if anyone would be able to spare some time to help it would be greatly appreciated or the event might have to be cancelled. This was a last resort because all of our chair people and board members were already loaded down with more than enough and it was time for some others to jump in and give us a hand.
It's too bad that your situation has been such a disappointing one, jaded. Shame on the school for taking advantage of people who just want the best for their kids.
LUVMYKIDS;149363 wrote: I've used the straightforward method of just telling parents that if we don't have volunteers by X date then X event WILL NOT happen. It wakes people up.
Sometimes. Sometimes the school person shames the board into trying to run the event, anyway. We have been shamed into doing things without volunteers outside the board by the school. I am walking away from my position (volunteer coordinator) if there aren't more committees and chairs in place for the next school year. I will NOT be the de facto chair of every committee, which is what was expected.
