Pam - My group does not have it's own website but our school's website manager is always willing to post PTO info on the school's site.
As far as your question about the gain, I can offer input from my recent experience. I am moving to a new town. One major part of our home search was the local school websites. I was much more enthusiastic about communities that had a great school/PTO website. If a community can get their parents involved and excited, they must be doing something right!
I broached our incoming prez with this idea, and there seems to be, well, a distinct lack of enthusiasm.
The argument put forth is that, with our PTO struggling (at times) to find enough volunteers for existing committees, it could be difficult to find someone to maintain a website. Add to that a persistent belief that this person has to be a "webmaster", a term I hate and find misleading. Most sites are pre-packaged, and what you need to know how to do is minimal. Typing text! Not rocket science, lol!
I think the real question behind the reluctance is: why go through the effort? What's the gain?
It's a good question. For my part, I firmly believe that an organization that needs volunteers wins when it has a permanent home to detail what it does, and what it takes to get it done. Not only is it practical, (people may be more apt to sign up if they know the time commitment needed, the kind of work to be done, etc.), but it's also psychological. I believe that people feel more at ease about joining in if they have some info ahead of time.
And a website is always there, for people to peruse on their down time, when they can give it some attention.
But what do I know? Does anyone here have some positive feedback (or even negative feedback!) about starting a PTO website?
