How often does your organization meet?
Once a month except December. We even meet during the summer to plan our strategy for the upcoming year.

Do you have Board and General meetings?
No, just general meetings that are open to anybody who wants to come.

What time of day are your meetings?
Last year, ours were the 4th Monday of each month starting at 7:00 p.m.

How long do your meetings usually last?
Anywhere from 1 to 2 hours. Just depends on how much needs to be covered.

Do you provide "daycare"?
No, we don't provide childcare. Only a few parents bring their children, and they are usually old enough to sit quietly and do homework.

What's the average attendence of your meetings?
We usually have around 10 people show up...including the principal and teacher representative.

How do you promote & ENCOURAGE parents to attend?
We announce it in our weekly newsletter, adverise on our marquee, and send out reminder emails to all PTO members who have given us an email address.

Here's our info:
1. We meet monthly during the school year. We also have 2 General Meetings a year, held in conjuction with Fall Open House and Spring Academic Fair.

2. The monthly business meetings are for anyone to attend. The 2 General meetings are more for information-sharing and elections (no other real business).

3. This year, I set meetings at 7:00 p.m., because I started working full-time at the school. Prior to that, the monthly meetings were at 8:00 a.m.

4. Longer than they should! They could range anywhere from 50 minutes to 2 hours.

5. Children were welcome to come along--we usually met in the library, so the kids could do homework, play board games, read or watch a video. No one person was "watching" them--it was pretty much up to parents to watch their own, with a few gentle reminders from me or the principal.

6. I guess the average was about 10-12. The low this past year was 7, and the high was 30+.

7. Word of mouth, notice on the bulletin board in the foyer, advertising on school marquee, email reminders, flyers that listed agenda items sent home with kids, and mention on the PTO page of the district's website. At several meetings, we offered small attendance door prizes (extras from fundraiser, and a couple of items donated by a member). I would also send out an email after the meetings with a synopsis of what had occured.

[ 06-06-2005, 12:07 AM: Message edited by: merdunlap ]

Good questions! Here are the answers for our school:
How often does your organization meet?
As president, I schedule board meetings as needed... much of our work can be done through e-mail and phone calls. General meetings are every other month for a total of 5 a year.

Do you have Board and General meetings?
Yes... most of our business is taken care of at the board level... only matters that require a vote are taken to the general meetings.

What time of day are your meetings?
Our meetings are generally the 3rd Monday of the month at 6:30 pm.

How long do your meetings usually last?
WAY TO LONG... but it's unavoidable. Because we have many Spanish speaking parents, translation is a necessity, which doubles everything we do! Most meetings ran about 2 hours this year!

Do you provide "daycare"? If so, is it a parent, or a 5th or 6th grader to "just keep an eye out"?
Our school secretary is paid $25 a meeting to provide childcare... we've also been inviting Key Club students from our local high school lately... they've been doing craft projects with the kids during the meetings... the kids love it!!!

What's the average attendence of your meetings?
Last year, 10 people (out of a school of 430 students) was a good meeting... this year we have skyrocketed to an amazing average of 40!

How do you promote & ENCOURAGE parents to attend?

In MANY, MANY ways...
1) Flyers!
2) Themed meetings... for example, our March meeting was "Creative Kids". Students who attended a writing workshop read their work and the third grade clas sang songs.
3) Class Competition... the class with the most parents attending each meeting won a special lunch.
4) Friendly atmosphere... every meeting began with "Human Bingo", a fun way to get people talking to one another.
5) Door prizes... Those who attended got a raffle ticket just for coming. Attendees could recive additional tickets for making a motion, seconding a motion, or even making a great comment! At various points in the meeting, I would stop and draw a name. The winner would get to pick from an array of prizes.

Looking forward to reading what others do!
Kelley
Madison PTO
Mount Vernon, WA

I have been vp at pre-k level, pres and other officer postions at elementary level and will be taking on our 5/6 Center which was organized last year. I will try to answer your questions on all levels. Ha Ha.

At pre-k we met every month from Jan-May(that is when it was started)
When I took over as pres at the elem we met every month except for 1 or 2. At a teacher's suggestion I went to 6 meetings per year. It helped attendance and lessened some of the grumbling. LOL!
I plan to have about 6 general meetings at the Center.

I am working on meeting with my board right now. In the past I had unofficial meetings but if any decisions were made I did make minutes.

I find early evenings are best for meetings but late enough for working parents to make it that want too. That way teachers do not have to stay there very long and more are apt to show up.

My meetings usually last about an hour, I try not to go over that or until I get tired of hearing "Are we almost done?"

Daycare was provided this year at the elementary by a Homemakers Club. The kids loved it. They were not there the last meeting and some of the kids were very disappointed.

When I was pres at the elem avg was about 25-30 members. Not so much at the pre-k but there were only 60 kids there. I only attended the last meeting at 5/6. I am hearing attendance is poor.

INFORMATION is key for parents AND teachers. Newsletters are great. I try to give my phone and email and the board members if they are willing. I beg and plead for suggestions and comments. I send out info on the importance of parental involvement. When I became pres I developed a Volunteer Program, Bulletin Board, and Web page. With this I used to promote events and meeting dates. I would also put our meeting times in our local weekly paper and sent out reminders AND it was put on our school sign. I still had parents to tell me they didn't know about meetings. You can't make them read what you send out but it doesn't hurt to try.

-We meet once a month (except January).
-We only do General meeting because few non board members come.
-Meetings are at 4pm first Monday of the month.
-Last 45-90 minutes.
-We used to offer childcare until one member brought her 2 kids and several more she was getting paid to watch without giving us notice and our provider refused to do it again.
-We use a parent or staff member who is paid.
-Average attendance is 10.
-We promote through fliers, marquee, and school calendar. We are planning on doing door prizes next year and we offer refreshments.

How often does your organization meet?

Once a month

Do you have Board and General meetings?

We have two general meetings a year (Fall back to school night and April or May to approve the budget). The rest are board meetings that are open to the public

What time of day are your meetings?

We hold three evening meetings at 7 pm. The rest are at 8 am.

How long do your meetings usually last? About an hour

Do you provide "daycare"? If so, is it a parent, or a 5th or 6th grader to "just keep an eye out"? No daycare.

What's the average attendence of your meetings?

About 12 - 15 people including the board and the principal

How do you promote & ENCOURAGE parents to attend?

Email, newsletter

Thanks in advance for sharing your information!