At our school, we're trying to prevent burnout in our major fundraising chairs by having them shadowed for a year or even two by a new parent interested in running that event, but too new to know the ropes. It really helps in a lot of ways. 1. The current chair sees that someone can take it over and they have an out. (The all-important light at the end of the tunnel!) 2. The new chair doesn't have to reinvent the wheel. 3. old traditions are kept, but fresh ideas are always being added.
Good luck...

We just had our Harvest Festival and all the activities and supplies were handled by myself and one other mom. It was a year long process, frustrating at times, but the day of the Harvest Festival we had wonderful high school students who were our main source of volunteers. Along with the good ol' dependable parents you see helping at every function. I had some moments to just step back and observe the families enjoying themselves at the various activities, WOW! what a feeling of accomplishment!! It is frustrating to realize that all the work falls on the same shoulders every year, but it seems to be a problem in alot of groups/organizations everywhere. There are just too many activities that pull today's families in so many different directions that people today are sometimes just spread too thin. Take it on the chin and keep smiling. You are making a difference, your reward is that you're making wonderful memories for these children and maybe inspiring them to be involved parents one day! [img]smile.gif[/img]

I agree with the posted notes about seeking chairpersons to run events. When you get a group of chairperson they will network outside of your network and volunteers come out of the woodwork. Also by having a monthly newsletter advertisting for help in areas is helpful as well as sending out a PTA agenda to the parents to spark thier interests. Good Luck

HI sue...Thats very good advice about if you dont have chairs set up in Sept/Oct to put it out there that the event will be cancelled. It was lucky this year that I filled all the events with chairs or co-chairs. I just fell alittle down that we cant get more involved, i have heard it from old volunteers as well as newcomers. Of course the newcomers are so full of energy they have a hard time seeing lack of help but they also dont know that in 2001 there were only 3 or 4 volunteers in the pta and that paid staff use to run the bookfair and class pictures. the only two things they did besides raise alot of money...which they did great. we have a totally different look and do the opposite.

Hi pals, I understand your frustration and it sounds as though perhaps you, too might be suffering a bit of burnout and also need a morale boost.
We formed a "Visionary Committee" at the end of last year and it met a few times over the summer.
2 things of many [img]smile.gif[/img] that came up were: 1. Ask for volunteer committee chairpersons in Sept/Oct. If no one volunteers, goodbye to that activity or event (put out a written announcement to all school families before event is totally removed in case a parent wishes to volunteer). 2. Make sure that PTO members know that they don't need to volunteer for EVERYTHING! Core members need to allow each other the opportunity to enjoy events with their families WITHOUT GUILT OF NOT HELPING!!!
The bottom line is that first and foremost we are parents to our children and it's THEIR experience/memories of school that matter MOST! Yes a "job" has to be done but YOU cannot carry the burden alone.

We have a very large elementary school 1050 students and at our last pto meeting we had 20 people.