I think the most important thing people on both sides need to keep reminding themselves is the frustration both sides encounter. It's rare that a school PTO works on all levels at all times. The best we can do from both sides is continue to communicate, volunteer, make changes where was can and put each other in the others shoes before making judgments.

[ 12-23-2006, 08:21 AM: Message edited by: Silver Fox ]

I must agree with Shawn, though not the tone. I had always thought PTO was about Parent involvement. I learned differently, when we restarted a dead PTO. I spoke to the new principal about it, being really unfamiliar with PTO myself. I came to the ptotoday website and was really getting excited Our principal called a meeting of parents interested and there was about 35 show up.
He wanted it run only by the officers as I soon found out. He had talked to his secretary who had run the Little League in town and that is how Little league was run.
His secretary became the president. I became a Vice President and soon found all the parents except for one were on other boards also.
It was a nightmare for me. I was a stay at home mom and volunteered at the school. So all the parent volunteers who had come to the 1st meeting were asking me why they had no say in the fundraiser. When would we have general meetings and so on. I put out an email to the other officers asking these same questions. What I got back was volunteers were just that, they had no say in any decisions that were made. They were only called when we needed workers. I'll be honest I cried. In their last Pto some had been on committees. But this way he could spend money on what he wanted.
I resigned my position at the end of that year, but not before they allowed me to get a bylaw committee together and in May we had bylaws. I then went back to just volunteering at the school.
Two years later, all the officers were moving to a different school and the other lone mom on the board asked if I would be interested coming back to be president. I said no thank you. Thankfully they are reaching out to more parents. And some of the parent center volunters are now on the board.
I have seen it where they are run by the board but usually all committee chairs are voting members and they are at big schools. So it might work in some instances.

Many parents are very interested in helping the kids and school, and do so on their own accord, becuase they dont feel the sturctured organizaiton is the way to go. Maybe not being included in decisions (or receiving infos without having to ask - ie no open books/minutes etc) is one reason they give their help in other ways. I think lots of boards would receive tons more support if they were more receptive to all their members, a sort of US mentality, instead of US (the board) vs THEM.
Anyway, back to first post, its not becuase 'they' chose a bad fundraiser that enough funds werent brought in, it may have happened with any fundraiser the vocal minority might have chosen. Probably just a function of general parent apathy, is one hunch. Working on changing the group culture is one way to improve $$$$s brought in. You have to make people WANT to give, not keep telling them 'we NEED so and so much'. Its about making the parents feel good about donating, and not an obligation. Like one person said recently, let them know 'WONT YOU TO JOIN US', and not 'we NEED YOUR HELP at fundraiser xyz'! Of course, this may not be the case at all at your school, but it seems to be a recurring theme reading about here.

And wouldnt the board be the 'employees' not the parents? if using that term.

and I agree it is a board delimna (sp?) and ultimate decision (but many parent that dont participate in PTwhatever - are very knowledgable about fundraising, running an org, being a volunteer non profit boardmemeber) but dont know more than the parents (maybe on a specific issue or PTwhatever related).

Parents are why (I know the children and education are) the Organization exists- without there input- how do you determine goals, mission, vision, etc.

[ 12-21-2006, 04:25 PM: Message edited by: Shawn ]

our group raises 20-30k every year, with no effort. parents and friends and family register thier grocery store and major dept store cards, with the school. its a one time sign up, does not need to be done every year. talk to your local food and other chain stores and see if they have rebate program to offer the school. after all, everyone buys food and if the store will give a perecentage back to the school, its a good deal .

While the 'board' will make the decisions to move the membership in the right direction they should know what direction the membership would like to move. Many businesses pole the membership in the form of 'employee surveys' which are typically written in open-ended questions. These questions discuss the past years movements, the results and ask where membership would like to see improvement. Last year we received a 50% response from our membership which is almost unheard of when conducting surveys.
As a PTO board we survey the parents in categories such as Teacher Appreciation, Family Nights, and Education etc. We typically limit the questions to one or two per category and include charts to help those who understand in the visual.
An example of one of the questions would be: Last year we spent X dollars in Teacher appreciation which equaled x% of our annual budget. As a board we believe Teacher Appreciation is one of the many important keys to our successful school and have budgeted to spent x% of our budget in 2007-2008. If you have any comments or suggestions for continued success please use the space provided.
I think what many are questioning is the approach by the board (the manor in which they ask) with the membership. No, I would not ask parents which specific fundraisers they want - that is a boards dilemma. I would suggest that board members form their questions in a manor that helps them move forward in the most positive and supported direction by the membership. You will not get 100% to respond but you will get an idea what is important to those parents who do respond which in most cases are your parents that are most active in the PTO through fundraisers, events etc.