Our PTA had an Thank You get together for the outgoing board members and Welcome new Members at the end of school year in the local playground/ park. Food and drink donations were solicited, and the PTA provided hot dogs and burgers. Big hit with kids were hot dogs. Was fun to meet the new members and also to ask questions and get more information from the old.

Finally able to take a breather (man, the beginning of the school year is BUSY for us!). Thought I'd follow up on my original post.

We ended up doing a Potluck Dinner. Pre-registration was available for printed namebadges and activity bags for the kids. Committee member badges were a different color. I had T-shirts made up for the board members.

We made international welcome banners for the cafeteria as well as banners that showed what the families did for the school last year, whether they were PTA members or not (i.e. Box Tops collections paid for xyz, Jog-A-Thon fundraiser paid for all PTA-sponsored field trips, buses, yada, yada), etc.

Tablecloths were art paper; crayons, coloring pages with our new website address on them, membership forms, clearance forms, reasons to get involved flyers were in the activity bags. Had a banner my kids had started and had all the kids attending sign their first names. Hung that banner in the cafeteria for another couple weeks until after our Annual Open House.

Food tables marked (i.e. appetizers, main dishes, etc.). Used it as an example during the emceeing as how easy it was to volunteer. If they were able to place their dish on the correct table, they'd just learned 40% of what is needed for Market Day Inventory. If they didn't think they had time to volunteer, they'd made time to come out with a dish and help make it a successful event. Volunteering was as simple as each of us pitching in a little where we could.

First game was based on a picture of our school mascot placed on each table. If it had a T on it, the teacher sitting closest to the mascot had to come up, P - parent, then each of the grades for students. All picked card stock marked with letters and had to spell out their "words" (Potluck Tastes Awesome)...then the 3 capital letters had to stay up (P-T-A)...those 3 tables got to get in line for food first.

Had mixer questions designed to get people talking to one another (i.e. look for a red badge and ask them what their favorite school event is, find someone with a pink paper [kindergarten parent] and find out what makes them proudest of their child, etc.) Prizes were involved.

Lessons learned...mixer questions earlier - lots of people left after eating. LOL!

Feedback on the event was very positive. Even with the PTA providing the turkey and ham, in addition to the banners, badges, bags, crayons and art paper, we were able to do it all for under $450.

Looks like we'll be doing it again next year.

Vivian

I'd suggest you make yourselves identifiable by wearing printed namebadges that have your name and title. (Nice and big so people can SEE them.) It makes people more comfortable to know who you are at a glance.

You can print them on a computer or get one of your members with nice writing to do them. But make sure they are very clear.

We kept nametags at school for our officers/key volunteers to wear anytime they were on campus. The badges were formatted with our PTO logo and the person's name/title. It made staff and students aware that we weren't simply an involved parent or a volunteer (not that those aren't important!) but it made them see us in our PTO role and gave the organization more visibility.

You could also have a standard T-shirt or vest.

love the idea! we're trying to figure out how to pull off a similar event. traditionally, our open house night is the week before school starts and that jump starts our membership drive. this year poses a challenge for us because our building is under renovation, we can't use the gym or cafeteria, and our open house isn't until a month after school starts. we want to get off to a good start, but we're struggling as to how to make that happen.

We are doing a meet and greet at back to school night it is just easier for us. I want to do a meet and greet for new kids and parents. Like the week before school starts. I saw one pto did this and thought it was a great idea. I want parents to feel comfortable in our school like i did on my sons first day.We have great teachers and parents need to know that.

I think this is a great idea! I'm an incoming officer for next year, too - we are considering hosting a meet-n-great your officers at the start to the year. We thought we'd offer pastries (my husband is a baker, so that helps!), coffee and the opportunity to share their ideas for the year.

I've seen themes like Muffins for Moms, Donuts for Dad....

I hope you have a great year!