Well, before you take everything on yourself, let me ask a couple of questions...

- Does your group have a Volunteer Coordinator? If not I would try to set one up for next year. Volunteer Coordinators are a perfect way to have someone who can reach out to acquire assistance when needed. They get a feel for who will be willing to, who likes doing what, etc.

- If your group does not, is there a sign-in log within your school for when volunteers come in to help teachers, etc.? If so this is where I would start. Since the names in that log are people who have already shown willingness to volunteer you at least know that you would be reaching out to the correct core group. Also if they are volunteering within the school then likely their schedules will be better suited to helping you at your event.

Just some quick ideas, but honestly giving a call and asking for help is going to go a lot further than sending home a meeting flier.

Good luck,
PresidentJim

Here's a new approach that we tried and it works!

First of all, communication is key. And never, never, never rely on the kids to do it for you.

We put out notices in the car rider area, place a note on the school sign, make homemade signs when we have to. We even bought one of those caller machines to call every student in the school with our messages (in addition to having a spot on our school's website).

Still no help, although the parents were voicing how happy they were to know what was going on.

So we scheduled an event, and needed volunteers. No volunteers. Plenty of advance notice.

SO - WE CANCELLED THE EVENT! We ended up doing it three times in two years.

What didn't get funded, just didn't get funded. The world kept turning, and my family wasn't suffering because I was gone every night working on the Spring Carnival or another event.

This year, we put out the notices, and we haven't had a single problem. We have lots of volunteers.

The point is - if people know you are going to do it anyway - why help?

You said that you have 4 board members and one volunteer..Forge ahead!
That's enough to get started Now if each one of them brought on just one more you will be all set for the carnival.
Have you tried getting with the room mom's? We've set up a RM committee and chair and it has done wonders for our PTO numbers. We now know what each class needs and we coordinate with them on just about everything. This not only brings us more members but also frees up the teacher from having to deal with us too.

Skyview- 150 showed up? Wow! We would jump for joy if we had those numbers and I loved you fly in the ice idea.

The only thing that you can do that might help more parents to get interested in helping is communicate. Communicate with parents through letters, reminders, email, newsletter, and word-of-mouth. That's all we can do.

Why is it that more parents miss the big picture than get it?

I wish there was a majic cure to this! The only night in nealy six years we had a good turn out was the night the sent home flyers and stated that refreshments were being served. Why is it parents only come if you have food?

I heard the "I'm too busy" and "How will slopping chili make my child a better student?". They completely miss the big picture.