We have a volunteer coordinator whose job is to recruit volunteers for all school activities--both the ones run by the PTO and the ones run by the school. That has worked very well for us, and is actually the standard way of doing things in schools in our district. But we have access to the emails of all the parents, not just the ones who are members of our PTO. It sounds like you now only recruit volunteers from your own list of members, so that's limiting your volunteer pool to the same parents who do all the PTO events. It seems like it would benefit both of you to give you the ability to recruit volunteers from the entire school, not just the PTO members.

we have the same issue! we have a strong PTO including parents and teachers.....HOWEVER, we feel like we are just check writers for the Principal to spend the money as she pleases. when we volunteer, we feel like we are in the way. when we have new ideas, we get told that 'they' have already talked about it and they are going to do this. we do the same things every year. the principal takes over staff appreciation week, and we just pay her back. i feel like that is something that we, the parents, should be doing. what are the rules for this?

Wow....we are dealing with a similar situation. At first, I tried to please everyone and very quickly learned the correct answer was "no". The administration in a public school has no authority over what the PTO does, except for within the school walls. I don't know if it is the same in a private school. My children went to private school for awhile and the PTA and administration worked beautifully together. We have a principal now who is passive-agressive and when told no, will tell the staff that we are being difficult, not that there was a reason for the "no". I am almost at the point of walking away. I'd love to know what others advise.

Our PTO has not been well organized in the 12 yrs of its existence. We are a small private school and I was elected this year as the PTO Director. I am in the process of clarifying the purpose of our PTO and writing by-laws with my executive board. However, we have already encountered several issues where our Administration has simply come to the PTO and said "we need volunteers to do X,Y and Z" for large school functions. These are not events that are planned or organized or sponsored specifically by the PTO. When I ask some questions regarding why the PTO is responsible for staffing these events, the response that I get is that the PTO is part of the school, so that's what they do. I'm not trying to be difficult. But we have a history of utilizing the same handful of volunteers over and over and over again to do whatever the administration wants done. In my opinion, we have little parental involvement and buy-in because the volunteer opportunities are seen not as something parents have ownership of, but as something we "have" to do because the Administration told us to. I'm happy to work with the administration and have even pressed them for specifics of what they need so I can best determine which of our committees might be best able to help. I want the PTO to help, I think parents want to help. I think they just don't want to feel used by the Administration. And now I have an Administrator saying she's just going to by-pass our PTO meetings and contact committee chairs directly so they will do what she wants. Help!