We had our open house last night. At the last PTO meeting we were trying to figure out how to get the parents there. The teachers figured it out. They got the kids so involved with open house that the parents had to come. Each class was pretty much run by the students, play acting as to what the teacher does during class. It was the biggest turnout in the history of open house. I applaud the teachers for a fine job in getting the parents there. So we found out we can get parents there if we convience the kids that they need to be there.
Our PTO has come up with a few ideas that have helped with meeting turn-out. First,we make sure an agenda is sent home a couple of days before the meeting so if there are issues people are interested in they will know when they are going to be discussed. Second, We always had our meetings the third Tuesday of the month at 7:00p.m. now in the months that we have a lot of things to discuss we will have two meetings one of them being directly after school...this also helps the people who otherwise couldn't attend a night time meeting...or vice versa. Third, this year will be our third pot luck dinner at our October night time meeting. People love to eat and we have some of the older kids and an adult volunteer to keep an eye on the younger kids after we eat so that when we have a larger than usual group we can switch right into meeting mode and spark the interest of a few people who would not normally attend. The teachers are usually all present for the pot luck and it does help boost attendance when people know their child's teacher is coming. Hope this helps Good Luck:)
