Hi! My son entered kindergarten & all I had were visions of being a room mother & helping out with the PTO. I'm a party co-ordinator for his room & the first PTO meeting was tonight. I was so excited & it was pretty boring. Not that I expected a light show or anything, but there were 11 parents there--not including the board--& I have to admit, I felt stupid. There was no introduction, no explanation as to what a PTO is & what it means & what they accomplished last year & hope to accomplish this year. It was the prez reading off a sheet of paper, rattling off like she was continuing from the last meeting last year. I had to ask "I'm new, this may be a silly question, but what exactly do we do? What are our goals?" She answered, "We supplement the school system's budget." Now, I know it's not all fun, fun, fun for the kids, that we take care of the teachers & the school itself, but there was no excitement. Yes, I'm that queer, crafty, mom that wants to really help out, but I feel like I'm stepping on toes there. I have so many ideas but I was afraid to bring them up. I volunteered for everything & let them know to call if they need anything, but can I toss my ideas in? They took away the money for holiday parties & it wasn't for a good reason. "We have way too much food at those parties that gets thrown away." was the answer they gave. Money isn't for the food, the kindergarten teachers said that parents just send in treats on their own accord. Instead of throwing it away, why not take it to a nursing home, fire department--they like cookies! I didn't bring up topics I wanted to & now I feel like I should have. Can I call the prez & talk to her or should I just wait until next month? Am I going to be one of those annoying moms people roll their eyes at? I have no intention of attacking anyone, but if I'm going to be involved, I'm going to be involved. Any advice how to ease in here?