Make your invitation eye-catching, but be sure to advertise a REASON for your members to come: we are going to discuss xxx, review xxx, or have a presenation on xxx. Does your principal give a school update at each meeting? That may be reason enough for some parents to attend. If your meeting is in the evening, consider offering light refreshments - advertise that, too. Post a begin and end time for the meeting and then begin and end on time. Your members will appreciate your respecting their time.

We use a half sheet of colored paper for our meeting reminders and send them home the day before our monthly meeting, plus advertise the meetings in the weekly school newsletter.

We experience a predictable steady decline in meeting attendance from October through March. It's a reality we accept as parents' priorities change through the holidays, and then the weather gets cold. Our meetings are primarily business updates, so only the most interested members come. BUT, meeting attendance is not an indication of poor PTO participation. Meetings are simply a communication tool for us, not our purpose. While it's a great idea to keep the school population aprised of PTO activities, don't throw in the towel if only a few parents show up, especially during the winter months.

We have our monthly newsletters that invite parents to our meetings but we also use reminders.

Reminders are just the basic info cut in half (saves on paper). Sometimes I would use borders and such. The principal is extremely partial to Karen's Kids. I am sure if you do a search you can find this border. It is cute little kids doing different things.

[ 10-05-2003, 10:25 PM: Message edited by: C. Brooks ]

Does anyone have a cute invitation to send home. We will be having our second meeting of the year next week. The first meeting always draws well, then it seems to taper off after that. I'm looking for a fun reminder that we want people to attend. Thanks