Cindy,

I also am the PTO President at the elementary school, I work full-time, at the school, I am the junior high cheerleading advisor and I also attend college 2 night per week. What works for me is organization. There are times that I do get tired and think I should give something up but it's too hard of a decision to make. You can do it, at least try. Just because you have to work full-time does not mean you have to give up your "volunteer" work. Do what you enjoy doing, you might be amazed how much more you will enjoy doing both. Good Luck!

Tammy

3tikes--you can do it! You have to be extemely organized and disciplined though! I am in school full time for education which is 4 days a week and have field work on top of that, I am room parent coordinator, mom of 2 and wife.

The first thing you do is let go of the mommy guilt. Every semester I go through a big issue of how is this affecting my children. I know in my head that it will eventually benefit us all, but in my heart, I feel guilty for not being with them (although they are at school).

The second thing you do is sit down with your fmaily and explain the situation. This is what is happening and why it is happening, and this is what is expected from you to make this be the best situation possible. My kids know that when I have my books out, that isnt the time to paint, fight, or want everything in the world. they also know that during finals, they have to help out more than they usually do.

The 3rd thing is do the same as above but withthe other board members. This is what is happening and I still want to remain on the board and how can we all make this work together. Our board sat down the night before we we elected and said ok--this is my priority (for me it was family, school, then pto). We all agreed that to be the best possible that it wasn't necessarily about the job we were elected for--i know that i can ask one of the others for room parent help and they can ask me for help with their stuff. We do everything as a group and team. that has been the best thing--when i have projects or papers due, they pitch in, just like i pitch in when one of them has something going on. I've missed a couple of things, but we are close and they updated me right after.

Get a pocket calender, and when you get your work schedule, let others have it in writing.

You do what you can, when you can and remember that your family is the # 1 priority. YOU CAN DO IT!!!!

Delgate and Communicate

I am a working parent and am President of our PTO/Boosters. We combined them this year as there was a fall-off of the parental involvement in the middle school. We cover an elementary K-5 and 6-8 middle school. What we have set up is we have chairpersons in charge of every type of event, from fundraising to hostess to concessions. This chairperson gathers all the volunteers and coordinates the efforts. The PTO board only oversees and ensures they are getting the job done in a timely fashion. Our chairpersons are given a budget for their event. They CANNNOT overspend without requesting additional monies in an open PTO meeting. If they go over budget they will not be reimbursed. This creates the chair to come up with very creative ways of managing their event at the least cost. But to answer your qeustion, you can do it, however you need to be very organized and have a strong volunteer base. I do everything via the computer. Email distribution lists to our newsletter. This is something I can do on my own time and don't have to wait until someone comes home to talk to them. It has worked great so far.

I can ditto onaroll almost down to every detail of her response.

I have been a PTO board member for 8 years-3 as Prez. and also am involved in other organizations. I am a very organized person and that helped a lot because it kept me on track with what needed to be done. I also had the great fortune of having fantastic board members and committee chairs who could take their duties and run, so I didn't have to keep constant track of what was going on with them.

One other thing I did was get my kids involved. They helped put together info packets, fold flyers, set up displays, etc. with the tasks progressing as they became older. I figure it's their school and they should at the very least get to understand what it means for these parents to volunteer to help. They love it! My daughter is in middle school, but still loves to come back to the elementary school and help at events. I have to also mention I have a great husband, who handled kid stuff when I needed to be at meetings or work on something.

You can do it!!! Just keep yourself organized and don't be afraid to delegate/ask for help.

When I started on PTO, 5 years ago, my husband said, "You've got to learn how to say no". When I became prez last year he just grinned and said, "You're nuts!" YUP - but it's worth it, I love it! Two kids, a job from 9am-3pm Mon-Fri, travel for it 4 times a year, PTO, Site-Based Team, an annual golf tournament, yada, yada. But, you know what? If it's important to you, you'll make it work.

I've done exactly what you mentioned. I go to the functions I can or another board member covers. We compare personal schedules for who can be at the year's events in Sept., so we know. We have co-chairs (usually not a board member) for each and every event we run to make sure they are covered and with LOTS of communication between us all if help is needed, they all run smooth.

I'm lucky to have a great group on the board (most of who work too) and we have an incredible principal. When I was a frosh prez last year at our first board meeting I just laid it on the table...we all work, we need to share the duties more than what had been done in the past. The previous prez did it all herself (and admitted driving herself crazy at the same time and at the risk of having parents get upset that they would offer to help, then hear nothing). Our set up now allows us to give more attention to our tasks and by needing co-chairs for the various events/committees, it spreads out the number of slots we need filled that are available to the parents who want to do more.