Thank you everyone for your replies.... I had not thought about the nomination form for the open house. I have gotten newsletters ready to copy and send home with each student at the begining of school, as well as newsletters to go to the teachers...volunteer forms and such to hand out at open house... all from ideas from this website... did i tell ya this is an awesome site???
we WERE to have elections in April so the new officers could meet in May with the old ones.. But the President did not think it was necessary. In fact she told me this week that I needed to wait until the end of Aug to send out the nomination sheet... Well, since she is no longer the Pres and I am I think I shall go ahead... I also have a ad ready to go to our local newspaper and have sent it also to the radio station...
thanks again for your replies...
You and I have alot in common. I was asked to come to the last meeting to take the Pres position because no one wanted it. This is also our second year in operation. But I do have wonderful officers. The only thing is we may have to replace the treasurer. She was a staff member and has fallen victim to budget cuts. Anyhow one thing my sec. suggested was to keep a list of members on our PTO board. We are a small county so most people know each other. If they see that "so and so" is doing it they may be more willing to help too. That is her philosphy and right now I will try most anything to get a good PTO going to help out these kids.
People say they won't help out because there is no help? Tell them maybe if everyone had their attitude the place would be the involvement capital of the world. Then quickly walk off while they are thinking about it so you won't get slapped. Ha Ha.
I agree! You cannot and should not do this all alone. Make information available about what's coming up, what kind of help you need and make it clear that without volunteer help it will not get done. If no one steps up, start sending out cancellation notes. You sound enthusiastic going into this and that's great. Hopefully, you'll win a few over. It may take awhile so be patient. If I knew my child wasn't going to have fun things at school because no one cared to step up I would certainly be asking what I could do. There are lots of parents like that, you just have to find them. Some are just waiting to be asked. Good Luck!!!
If they don't want to be involved then they don't have the right to complain! I would hold elections as soon as possible. What does your bylwas say about when elections are to happen? Ours are in May. All you can do is make PTO fun and screw everyone else. If you can't provide events such as Santa shop or Bookfairs becasue you don't have officers or parent voulnteers then all you can do is send a letter out to the parents in your school saying, "Due to lack of parent volunteers, we will not be holding our annual Sanata Shop this year." I suggest however, that you have a nomination form ready to go and be passed out at the Open Houses in AUgust, send another reminder home in August and hold elections in Spetmeber to get the ball rolling. Make a "Welcome to PTO" board in the main lobby for everyone to see. Put things on it like Meeting times, dates, agends, vacant postions, and volunteer opporunities. For the old PTO officers who refuse to help, show them you're better than them and committ yourslef to getting some officers and parents will follow. Offer free cofee at your meetings and have PTO chairpersons bake goodies for your meetings. Keep your meetings short and shrug off all the ones who complain! Hope that helps you! Good Luck!
Hi all,
Let me start by saying this as an AWESOME website... Many thanks to you all who have put it together...
I need a reply to those parents who, when asked to help and they turn you down because "it is such a let down that no one participates"... This is our 2nd year at our school and last year we done well to have 5 parents show up for the monthly meetings. I am the new President, because no one else wanted the job, and I asked the VP from last year to simply help me on Open House night and that was her reply. Let me add that I have NO OFFICERS to work with because our Pres last year didn't want to mess with it and wanted to wait until after school started back in Aug. I basically need a come back to these people who don't want to get involved... Any ideas that wont get me slapped???
Thanks,
Jag
