We have a relatively large school (over 600 children). We have membership dues of $5. With this fee you get a membership directory. We ask the members if they would like to be included in it when they join. It consists of the parents' name, address, phone #, child(ren)name and teacher/grade. We have over 60% membership. We set up a booth for membership at our school supply sale (this occurs before school starts) and we send home flyers with the children. Whatever class has the most members from each grade, they get a pizza party. It works great!

I think that having dues is a wonderful thing, not only do you raise money for you PTO but you also get members who are truly interested in being members. Our school is relatively small also (312) K-5. We have 110 paid members @ $5.00 per family per school year. I think it is so very important to let the parents at our school know the $550.00 we raised from dues will pay for an assembly, or three field trips. The way our by-laws are written only members in good standing (dues paid & attended at least 1/2 of all meetings can run for office) and only those families who have paid their dues have a voice when it comes time to vote on issues. I think you'll get opposition at first but...when people pay to be a member of something they usually want to be involved and those are the ones you want anyway...and if they have a voice because they have paid dues they will feel more dedicated than when they had the same voice as everyone else in the school (even though the others did not become involved in the PTO) Good Luck:)

We have a small school of 700 students in a K-12 school. In our by-laws EVERY staff person and parent at our school is a member but only 12 (on a good night) show up for meetings. I would like to introduce dues maybe $5 per family and would collect this at the beginning of the school year during resgistration (have a table set up to help parents find classrooms etc)Anyway, I need help/imput to show the doubting Thomas' that this could work and help our account. Maybe even show how this could get more parents involved so they don't have the chance to complain that it's the same people all the time. Any imput will be great!