Thank goodness that's over with! All in all it went pretty well. I used the agenda that was posted here and also the one in the file exchange. I kept everything pretty simple and tried to not bog things down with a lot of unnecessary details but still let everyone know that I was happy to expand upon anything talked about if they would like. I made sign-up sheets for some of the events we need volunteers for and one for anyone interested in being on a committee to explore improving technology in the classrooms. There were only 10 people there outside of the PTO board and the Principal. But I think the small number was good for me to build my confidence. After I went through the agenda items our Technology specialist did a short presentation on what Technology we already have able to our students. And afterwards she invited the group to her lab to see some of the things she was talking about.
I emphasized how much I appreciated the people who came, especially in this day and age when everyone is so busy. And there where a few faces I've been seeing at the various events that I think want to be more involved and are trying to get a feel for things. Definitely going to be keeping an eye on these individuals...
Once we did our briefing I had it posted as a link on our website and distro'd via email to our members. I've given up seeing meeting attendance as some sort of validation of our PTO. It just isn't...so if 2 people come you treat them to your presentation as if they were two of the most important people in the school. Or you can go a more relaxed route and hand out paper copies and sit around and discuss a bit more openly. Its not a failure unless you're not prepared. I would stay away from "filling the time" which is how some of the above is coming across. If you're not interested in the information no one else will be. I don't go over a lot of committee reports or things like that since most folks aren't terribly interested. I try to make the meeting motivational, informative and make them my chance to brief everyone on what's going on, coming up and what we're accomplishing as a group--as well as requested feedback on past events or future directions. If you can get folks to open up a bit, they will be more likely to feel included and come along the next time you hold a get together.
The welcome and overview, yearly timeline, etc I'm sure I can put together pretty easily.
We would have to skip the Approval of Minutes as we don't have any to approve. But hopefully that is something we could incorporate into the next meeting.
Our Treasurer can't make it so do I still do a Treasurer's report? And what should it consist of?
What would the Principal's report consist of?
As far as committees go, the Board basically serves as all of the committees. It isn't ideal and usually one person will take the lead for the bigger events. But we work really well together and it's hard to come up with people to ask to be committee chairs. (Okay, yes that sounds like a lame excuse even as I sit here typing it)
We have 3 big events coming up-Basket Bingo on January 25th, the 2nd book fair the 2nd week of February and the Family Fun Festival in May. The basket bingo is an obvious topic that should be talked about and this would be an ideal opportunity to recruit any more volunteers we need. Except, the 2 people that are running it...can't make it. One of these 2 has also been handling the book fair.
We do have some fundraiser reports that I can go over.
As far as old business, we could talk about what the PTO has done so far for the year.
I have 2 new programs I would like to launch, which would fall under new business. Harris Teeter just opened a store in our area so I want to launch their loyalty card program. And I want to launch the Microsoft Search and Give program.
I'm starting to feel a bit better about the meeting thanks to the help from this message board. My biggest concern is what do I do if it ends up that only me and 2 others (or even less) from the board are able to make it? That doesn't seem to say much about our PTO. But neither does canceling the meeting.
Hi Tim--thanks--I'll have to spend some time sanitizing names etc out of it if it is out there for public consumption. Glad you can handle powerpoint....
dlf;140080 wrote:
I have a sample state of the PTO power point slide if you are interested...just email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and I'll zap to you. You have to have powerpoint to open however,........
Hi dlf -
Our File Exchange/File Sharing tool is perfect for this. I hope you'll feel free to upload your slide right to the new tool. And then you can send folks the link to the url of your tool. Sound good?
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