As President of our Board, I don't worry too much about the meetings being fun. They aren't a social event although we do have inherent fun I will admit. The meetings we have are designed to provide information to the parents who attend. I do open the meetings with a brief (8 mins or so) presentation by a staff member, etc. speaking on something of interest to the group. People have commented they like the "mini presentations" this year. When I recognize people wanting to speak, I strive to use their first name, and if appropriate, acknowledge their attendance, especially if they are new. This helps others to learn names of people, both "old and new" in the group. I keep the meetings at 90 mins. People are reminded of our "deadline" at the beginning of each meeting but likewise, parents have grown to expect to leave on time. We offer refreshments and free childcare so it's a good night out with other parents once a month. I spend a lot of time meeting with parents and personally inviting them to our meetings. Yes, there's a notice sent home before each meeting, but there's nothing like a personal invite to get someone feeling out of the loop to feel welcome! Our attendance this year has grown and steadily increased so I guess this plan works for our school. Just my $.02!
my kis mom we only throw a pie after our staff/parent volleyball match! Last year that was our wager, the principal was suppose to take the pie but the school psychlogist and myself planned it at the last minute for me to miss her and hit him. This years we have a new principal and the wager is the staff caters our next meeting, or parents cater lunch for them...........wish us luck!
"When you stop learning you stop growing."
pals I didn't see pie throwing.
No pie throwing.
The most fun my board ever had was the meeting we hosted a canidate forum for the new School Board and I was suppose to keep the time for the canidates answers. I went through an entire bag of tooties pops and had a great time telling one canidate their time was up. Okay too much fun!
Anyway, my sense of humor (???) keeps things going and (I hope) light.
Oh this is my baby! I am a strong advocate of making meetings fun.We tried the food and door prize thing the first four months of our group, it didnt work! I try to have some sort of activity at every other meeting. Some things that we have done are:
1-Hats in a Bag-parents take a hat and we go around the table and they say why they picked that hat. Make sure you have alot of different hats(santa, captains, witches, clown, etc.)
2-alphabet game-each parent takes a slip with a letter from the alphabet and they need to use that letter to make one word discriping involvement at our school
3-Piece of the picture-pick a theme and write up slips with items at that location (ex. ocean-sand, shipwreck, fish, sea shells, bubbles, etc) whatever slip they pull they need to draw that item. When someone is giving a report as leader of the group you go to another location and glue the pieces together...come back and show them how important they are to the puzzle!
4-Find a Pal-this is like human bingo, you make up a sheet that has nine squares on it, each square has a clue like"has lived in another state" give the group two minutes to mingle and find a person who matches the squares.
5-Think outside the box-this is fun for getting people to think. you draw out the shape of a box that is enclosed on cardstock. they have to cut it out, glue or tape it together and decorate in their style.
6-Paper quilt square-we actually did this with all volunteers, everyone designs a same size square to represent their family. After you get them all back(we gave it a few weeks) piece them all together and hang it in your lobby to show how each volunteer sees their family.
7-Toilet paper game-Take a roll of tp and have each parent take some , they then need to tell everyone that many things about themselves. Just make sure not to tell them ahead of time why they are taking it. Our group is actually in this months pto today with this...what a thing to be known for!
8-Logo-tell them the group need a new look, break them up into teams of about 3-4 and with a piece of paper and markers they design anew look. later they have to explain it!
Sorry this is long but there are so many things you can do to make it fun! People show up at our meetings and they may groan but they do enjoy it...ha ha ha. incase you are wondering our meetings are only 1 hour long...you can make this happen and still do your business.have fun!
"When you stop learning you stop growing."
Refreshments worked for me in the past. This year it seems everyone just wants to get out of there. But it doesn't hurt to try. Sometimes we all need to mingle and talk with other parents. Do you do door prizes?
My best suggestions is to make your meetings short and efficient. When I was PTO president, I did my best to keep the meeting going and on track. I can't say it was really fun, but I do think it was efficient and people appreciate that. There's nothing worse than being stuck in a meeting that is dragging on unproductively.
Good luck!
SHC
