Our PTO board meets regularly to discuss calendar planning, budgets, policy, etc. Event chairs, the principal, etc. all attend. General PTO meetings are held 3 times a year and the entire school community is invited. We try to have them coincide with with something like Meet The Teacher Night (1st meeting), Parent Teacher Meetings (2nd meeting), etc. so there's a second draw for families. Even soccer practice! This is when parents generally join us to get updates on what's been going on, review spreadsheets, get updated on all the "boring" stuff that's been happening over the last several months and what's coming up. Parents are more focused on the meeting this way.
Great question, Tabitha. It stinks if you feel like people aren't listening or won't stick around to hear what you have to say, but don't take it personally. Do you typically have lots of business to go over? Could you consider holding a discussion in an informal way -- Create an agenda/list of updates and then ask if anyone needs to discuss an issue?
This question would benefit from some input from our Facebook community, I bet.
How about I put it out there and see what suggestions other folks have?
We are having trouble trying to decide when to discuss the business portion of our PTO meeting. We combine our meeting with a performance from a certain pod color every month. We currently discuss the business portion before children come in to perform and it seems like no one is paying attention to me. They are only there to see their children perform.
So last night we tried something new and did the business portion after the children performed and all that was left in the cafeteria were staff members. I was so disappointed! So my questions is: what do ya'll do at your PTO meetings? How do you handle the business portion of the meetings? Thanks so much for all the advice/suggestions!
