Our school alternates between an afterschool meeting one month at school. The next month is an evening meeting at our local aquatic center. They have a nice board room right next to the pool and the kids can swim for free.

We never expected much teacher participation at monthly meetings. Our large board included Principal, Vice Principal, and 2 teacher reps. Those folks made a commitment and were generally present. Then they would provide a re-cap at the school staff meeting to keep everyone in the loop. That worked pretty well.

Interested concept-- we've tgried Morning, after school and evening. Mornings were pretty good-- afterschool brought some teachers, but little parents even with offering free after school daycare and evening was even worse this past year

We're trying all Morning meetings since they have been the best--- but since we are a PTO (Parent-Teacher) Organization we are going to have 3 after school meetings throughout the year to include teachers. Teacher don't volunteer to chair an event-- so we're trying to focus on parents for our meetings... but we've also started a PTO connects with the teachers and staff-- where a board member comes to a staff meeeting once a month and informs them of what we have coming up, any pertinent information they need for reimbursement or anything else and answer any questions they might have... this way they stay informed and feel included even when they can't make a meeting. We'll see how this all works out this year.

We found it's not the time or the day, it's what's done at the meeting.

Most people don't want to sit for an hour or hour and a half and listen to you and all your committee members to give reports, then listen to the principal babble on endlessly promoting her agenda.

We changed to a format where we're all at round tables. Each table has its own agenda. I open the meeting. We get the treasurer's report and very breifly highlight the business which is all spelled out on the main agenda. They can all read. No one needs me to read it all to them. We do principals reports, but have asked them to keep it brief and bring handouts if there's a lot of info they want to give out.

This takes about 30 minutes, but I try to make it even sooner.

Then we adjurn the regular meeting and the committee meetings start.

They have an agenda that looks like this:

Movie Night:
Date: ___________
Pick movie (from list provided)
delegate: Popcorn poppers:
Drinks:
Order pizza:
Flyer (create, approvals, copy, distribute:
Collect RSVP's and make ticket envelopes:
Email for and organize intermission servers:

There are similar agendas on each committee table.

By the end of the night, everyone leaves having committed to a small job, feels like their time wasn't wasted, because decisions were made and work got done and we always seem to have enough hands on deck. It's so much easier when you just have to make a flyer and don't have to commit to doing that whole list.

The type of meeting is a good point. Some organizations still hold a monthly general meeting. My elementary school PTO held a monthly business meeting of the Board. Our board was large (20+) with the regular officer positions, committee chairs, and a parent rep from each grade. Visitors were welcome (but rare). We focused on the business of the PTO and looked to our parents to volunteer and donate goods for programs - not come to a monthly meeting. We, too, had the twice-a-year general meetings. They were always very short, placed right before a popular school program. Fall meeting was to vote on the budget and lay out plans for the year. Spring meeting was to vote in new officers and review accomplishments.

I did really like that model. Our business/board meetings were in the evening because at least half our members worked outside the home.

Our PTO generally holds meetings on a week-day morning as it is most convenient to the board members (most are SAHP's). However, twice per year, our meetings are scheduled for the evening as the agenda of those meetings is most likely to interest school parents. I don't know why we bother, though. Despite heavily advertising the agenda and meeting time for those evening meetings, we get one to two guests at the most.