We have one dad that is an active participate in our PTO. One meeting the subject of him being the "only dad" that attends meetings came up. His response, "When my older children were in school, I always felt like I was too busy to be involved. Now I realize how fast they grow up, and I'm not going to miss a minute of this one, even if that means coming to PTO meetings!"
How cool is that? I think that is a concept that all of us should grasp on to whether we are moms or dads.
I got on the board at our school as the secretary. The following year, (this year) I became the president. And I begged and begged my husband to join the board. He holds the position of Parent Ed Programs and its his responsibility to set up all the "family night" stuff we do. He is focusing a LOT on dads. He has a contact at Home Depot that does a "Building Together" night. Home Depot donates a certain number of wood projects and my husband is putting together this "come build with your kid" night. I like the poker idea too! I would so be there and I'm not a dad!..lol
Talk, talk, talk to the Dad's about being involved, would get them involved
Even in this day and age people still think of PTA/O as a women (mom's) group (and athome parents)
Talk to them, listen to them, show them its not just for mom (its all inclusive), that is not time wasted (its a matter priority not time- although time is needed), there are tons of studies and statistics for those who dont believe a mother AND fathers involvement makes a huge differeence in quality of school, education and their childs life
Find projects that appeal to the men, women and stakeholders of your school
As a PTA/O token Dad the last 15yrs (you'd think there'd be tons more of us by now- their are but not as much as I'd like) I've seen the change, it just takes time and patience to change the culture and stigma
I do agree with the childcare ideas (someone has to watch the kids if both parents are involved/attending)
<font size=""1""><font color="#"black"">Liberalism is not an affilation its a curable disease. </font></font><br /><br><font color="#"gray"">~Wisdom of Shawnshuefus</font><br /><br><font color="#"blue""><font size=""1"">The punishment which the wise suffer, who refuse to take part in government, is...
We started a D.A.D.S. Club at our school. (Dads Are Doing Something) Some of the members are spouses of PTA Moms (We also have Dads in our PTA) but the majority of the D.A.D.S. Club members are Fathers of our students. Last year was the 1st year and we did Fitness night, Grandparents Day Celebration, and a Landscaping Project (I'm sure there were other things too.) This year we have lots of goals such as a car show, father/daughter dance, and much much more. They meet once a month to discuss business and go from there.
I posted much details about the poker tournament in the fundraiser message boards, but we pretty much had to hold it outside of school. In fact we didn't even promote it through the school as we didn't want any of those parents who wouldn't get it to be coming to us complaining about gambling and public schools.
We do renew a raffling liscense every year, which where I'm from enables us to run three "gambling" type events a year. Raffles and the poker tournaments fall under this umbrella.
We are starting to see more male involvement because I told the ladies to get their husbands involved! My husband and I look at being on the PTO as being a project we can do together. Being parents sometimes has it's way of lessening your connection so we do this together to 1.) be involved in our kids' school and 2.) to have a project to work on together. When we get a babysitter sometimes for the PTO meeting we go out to dinner afterwards and it becomes a date night!
