Having gone through leadership training I have been taught that most people do not read past the first page of a hard copy document, scuh as a newsletter. If something is too large they tend to not even try. My best recommendation would be to try to limit it to the things that are really important.
Looking at Diff's newsletter, it is fantastic. I think the large print, for an electronic newsletter, would work very well. For a hardcopy newsletter I would recommend trying to keep it down to two pages by using smaller font. For example, I provide a three paragraph, or so, introduction at the top of the first page of my Newsletters, just as Diff does. But by using smaller font I end up only taking up less than a third of the page, rather than a whole page.
I also put pictures from evey event with each article. For example, I included a picture of all of the volunteers for Field Day with the write up and thanks. I think it makes it more personal. You'll also need to decide if your PTO newsletter is going to include things that would normally belong in the school's newsletter, such as teacher thank yous, school run events, etc.
As others have suggested, it would probably be ok to include dates to remember for non-school related events, but again I would recommend not taking up too much space there, it's too valuable.
I have been writing/producing newsletters for the past 20 years, both in my professional career and, now, for my kids' schools (for the last 8 years).
I teach a newsletter writing class for all of the school newsletter writers in the district (we have 15 schools) and my best advice is:
1. I keep the actual articles limited to the SCHOOL, but like others in this thread, I may include a 'mention' (date, time, type of event) from an outside organization in a Save the Date section, when appropriate.
2. Our schools combine PTA/O and School activity into one newsletter, (usually monthlies).
3. Write articles about what's coming, (events, new policies in place, testing dates, safety tips, holidays, etc.) -- and recap what happened ("Great Turnout at Harvest Fest", plus an overview of what happened). Begins to develop support for next year.
4. When PTA/O and school partner this way, it is seen as a team effort (school and parent group) rather than "them vs. us."
5. When thinking about length (how many pages) I use the following rule of thumb -- "you should be able to read the whole thing in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee!" Always think about your audience -- they're BUSY and you need to be respectful of the limited time they have.
OMG--ours is usually 8 pages long at least and if I don't get it out on time people are calling me asking where it is. Regardless of our very aggressive email program people still love the Prints. You can see it under the newsletter tab at brentpto.com. We are having trouble posting this years (so they may not be up there) but the others are there to give you an idea of what we put in them...
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Last year I started up a monthly newsletter, realizing that it would be one of the best ways to get the word out to the parents. I made it colored and fron and back so it would be a single page. I put all of the events that we have run and the upcoming events as well.
I have never had a problem filling up the space. If anything I often have issues fitting everything that we do/have done on the two pages. As such adding these other non-PTO related activities would be very difficult. I would have to add a third and/or fourth page, and I would be very hesitant to do that.
