Onyx Blackmon;135454 wrote: Can anyone testify as to the value of this software? $200/yr. is a very big hit for a school like ours. Are there other ways to do the functions of this software, such as a Yahoo! group?

I would suggest getting all the info on the software and compare to current process of doing things and do a side by side comparison. I personally believe it is an advantage and good investment for future PTO groups simply because there may be those who do not have adequate software on their own computers to do the jobs required of their Officer responsibilities. Some future Officers may not have the knowledge they need to do it on their own. Manager software is a great advantage when 'passing the torch' to new group, makes the transition extremely easy. Our group is small also and we feel it is our responsibility to give our group and future groups every advantage for success, improvement and convenience. This software offers us all of this and more! Also, we pay annual fee for Plus membership and get a huge savings on our Insurance. We would have to pay $480.00 with previous company and pay $474.00 for Ins and plus membership combined. Obviously, it was to our advantage to go with PTOtoday Plus and benefit from their Ins and all the other benefits of PLUs membership including discount on Manager Software!

To antelala: you mentioned that you created something like ""I would like to recieve JLE updates via email ___Yes ___No" . I need to create the similar thing. Where I should go in PTO Manager to create it? I have right now Administrator rights. Do I need to be switched over to Software Coordinator? How and who can make me Software Coordinator?

Hi,

As far as why we give the ability to link parents to students, sometimes volunteer opportunities are tied to student grades/classes. You can choose not to use this portion of the program, or you can simply use initials instead of names

elaineteresa;137357 wrote: My principal's face went pale when I suggested a web based application. I can tell where this is headed but a web based program where we can share data is so essential.

What info is only available to each family? Just the address? Obviously we need to see phone numbers to contact people last minute for volunteering.

We are also concerned about linking the child's name to the parents and the classroom - who has access to this info? anyone searching for volunteers for a project? this assumes that the school's security measures are in place and that no one would use this information to harm children.
I am just thinking out loud as to whether we would want to develop this area of the database. Is this to send notes home to the parent via the child's classroom? or what is the advantage of this?

It would be nice for the PTA to send a happy birthday message to the children but not sure what else the child's info is listed for.

at worse case, I am assuming that someone could compile mailing lists for their own personal use from the email addresses listed.

thanks for your feedback - elaine

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Hi Elaine --

I imagine Mike may jump in here, too. But I'll give you a quick response.

Besides the security measures (to avoid any hacking), access to the system is completely configurable by you using permission levels.

In effect, access to the data will work very much like access to data works off-line.

Off-line, for example, I imagine you have some sort of paper-based file/info system. Parents fill out a form (only their own form) and pass it in. The form is kept by PTO. Individual leaders access the forms, if they need to reach out to volunteers or find out who is interested in helping with the spaghetti supper.

With the manager system, access to the data works exactly the same. An individual parent only can see his or her own data. Parents can not access the rest of the database at all. A leader (with permission-level granted by administrator) can look up parents who've expressed interest in his or her events. One or two (your decision on whom) administrators have global access (equivalent to who designs and keeps the paper forms).

So access-wise, it's exactly like the traditional paper system.

But effectiveness-wise, it's about 9,000 times better.

Hope that helps.

Tim

My principal's face went pale when I suggested a web based application. I can tell where this is headed but a web based program where we can share data is so essential.

What info is only available to each family? Just the address? Obviously we need to see phone numbers to contact people last minute for volunteering.

We are also concerned about linking the child's name to the parents and the classroom - who has access to this info? anyone searching for volunteers for a project? this assumes that the school's security measures are in place and that no one would use this information to harm children.
I am just thinking out loud as to whether we would want to develop this area of the database. Is this to send notes home to the parent via the child's classroom? or what is the advantage of this?

It would be nice for the PTA to send a happy birthday message to the children but not sure what else the child's info is listed for.

at worse case, I am assuming that someone could compile mailing lists for their own personal use from the email addresses listed.

thanks for your feedback - elaine

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bjburke;136658 wrote: The PTO Manager servers are behind multiple levels of firewalls at a secure, off-site location that specializes in this type of application.

BJ Burke

has anyone ever requested monetary donations from companies/corporations to pay for this annual charge?