This year our school is having a problem with members & cliques. As one person had sent in, when a group of people work so closely together and are as passionate as most HSA organizations are, you tend to become clickish. This is only because you become close friends and develop bonds with these people. It has nothing to do with working against someone else on the board. A tight knit friendship is needed when long hours are worked on something like a Santa Secret Shop and a group is together for 3 days and four nights straight of long hours, organization, and the pulling together of an event. Unfortunately some people take offense to this and rather than let us include them, it tends to turn sour.
Anyway, my suggestion to you is to start a bylaw committee, write by-laws & include having an election and really talk up the PTA at your school. Always be extremely positive and readily available. The only way to get new people in is to show them how great it really is. Good Luck!
<<<Just out of curiousity, Julier, how many call and tell you they want to help and then follow through?>>
You know, most do follow through in some way. We usually don't get a large number of calls, unless the form states that there is work that can be done at home. It is rare that one of these people will step up and take a leadership role in the event, but it does happen. We just want to make people know that their help is sorely needed, and that they would be welcome.
Like Julier, we send the notices home too, asking for any interested parents to come join in on the activities. We also use our Parent Survey lists and actually call the parents, begging them to come help us. That they don't come, don't want to come and consider us cliques, then becomes their problem, not ours. Just out of curiousity, Julier, how many call and tell you they want to help and then follow through? My personal motto for parents who say we are a clique (and we are most certainly not...the VP and I can't agree if it is night or day outside...lol), is "STAND UP OR SHUT UP". It isn't funny and it isn't meant to be. I have always believed there was something for everyone to help out with if they really wanted to help. Cliques went out with high school. They should grow up, roll up their sleeves and pitch in. Mostly, they should Stand Up or Shut Up.
At our meeting yesterday we talked about nominations. Our president made a point of saying that when the 6 board members started the year, although most knew each other, we weren't close friends or anything like that. We had all met through working together on things, but had all run independently of each other. She wanted it known that anyone who was interested in being a board member could run and would be welcomed into the group.
I don't know if we are percieved as being clique-ish. Whenever we decide to plan an event, we send home a notice saying something like - "this year's winter carnival will be held on Feb 2. A planning meeting for this event will be on Jan 5 at 7. If you would like to help but can't make this meeting, call ______." I think this opens things to everyone, not that we get too many new faces at these meetings.
I have never posted here before but I had to reply to the "clique" thing. I have heard this about our PTO as well, and it drives me crazy! My reply is: "if you define a clique as people who truly enjoy each other's company,work well together, and support each other in times of stress, then we happily accept that title and encourage you to become a part of our "clique." I think with any group you have people who work, and people who look for excuses. You learn a lot about each other when you roll up your sleeves and work on endless activities together, it's natural to become close. Anyway, doesn't that benefit the school and students more than a group whose members are constantly bickering, and isn't that our purpose?
I think that there are always going to be people who insist that PTA/PTO's are clickish. The fact of the matter is that very few actually are. It is just natural for the members who come back every year to become friends. They learn how to work with each other, utilizing each others strengths and weaknesses. When I first joined the PTO, I left in tears, swearing I'd never go back to that clickish group. Thing is, I did go back and went back and went back. I swore that if I was ever prez that I would make sure there were no clicks. Guess what? Everyone thinks we are a click. What we are are men and women who keep coming back and making a difference. That means getting along. Tell your parents who think you have a PTO Click, that you just know and trust each other and that you'd like to get to know and trust them too.
OH! HAVE AN ELECTION! If I knew that the outgoing officers are picking the new guys, I think I might have a bit of a problem with that too. That really is kind of clickish...lol..
