My new PTO mailbox is very high and I am very short. I hate to start begging for things right off the bat, but unless they want me dragging a chair up there everytime to get the mail, I'll have to get it lower. LOL! The principal is about 6'8" and the secretary is 6'0". So they do not think of these things.

The fundraising chair person for another group I am in uses those expandable folders. I think she got info from every fundraising company there was, but she new exactly what was where. Those are easily stored in a cabinet too.

Another think I will be begging for is a cabinet. Essential for storing year to year things such as papers, props, leftovers. Also on the top of my list is bulletin board for the workroom. There isn't even a small one. I want to keep teachers and volunteers informed but have no where to stick the information.

Kathie,

Love the tray idea in PTO room. We have a mail folder in the main office and EVERYONE goes thru it and it is a pain when you are president looking for something and treasure wondering where bills are. Great idea. Thank you for sharing. Sometimes we are way ahead of ourselves and don't think of the simple stuff.

Kelley
SGS PTO President
www.orgsites.com/il/sgspto/ :cool:

Great advise on these binders. our school is only 2 yrs. old and I am the new prez coming in and I want this to be done effective right now!
Thank you all for sharing.

I agree it is really important to have procedure books!
The way I put it to my board was that something could happen to any one of us (have a personal crisis of some kind) and be "out of pocket" for a while. If that happened, someone should be able to pick up the procedure book and figure out what you have done, and be able to duplicate it.
I also got called "obsessive compulsive" by a couple of people- but when a hurricane hit our school and a couple of people had to drop out to take care of family stuff- we were glad to have those books!
It also helped everybody to have a place to keep all of the "paper trails" we have (minutes, treasurer's reports etc.). That way no one could say they were not informed.
Another good way to keep everybody organized- I invested in some clear plastic "boxes" (paper trays that stack) for each member of the board, including committee chairs. These were kept in the PTA storage area (also our Family Resource Room), Then if somebody had to miss a meeting, any flyers handed out are put in their box. It is also a good way of communicating. We can drop notes, etc. it took a little training for everybody to get used to checking their box- but now it is habit- one everybody appreciates.

so don't listen to the "nay sayers"- get your board organized!

One more note that was truly helpful was the old pres had all the fundraising info lots of folder and info in one box. Great for future reference but she had notes saying which ones worked didn't work.
Which I thought was great I'm sure some things we think would sell really great and just bombed and other she thought stunk sold really well.


Cindy

I have to this is a very good idea. Being a first time pres and never being on a PTO committee at all I need all the info I can get my hands on. I am a very organized person to begin with I used to do event planning before I had kids so I figured this was next mission in life and it benefits my kids also. The past pres kept all her notes and for each event or whatever just threw it into a folder. Now I'm going through all of them and "fine tuning" her methods. Great ideas Thanks


Cindy