I just wanted to thank you all for all of your great input. I will take you up on your advice and register right now. Thanks!
Sam

Congrats!!! I too won last week and am nervous about the up coming year! I love this site and my husband always knows where I am at after the 10:00 news!

I have been really lucky that I have the backing of the staff at school as well as parents but our school has purchased a new building and will move in the fall. this means lots of new parents and (hopefully) new members! My biggest challenge, no one ran for Secretary OR Treasurer! yeah. We had a few write ins but everyone has declined! Anyway we have some things we can do in our by-laws otherwise it's a good thing I wear a size 11 shoe! LOTS TO FILL!

YES- become registered! It takes a couple minutes and I have never regret it!

May the force be with you!

Also, sam, if you intend to use this site regularly, you might want to consider registering. You can choose to have your e-mail address visible if you'd like, that way you can send private e-mails to people outside of this forum.

Sorry I was so winded on the last posting...

Hi sam,
Congrats! I'm in the same boat as you. In my case, the current pres. & board are very interested in having all of us succeed. The current pres. has been passing files & disks my way & the incoming & outgoing boards are meeting together next week. However, if there is any information I haven't gotten, I'm asking for it now. Over the summer, the new board will meet & work on things like the schedule & budget.

For our meeting this week, I assume we'll be emphasizing sharing of info. All the new officers want to pump the old ones for all the info we can. Two of us were already on the board this year but will be shifting to new positions next year. The other 3 officers will be totally new to the board. I do not intend to discuss changes at this meeting. Yes, we will probably change some things, & the outgoing board probably realizes this. But they've done an excellent job, so I don't want to risk them taking the changes in a personal way.

I also agree w/JHB that this site is invaluable. I've been going thru all the postings category to category & writing ideas down as I go. (And changing the toggle to "all" is important, as she said.)

I haven't met w/the new board yet, but my intention is to set some goals for the next year. General things, like increasing participation (among parents and teachers). I was thinking of publishing a goal to increase PTO membership. I've gotten lots of ideas here for ways to do that & for incentives. I'm also furnishing all the officers with by-laws, maybe all members too.. (not been done before...)

As far as surveys and priority lists, many PTO's send forms to parents this time of year to have them sign up for committees for next year. I'm a "list" person, so I have lists for questions I want to ask the outgoing pres., possible ideas for next year, resources, etc... This is not MY PTO, so I intend to set priority lists, goals, etc... with the incoming board.

Good luck, and keep in touch!

Jo

Congratulations! I think you'll find the next year challenging, at times frustrating, but overall - rewarding! Unfortunately, there's no central source of forms, procedures, etc. That's the flip side to being part of an independent, unaffiliated organizations. However, people on this site are generally very willing to share when you questions or need something specific.

Your best resources are probably any history your own organization has and this site. If it were me, I'd:

1) Try to pull together everything you can from this (or previous) school year. School calendars, flyers, PTO minutes, any budgets, any copies of forms, find out if there are any files stored on a school computer or that you can get from a previous officer. Find whatever you can get from organizational or previous officer records (assuming it's not fabulously documented already awaiting your review - few of us walk into that scenario!).

2) Find some time where you can really truly sit back and read. Then just explore this site from top to bottom. (Be sure to change the toggle from "last 45 days" to "all.) That will give lots of ideas and potential contacts.

These two research projects will give you a starting point. Crystal's suggestions were right on target. Meet with those officers willing to have a planning session over the summer and start pulling it all together.

One of the most valuable tools for us was to start creating a Year-At-A-Glance timeline. At first things were sort or plugged in by season or by month, but then it firmed up. We put everything related to the school on it, so you can start seeing where events fall, holidays you need to work around, etc.

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress!

Congratulations:) Last year when I became President what worked best for me was...As a board we met over the summer to go over every aspect of the PTO and to also kick back and get to know one another. We choose which projects we would do and which ones we wouldn't. We also made up the budget together with equal input. We became a team who had the same vision. When school started we were all set to go. I totally respect the board of officers and if one of us disagree we hash it out before the meeting. We feel free to disagree and we are respectful enough to let each other explain. I have never taken the I'm the President attitude...I look at it as I'm just the one who has to voice our ideas at meetings. I also have the vp make the motions for voting (she is a great speaker) and if there is an issue that one of them know more about they speak about it instead of me. I truly believe that by having a strong board who are all on the same page makes all the difference in the world. We also made a pact of sorts to never air our dirty laundry so to speak...we never let ourselves get pulled into gossip about each other...we support each other so we create a united front...it really helps...good luck to your new endeavour:)