DMcM..
Our PTO is fairly new too, but I will give you a list of our chairs, maybe some veterans will be able to give you more. For now we are sticking to basics until we have enough volunteers who are reliable.
T-shirt committee
Open House
Bookfair
Fall Fundraiser
Spring Fundraiser
Cougar Cash (our Character Counts insentatives)
Popcorn and Pickle sales
Teacher Appreciation
Yearbook
Christmas Project
Trick or Trunk (Halloween pumpkin contest and activities--I got that from PTO today and used it last year, we had great fun!)
Parent Involvment (we organize for parents to help with weight, hight, eye checks, hearing checks, Accelerated Reader, etc...)
Hope this helps! FYI these were the committees we thought we absolutely had to have.
Critter, not to say that you aren't doing a terrific job as a chair and of course, it is obvious that you love chairing that committee (and was willing to pass the torch in year three) but if there are 10 chair positions and 10 chairs that do a terrific job and do it for all 7 years, you have 10 people involved. If I came in as a new parent and I was eager to be involved, maybe came from a school where I had a little experience or maybe just an eager mom like you were once, then I am told, all committee chair positions are full and will be full for the term of my child's schooling, I'd feel a bit shut out and very discouraged in being involved. It wouldn't matter to me that the job was being done well, It would matter to me that I couldn't be as involved that I would like to when my children are young. I have the right to be as involved as you are and it wouldn't be fair to me or any other parent. Each of us should have the opportunity, if we don't take it, that's are fault but if we never get it, it's yours.
I know this might sound a bit silly, but I was hopeing that maybe I could get some titles for the committee chairs and also job descriptions for each. We are an all new PTO board coming into the 2004-2005 school year and would like any info we can get!!!
Sort of diverging from the topic but Critter, what is an Art Appreciation Committee and what does it do? Sounds interesting..Elementary level?
thanks
Shelly
I didn't mean to hurt anyones feelings when I said out with the old and in with the new. What I meant is over at our school we have people who want to chair just so they could be the classmom. They are not interested in doing any work that goes along with the job. They are just plain selfish.
When we, the officers, try to replace them for not doing their jobs they get all offened and then they bit** and moan.
I just don't understand why people take on a job and don't see it through! To take a chair position just to be a classmom when there are others out there that really want to do the job is just plain wrong! You're not hurting anyone but the kids by doing this and I just wish the parents would see this before the sign up or resign up for positions.
This does seem to happen more with the chairs that have held the position for 3 or more years.
I do see your point about being offended but you seem to be in a different class of people then what we have at our school. I wish we had your kind over here!
I'm all for keeping chairs if they're doing a great job, and everyone is happy with it. In fact we wrote in our bylaws that chairs/officers have terms, but that they can be overridden by a vote of the membership if they want to keep them there. That way people who are doing a great job and love doing it don't have to vacate.
BUT, unfortunately there are those out there that THINK they're doing a great job, or that "good enough" is good enough, when in fact the program could be improved. Sometimes in situations like that you'll get new people who want to try their hand at it, and that's when you run into the problem of "hurt feelings" and resentments.
FYI these were the committees we thought we absolutely had to have.