....and when you have that answer THEN you can ask yourself...What's next?

Something i have learned in my years in this "profession", I don't count the seats filled at meetings anymore but how many parents are coming in the door to volunteer. That number is much greater and feel that is time better spent! Don't worry, I still smile and the familiar faces that approve or question every idea at every meeting but not everyone is into the "business" part of running a PTO. It's another way to see it.

Don't spend your precious time asking, "why isn't the world a better place?" It will only be time wasted. The question to ask is, 'How can I make it better?" To that there is an answer. (Leo Buscaglia)

What if you reduced the business at monthly meetings (couldn’t that fundraising rep make a pitch just to the fundraising committee) and focused instead on family involvement?

Wouldn’t families be more likely to make it out to school for a dinner and/or an activity?

You don’t neccessarily need a general meeting every month (or you can hold a meeting to vote for whatever topic -during a 15-minute break in the annual Family Event/Night)

People tend to think that parent involvement is when parents physically enter a school building, or attend a meeting, Parent involvement is also attending a child’s school program or helping with homework. Your group could add hundreds of more items to that list, with meeting attendance as just one entry.

Dont get discouraged!!!! Come up with new way to gage and measure your goals (# attendance .vs # events)- sometimes we need to change how we look at our goal measurement and it might not be realistic or good for our sanity to measure it that way.

Bugzy - that's tremendous news!! Good for you and your team. It sounds like you're the right leader at the right time to help this group move forward. Thank you for letting us know how everything is working out for you.

Thank you to all who have given me a great deal to think about. We are working on meeting with all our chairpersons and with the help of our principal we are finally get the help we needed.
This is our start and we are moving ahead strong and full of life we can not re do things that were but can change the things in our future.
I have taken it to reminding the members it is for our students, That we all work together.

You may need to streamline what your group does.
Focus on those who were there, not those who were not. Decide which things are important and use the folks who showed up to work on those things.

Your group is far too decentralized. Whether or not the chairs respect the role of president, they do need to respect the role of membership and make the required reports at meetings.

Study your bylaws and figure out exactly how your group is supposed to operate. Then, before the next meeting, have a plan to comply with those bylaws. People might get angry. Tell them in advance just how important the next meeting will be. If they blow you off, they do not get a voice. Are there board meetings, too? That is a better place for these types of discussions.

Talking with each chair individually is still your best course of action, I think.

Has meeting attendance always been poor? It may be that folks know that the chairpeople don't put much stock in the meetings and so they don't need to go.