We do not have a membership fee either. Our school is mostly made up of low income families. They can not afford a fee.

Our district also offers the school closing via e-mail, but this is offered free also.

I really wish that their was some way to get more parents involved. I just don't know what that would be.

Just throwing some past experiences out here for you. None of these drastically increased our membership, but that was with us. Any or all of them may work for you.
Up until this year, dues were $5.00 per person and benefits, other than the involvement, were the Barnes & Noble discount from national PTA and there may have been another percentage off some other store/supplier, S & S worldwide, I think. We have voted to disband our PTA this year, so now all parents, caregivers and staff are members, with no dues.
Our group always sponsored the back to school open house, typically held on the evening before the first day of school. This was held on the front lawn of the school so we set up an info table on the sidewalk into the school. Families couldn't get to their child's classroom without passing by us. While we did sign up more than the usual number of members that year and collected more dues, involvement at meetings did not increase.
The next year, same set up but we had a "raffle". Everyone who signed up as a member and paid dues went into a drawing for one of two reserved parking spots for the school year. We even had signs made by my mom who wood burned and stained them, just beautiful. These spots were at the front of the circle drive, real hot spots because we do not have busing and parking is at a premium. Neither of the families that won these spots ever attended a meeting.
Our group purchases academic year datebooks for staff during appreciation week and one year we ordered a few extras. We did a drawing for these also at our open house. I went through and wrote PTA meeting and the time and place each month. We did get one regular attendee from that.
Our Vice President is in charge of membership, keeping the lists, etc. One prior VP took a few clipboards, membership forms and pens and walked and talked during school pick ups the first week of school. We did get quite a few members, but again, unfortunately, not an increase in meeting attendance. Good luck!

We have membership as well. It is $5.00 dues and inreturn, those parents that sign up will be a part of the emergency notification system. Non members are not a part of the "phone chain" & have to obtain their information on school closings or delayed openings via radio or TV. Members also receive a School Directory which has a total directory of all faculty members (including phone & email asdresses), students names, addresses and phones (which is great to set up carpools or playdates), class listings, meeting dates for the PTO and Board of Education, PTO calendar, school calendar. For $5.00, most parents feel it is a bargain! Some Kindergarten parents have actually heard of it before the start of school & know it's great to have.
I guess my point is that if you have an actual membership drive, you need to provide parents with something that others will not get if they don't sign up to be members. Something that would benefit them!

Hi sharilee10,

Last year I learned that the beginning of the year is your best chance to get new members. We held our first Back to School Ice Cream Party last year, on the first day of school, and it ended up making a huge difference throughout the year. I had an involvement table set up with handouts and a place where parents/guardians could provide contact information. I tried my best to not make it a high pressure sales pitch, but more or less let the parents come to me. For the handouts I had a few different articles that I printed off from PTOtoday. One focused on the benefits of fathers being involved, and how it greatly affects children's scores at school, especially in the science and math areas, and especially for girls. Another was written by five different PTOers and talked about "Why we do it". In addition I had some eye catching comments, such as "We want you!" and "The most common reason that parents don't get involved is that they are not asked, consider yourself asked!.

This led to us having more attendance at the first meeting than ever before and more active members throughout the year. And even though you're not going to keep all of those who show up to the first meeting active throughout the year, you will end up keeping some, which really can make the difference.

In addition we started providing elementary age childcare during our meetings. This definitely helped five or six of the moms, but more importantly it led to a 300% increase in dads becoming active. If someone has to stay home and watch the kids, then the dads usually do (during the PTO meetings). But with the childcare the dads start thinking, "maybe I should go". I think my being a male President may have helped a bit as well, but once some of the dads start seeing other dads involved they start to realize that the PTO is not just a moms group.

Per my group's Bylaws, "Every parent, guardian and member of the professional staff are automatically a member of the PTO". I promote this concept so that the parents realize that this is not some exclusive group, in fact, it's a group that they are already a member of by default. I also promote how "active membership" is what is needed. I also have a letter that I provide to every new parent/guardian that explain who we are, what we do, etc..

Again, per our Bylaws there is no cost associated with being a member, and I like it this way. I've heard of some groups that claim that they have over 100 or 200 members, but all that really means (usually) is that over 100 or 200 people have paid the dues. It does not reflect active membership (usually). By having no dues you won't get those who think they are involved because they just paid the 5 bucks, and you won't have to get on people come next year when it's time to pay up again. In my opinion the active members do so much over the course of the year that asking them to pay dues, even something as minimal as say $5, is not needed. Of course, this is only my opinion and I am sure that there are many groups that do have dues and it may work for them.

The benefits of membership is being able to have a say as to how the group affects our children's educational experience. Not everyone can attend the meetings, and not everyone who comes to the meetings ends up chairing events or becoming an officer, but any group's President knows who the active members are. I put pictures of all of my group's members on the Members page of my website. Under their names I list the roles that they have taken on. For some there are upwards of 10 different roles that they have listed, but I think this gives them pride. This can also lead to others wanting to take on some new roles or joining one of our committees. All active members receive the monthly agenda before the meeting, with a reminder of the upcoming meeting, as well as the meeting minutes. Out Principal is extremely supportive and is at all of our meetings and most of our events. By being involved it provides the parents insight into some of the Principal's priorities as well as what is going on within the school.

Anyway, hope this helps.
PresidentJim

What are you doing to increase membership? How does your membership work? Is there a cost? What are the benefits of membership?