mramos2027,

I am a new PTO president and want to offer my support. I found nothing scary about your post. You have good intentions and just happen to be an assertive individual (Guess what? I am too.). I think it is wonderful that you want to be a part of your school and find it frustrating when people tell women like us that we are "coming on to strong." I honestly believe that you are asking to help and not demanding to do it. Change is very difficult to implement though. You are probably being seen as a "boat rocker."

I am also at a school that no matter how much you ask to help sometimes the school just does not want the parents involved for whatever reason. I do know that some school teachers have told me that find parent helpers a distraction because they tend to go in and out of the classrooms and disturb the students. I suggest sitting down with your child's teacher one on one and asking if he/she needs any parent volunteers. Offer to make a monthly calendar with the names of the parents who will work on certain days. If that works, you can share the info with parents from other classes and before you know it, all the teachers are utilizing their parents.

If you really are having a volunteer roadblock in you school, then I suggest sitting down with your principal and inquiring about why that is.

Best of luck!

I'm not sure were to start.

My first concern is your plan and your desire to show the Principal. I have the impression you have no idea how much you sound like you want to tell this person "I have a better way to do what I don't think you are doing." .....a little too strong

You litterly hang out at the school? Why? I mean I like to volunteer also (have already spent 12 hours this week) but can't say I have ever just waited around for someone to ask for "copies."

You honestly sound like (to me...to me) that you don't like the way things are run and you have a better plan. I did to but my Dad reminded me that Rome, the Earth and my house were not build overnight. Not sure about Rome, the Earth (well depends on what you believe) took a week, and my house took 11 months. Open the discussion but leave the picket signs and angry notions in the car. If you go in with the notion of "I want to roll-up my sleeves and help get a job done" will be heard much better than "OPEN THE DOOR SO I CAN VOLUNTEER"

I'm in a charter school and the reason I moved my kids to a charter school is because I felt the same unwelcome arms at the public school. Don't get me wrong, I had to work my way up to the postion I am honored to have and we are still working on leting parents know we need volunteers but it's going to take time. Yes, we do have time.

If I have offened you or gotcha mad at me, I didn't mean to but your post kinda scared me.

Could you please email me the survey you sent out to the teachers to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Thank you

I agree with C.Brooks as to having a plan in hand when you go to the meeting. Our volunteer program logs 1000s of hours of time in our school doing a huge variety of things. We start off with a form for every teacher to complete that ask what kind of things they need volunteers to help with in their classroom and the days and times that they need the help. We then make copies of the form, attach a letter requesting volunteers and send it home with the students. Parents respond back to the teacher, he/she schedules their volunteers and gives our program coordinator the names so we can make sure we have nametags for them and send them a copy of our Volunteer Pamphlet. It works great because the teachers get the kind of help they need on the days and times they need it and the volunteers know in advance what they will be doing when they come.

So get your parents together, put a plan together and go to that meeting and not only ask questions but propose a solution!

It sounds to me that your school basically needs help with the volunteer logistics. There is a group of available volunteers with a certain skill set and a set of needs at the school, but no system in place to specify those needs and allocate the resources.

I made this exact thing a large part of our PTO's activities. Using the PTO Today's (NPN at the time) materials and the information on this site and others, I worked out a system by which PTO members could 'register' with a form that had checkboxes based on what they were willing to do either at school or for PTO.

(I am using PTO Manager to organize the data, but you could use a spreadsheet or database program if you're really good at that.)

I made a corresponding form for faculty and staff to use to request volunteers. If someone is looking for parents to come in and help struggling readers, they can send me a form and I notify the people who would be willing to do that. If noone with that interest is available, I send an all-call out to members and can usually find someone willing to help out.

At first, this system was to assess our members' skills and level of interest and send the message that they could volunteer in ways that interested them. It turned into a great 'matching' system.

I did have the advantage of being a PTO President with a good relationship with a new principal. I ran things by her for the most part. The principal is also on our PTO board, so she stays in the PTO loop.

Definately get the teachers involved. When I did our first ever teacher survey for PTO this year, one teacher suggested having parents help with classroom clerical duties like copying. In my six years in being involved at this school, NO ONE has ever suggested that to parents, not the PTO or the administration. The teachers know what needs to be done--sometimes they are just waiting for someone to ask. Getting them behind you too can only help your case.