We have a volunteer coordinator who has parents sign up for things at the begining of the year and lets them know then that they may not get called for everything they want-we get lots when we don't need any and none when we need lots. If she called everyone that signed up to help in classrooms, she would make 400 calls each time she needed someone and that's just not possible. She also calls on parents to do simple things, like bake cookies for parent/teacher conferences and other things like that and there is. We were lost until this position was created and it is so much that she is no a volunteer coordinator for the school and not just PTO.

After about twenty drafts, I change the tone to not step down to the leval of those making the comment. Following is what was finally written - most people have liked the positive spin that I had review it. I'll have to wait and see how it was received overall. Thanks for your input everyone!


A Great Couple of Years …
And A Few Ways to Make the Next One Even Greater!

My son’s been at our school for four years, and I’ve been here for two – not in the classroom, but serving as a volunteer president on the PTO board. Looking back, we’ve had a great couple of years: holding a slew of fundraisers and fun family events. All have raised money that benefits our kids and school community. That’s a lot of success. We’ve also had a wonderful show of amazing parents stepping forward to volunteer at these functions, as well as join the board. (Though I must say, we could still use a few more dads so I can talk more about sports).

As amazing as this has been, we’ve also learned a lot that I’d like to share with you, so that in the upcoming years we can do even better.

At the beginning of the school year, we asked parents to sign up for the things they wanted to help out with during the year. We got an overwhelming response which is great. But for some events, like the Back-to-School BBQ and School Pictures, we simply had too many people signed up and couldn’t use everyone; some who signed up did not receive a call. I understand we ended up having some disappointed volunteers, which we want to avoid at all costs. For other events, we had too few people, for example, we were more than 60 volunteers short of the number needed for the Fall Festival.

What we have learned is this: The PTO has been a huge success over the past years because people are willing to be involved. I want to encourage this 100 percent – and I want to encourage you to communicate more with the board on your involvement goals. So if you want to be involved in an event in particular, please, in addition to signing up for it, let us know personally. If you are willing to volunteer in any event, again please let me know – this is very important for us when figuring out how we will staff fundraisers and events that are shy of the required number of volunteers needed. If you are interested in serving on the board as a volunteer, please speak up. Just this year, several people approached me and said they wanted to be more involved than last year. Some are now committee chairs on this years board and others are just more involved.

The bottom line is this: We would love to have you involved. As involved as you want to be. Give me a call or drop me an e-mail. Let’s work together to make this new year a great one!

We have just instituted a new policy. Like Michelle, we call everyone and Thank them for signing up. We also take that time to explain how our volunteer tree list is used.

Example: We have a volunteer list of bakers. That list contains about 200+ names. We start at the top (which is in no certain order) and work our way down. When we have the amount of bakers that we need for an event, then we make a notation and that is where we begin the next time we need bakers. It seems to work very well and everyone understands. Everyone will get a turn to help... several times a year...lol...

Originally posted by Daddio044:
I want to nip this now. I want to address the clique issue straight on. I (am pres) have an article in each montly newsletter and want to focus on this in our October issue (which get's printed next week).

Well Daddio? How's the article? OR should I ask..did you say everything you wanted?

a fellow cliche member, Tina

at our school we have volunteer day twice a month. Everyone who signed up to help out (in general not just for functions) comes to school for 1-2 hrs and everyone helps with making copies, stapleing making hallway displays ect. the teachers all bring the things that they need done to the cafeteria and everyone jumps in and lends a hand. This seems to work well for us, the staff gets their projects finished and the volunteers get the satisfaction of kowing they were needed and were abel to help.

What I have recommended to my units and put into place at my own school is that EVERY volunteer gets a phone call. Now that does not mean every one of them gets used but I have a volunteer to call all the volunteers to acknowledge that they have volunteered and that they will be called.
If more sign up than are needed, they get another phone call, thanking them for volunteering and explaining that we've had an overwhelming response but asking them if they would like to work on XYZ because it didn't have as many volunteers.
It's just the acknowledgement that means the most. It's when they feel like they've been ignored that it becomes a problem.