We've recently waived our PTO dues and are considering amending the by-laws to remove them altogether. The way we look at it - every parent at the school is a member automatically (whether they like it or not) We don't want to put a financial restriction on parental involvement and it wasn't much of a money-maker for us anyway. We get much more from openly encouraging parents to be there - no strings attached.

So far - and this is year 3 with no dues - we've seen an increase in meeting attendence, an increase in participation and an increase in revenue. It seems to be working!

Good Luck!!

Kat
FES PTO President
Fairview, TN

I know I'm late getting in on this but the question about paying dues or not paying dues has come up in my region. It sort of depends on the maturity of your PTO. A new PTO can use the dues as a start-up fund. An older PTO has worked out the bugs to the point they know if dues work in their PTO or not. As for using them as a criteria for voting - well they work if part of the criteria is a voting member being a contributing member to the well being of your PTO. At least a dues paying member is helping out some. The make up of your community can have some impact of the dues paying decision. Size, fiscal make up, and education level have impact on the decision. Here in the high desert where a community of 25,000 is a huge community the paing of dues by members help with the operating needs of a PTO.

The only fundraiser our high school level PTO does for the whole year is membership. There are too many clubs and organizations to compete with for parents money at the high school level.

We do not charge membership dues for our pto. Everyone who has a child at the school plus all the faculty are automatically members.

We do fundraising throughout the year, but instead of a membership drive we do a pledge drive at the beginning of each school year. We make a LOT more money with our pledge drive than we ever did with our membership drive.

I don't like the idea that just because you give money (either membership or pledges) that your vote means more than someone who doesn't give to the school monetarily. Some people just can't (or won't) give but do give with manpower. Then there's the people that refuse to do either - but that's another story.

perusing with coffee...

our district functions well on a different philosphy...

We have no fundraisers whatsoever...our money comes from membership fees...anywhere from $75 - $2000 per family, their choice on the desired contribution...we bring in ALOT of money with this system, in large part because people are happy they don't have to sell anything!

Our membership decides how this money will be spent in our schools. Why would we allow a vote to a family who didn't contribute to the schools? This is no different than a stockholder having voting rights in a corporation.

Membership aside, anyone can volunteer in our schools (provided they've had a background check, of course)...it's often those that don't contribute financially that choose to contribute their time and talents in other ways, such as volunteerism. We have no complaints over this system...and I realize that what works for us may not work for everyone, and that's okay!

Boosterprez,

Isn't it a bit unfair to give voting rights to people who don't contribute financially, via any means? In other words, a person who spends time fundraising for the school has an equal voice to someone who chooses not to?

We don't collect dues and every parent/guardian & staff are members with voting priviledges. Voting takes place at meetings - no absentee votes allowed. Usually the people who don't contribute via any means aren't at any meeting and don't care to have a voice in the PTO.

We have found that the more voice people are allowed, the more willing people are to be involved with the PTO & the school. Isn't that what we are trying to accomplish? We're trying to better the educational experience for our children and the biggest factor in a child succeeding is an involved parent!

If you become afraid of too many people voting, you're telling people they & their opinion are not of importance. If they aren't of importance to you - you loose them and they will not want to be a part of the group.

I think of it this way: As Americans, we don't make people have to contribute or participate in the government or politicing in order to vote? How many people don't participate in rallies, meetings, watch TV interviews, read newspapers, they don't work - so they don't pay taxes (well not income tax anyway) yet they go to the polls and vote.