tskreczmer;133380 wrote:
We will however be doing a picture slide show at the beginning of the year...what parent can resist seeing pictures of their children.
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Hey, this reminded me of something new I wanted to highlight here. Have any of you guys heard of "smilebox"? Makes it extremely, extremely easy to put together a slide show and then email it out to all your families.
We loved the idea of using that as an end-of-year thank you/recap/have a great summer from the PTO, so we worked with the smilebox folks to create a template just for that purpose. For our school, I'm thinking of a dozen of 15 of the best pictures we have from our various family events this year. Very cool.
Our PTO was struggling(though not do to our past wonderful officers!) However we started to do Parents Having Chats at lunch and coffee..really listening to what they were wanting at our school and getting them involved. We decided to only have directors not officers and added 5 more this year.
We also added more events to get parents to intermingle and feel more comfortable around each other.
And we did not have the end of the year PTO meeting...as no one came anyway.
We will however be doing a picture slide show at the beginning of the year...what parent can resist seeing pictures of thier children.
Solicit the new parents...that is what we did..we have new parents on the board and let me tell you...they have more ideas than ever.
Get your friends on the board...if you only have three...so what..three can get a heck of a lot done if you all are great with each other and enjoy spending time.
Remind the parents that a school without parental involvment is a school that will NOT succeed!
Dont' give up..the kids of your school NEED YOU!
ps hold a mid summer activity and rope some involved people in. We asked certain people to be on the board..sometimes people need a wee bit of a nudge!
Well shoot "wrkgmom".... stop whining and criticising.... why don't you step up and be the PTO president next year... bring your ideas to the table and actually see them through for a change. I am sorry but I really am tired of people that we NEVER see.... I've NEVER heard from... who feel it is their place to knock the organization down instead of trying to build it up.
KELGF - As a working parent that became President, I was very in tune to making sure that all parents were included. There was nothing in place to keep parents informed of what the PTO was doing if they didn't make the meetings. So I asked the school for one of the bulletin boards at the front entrance for the PTO to post our flyers, pictures & contact information. I expanded the PTO website to include our contact information, calendar of events, agenda & minutes of our meetings, etc. The monthly newsletter began to actually come out monthly!! It also explained what we were planning and our events. We tried to have morning sessions of our meetings (in addition to the evening session), but that didn't go over well so it was disbanded.
By making changes and showing that we wanted to include parents as much as possible, we actually got more volunteers. A survey may help. You can also send a heartfelt letter to parents explaining that without volunteers programs will be cancelled or no longer offered. Sometimes "a swift kick in the pants" is needed to get people to step up and do their part. We found that most parents actually were ignorant to the fact of what we did for the school. They felt the board of ed paid for class trips, assemblies & after school programs. Once we explained in a letter that the PTO funds these and the fundraisers determine what can be offered to the school each year, we received more support.
I hope you are able to turn this around. You may need to change direction of your programs that need volunteers during the day and do more evening events if you have a large school population that works. But,if you have an opportunity to address parents at the end of the year, do so. Send a letter home stating what will not be offered next year if the PTO disbands. Get the word out and you may find people willing to make the committment.
Making a positive difference one project at a time <img src=images/smilies/smile.gif>
OntheGoPTO - no worries. Sometimes it's impossible to compress replies. Thanks for breaking it up into smaller segments so it's easier to read!
I appreciate your response as you have been on both sides of the issue and present helpful insight.
The Stay-at-Home v Working Parent debate is like any other. We each see it from our own unique perspectives. The only way we can discuss it and learn from each other is to come at it with open minds and a willingness to learn.
wrkgmom - I hope you're wrong about the parent group at your school. It can be very frustrating to feel like you're on the outside looking in. Since you are well aware of the needs of working parents, can you suggest to your group some productive ways to reach this segment of the community?
kelgf - From this post and some of your others, it seems like your group is in turmoil. Maybe letting the middle school model run for a year is the best bet right now. Let the new principal take the reigns for awhile. Once the dust settles, the group can slowly regain control.
Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same."
"The ultimate aim of karate lies not in victory or defeat but in the true perfection of one's character."
