DUH! Just realized that I really didn't answer your questions.
How often does your organization meet?
once a month
Do you have Board and General meetings?
General. Since this my first year on the board, the board has met once with the Principal and we have another meeting in two weeks.
What time of day are your meetings?
6:30 pm, every third Tuesday of the month
How long do your meetings usually last?
usually 1 hour, unless we are gabby
Do you provide "daycare"? If so, is it a parent, or a 5th or 6th grader to "just keep an eye out"?
We pay a teacher's aide $30 a month. So $15 per meeting.
What's the average attendence of your meetings?
4 full board, Principal, Teacher rep. and about the same 6 - 10 parents.
How do you promote & ENCOURAGE parents to attend?
newsletter, word of mouth, and sign out front.
I will say that we do get enough voluteers for our events, at least at the last minute.
How often does your organization meet?
We meet every month, though we're only required to meet 4 times a year. We usually skip December. Personally, I think about 6 meetings a year would be plenty but I was told parents enjoy the fellowship and the lunch.
Do you have Board and General meetings?
Our board has never been very well organized. We did meet 4 or 5 times this year. My goal this year was to expand the size of our board to make it a little more useful. Hopefully next year, we can really be effective.
What time of day are your meetings?
Our meetings are at noon and we serve lunch at our meetings. It is donated each month by a different grade. It's usually sandwiches, chips, dessert.
How long do your meetings usually last?
Ideally, they would be an hour, but seem to run just over an hour (1.25 hrs.)
Do you provide "daycare"? If so, is it a parent, or a 5th or 6th grader to "just keep an eye out"?
No, we don't provide daycare. We just couldn't use students, it would have to be a paid sitter service and I don't think it would pay for itself. It's a good idea, though.
What's the average attendence of your meetings?
School of about 375 children and attendance ranges from 20-35'ish, at the very most. Usually closer to 20-25, including principal and officers.
How do you promote & ENCOURAGE parents to attend?
We publicize it in our weekly newsletter, we send out e-mail reminders, we put up a banner at school. The best thing we did several years ago was moving it from 8 a.m. (5 people attend) to noon.
Shelly
You know, I never really thought about like that. I'm disappointed that our monthly meetings ususally have about 6 parents, the same ones every time. But when we do need volunteers for the different functions, people do step up to the plate.
I believe that our problem is that we don't have a person in charge of maintaing a list. I plan to change that this coming year. At this time all we do is ask the room mothers to put out the word and we send home flyers, notes asking for help. It's not too organized, but at the last minute people do pitch in.
My goal is that when parents/caregivers give us the $2 membership fee, that will need to fill out a form that asks for their contact information, hobbies, what they would like to help with, and when they are available. So we'll see what happens.
Thanks for all the responses to date! I too agree that the attendence of the meetings is not as important as having volunteers for the events. However I am trying to get people to understand exactly what it is that the PTO does, and how much "help" we need. Hopefully we can increase attendence in meetings and those who do come now and then can continue to spread the word of how important the PTO is to the school!
1. Once a month for the board. Couple times year for general.
2. Yes, the board typically meets 30 minutes or so before each general meeting.
3. Board starts at 6:30pm. General mtgs start at 7pm.
4. Actual mtg stuff is no more than an hour. Otherwise, we start throwing stuff at the Pres.
5. No daycare. We just bring the kids and let them run around. Seriously, we do. It's just a PTO mtg, not the NHL/NHLPA talks.
6. Sometimes we get all 4 officers at a meeting! We do not have huge attendance numbers and frankly, we don't spend a lot of time worrying about it. If there is a need for a general vote, we try to publicize that more just so that they have a chance to voice their opinion. Our board mtgs are usually 7-8 people. General is probably 15, give or take.
7. Sorry, got ahead of myself on the last question. The school has a Friday note that we always make sure our meetings are posted on. It is also on our website. And, we send out an email. But really, we focus on getting people to the events, not the meetings.
