Our volunteer coordinator is also not paid- lol.
We ask our volunteer coordinator to sit on our board. Our rationale is they need to know of upcoming PTA programs that need volunteers. We try to do our own recruiting- but our coordinator also helps.
A couple years ago we struggled with the question of what constituted a PTO event vs. a School event that needs parent help. To address the confusion, we did away with our PTO dues. Therefore, every parent and teacher is automatically a member of our PTO, whether they like it or not! Now all our volunteer opportunities could be considered PTO events. There are still people who would never be caught dead at a PTO "meeting", but will help at a school event. We had over 100 different parents volunteer at a major event recently, so the fact that only about 15 come to a "meeting" doesn't really bother me. As more years pass, I hope the distinction between PTO and parent volunteer fades even further.
Teachers will recruit their own classroom helpers (if needed) from their class parents, but the PTO committee sign-up sheets include Room Parents.
Our volunteer coordinator is a PTO position (unpaid), and she compiles the "Opportunities to Volunteer" sheets all the parents complete at the beginning of the year. Several of the tasks on that sheet are things requested by the teachers, like classroom volunteers, field trip chaperones, and people who can help with prep tasks from home. The volunteer coordinator gives each teacher a list of the parents in their classroom who volunteered for those things. And the teachers are asked each year, along with the PTO event chairpeople, if there are any additions or changes they'd like to make to that sign-up sheet.
The teachers still can and do recruit for themselves as needed, but they all seem to find the list very helpful. It doesn't take much from the PTO to compile it, and it's a good way to demonstrate support for the teachers.
Theoretically, volunteer coordination is one of our elementary school PTO's primary objectives.
I can't say we coordinate every single volunteer on campus - some do work directly with the teachers, librarian, etc., but we are supposed to help with this process. So for big things(book fair, track and field, student assessments), the PTO plays a major role.
Sometimes it's just help spreading the word; other times it's actually organizing the shifts and handling reminders.
For my middle school PTO - a much less active, less formal organization - they pretty much only recruit volunteers for PTO activities.
You might want to take a look at PTO Manager
PTO Manager Info
, the new web-based software program that we are introducing. I think it can help with both tracking hours as well as making sure that more folks get involved. You can easily run reports sorted by hours volunteered. That way you can reach out the people that have not had the chance to help out.
Our school's volunteer coordinator has to be a paid employee per district regs. They do a ton of work for a little raise. They track hours and we (the school) get funds based on the number of volunteer hours.
A lot of our PTO hours don't get logged, but if we are at the school, I think they should.
As PTO President this year, one of my goals is to coordinate with the school to better utilize our volunteer pool. There are parents who want to help in classrooms that aren't contacted and don't know what to do. There are also people volunteering in classrooms who want to help more and think our parent group is some sort of club.
We will have a volunteer appreciation event (put on by the school) where half of the parents have never done anything with PTO.
If you don't expect too much from me, you might not be let down. <img src=images/smilies/smile.gif>
