I make up a flyer for each event and ask for volunteers. I ask for parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. I explain the event on the top of the flyer and the bottom is where they fill out their information if they can and what time they will volunteer. This works for us better than one sign up sheet or even phone calls. Majority of the people that volunteer by the flyers actually show up.
You have to find a way to connect with parents to get them to volunteer. We created a program called Three for Me, check it out at www.three4me.com
We increased volunteerism 50% from 4,000 volunteer hours to more than 9,000 in 1 year. We opened the door to parents. They had a reason to be their: a promise to their child. Check it out, we just won national recognition and $10,000 from Midwest Living Magazine as the Champions in Education. The two of us that created the program, are two everyday volunteers at school. We get hundreds of emails every week with the same concern about lack of parent volunteerism. You might want to try Three for Me at your school! It's all free!
I have started my new year of being PTO Pres. and my stance on getting parents involved in THEIR PTO is this:
If no one volunteers then it doesn't happen.
I know...sounds harsh but I'm not trying to be but reality is you can't burn out the help that you already have. I am honest with the parents of why I am doing it when they ask. The amazing thing is, when your honest and let people know that your going to shut something down you end up with volunteers. It's called honesty not guilt and I stress that to the volunteers. I've done it a couple times this year and so far nothing has been shut down.
I would branch out and ask for grandparents/aunts & uncles and such to volunteer.
We offer an O.A.S.I.S. program where Senior Citizens come and help tutor children in reading. Those Seniors REALLY enjoy working with the children and we get more and more who sign up to help each year.
We are a new charter school. We started have volunteer problems. Then we got all of the sign-up sheets and gave them to our volunteer coordinator. She calls everyone, even if she got enough vol., that way everone knows what its going on and they can spread the word to family and friends.
This may be out there. Try to find out where some of the parents work. Maybe their company has a community volunteer program. This would give the parent a sigh of relief, it's hard to take time off these days.
I agree with several of the others that you might want to consider thiking of other sources for volunteers. We reach out to a couple of senior living residences nearby, and they seem to really enjoy helping. WE keep track of what vounteers come from which residence and how many hours they have donated then send a big thank you at the end of the year to put on the bulletin board in their community center -- this year, we had 2 or 3 people call to volunteer just because they had seen the thank you note.
Also, do you put an option on your survey for week-end or evening choices? We ask for volunteers for particular events, but also have an area on our survey form where we ask for availability. If people know they can volunteer only nights and/or week-ends they might be more willing. And I agree that there are things that can be done at home as a "volunteer" activity, such as saving boxtops. I suggest making sure your parents know that they can be considered school volunteers without having to be there during the day.
