Couple of things. First, we always include (parents only, not student) e-mail addresses in our directory. There has never been anything negative come out of publishing this information. Much of the detail work with committees takes place on-line. We all use it to conduct virtual meeting and it works out quite well. I agree that face to face or phone conversations are preferable, as e-mail can be easily misinterpreted, but that is the nature of our world. Trying to schedule a meeting around 10-12 peoples schedules is a nightmare. Our school district uses listserv and it's great for the administration to contact parents but the PTO doesn't use it.
I also donated 15 moniters to my daughters school a couple of years ago. My company was upgrading and the old ones were perfectly serviceable. I loaded them up into my car with the help of local IT and delivered them to the principal. Keep that in mind when you see your colleagues at work upgrading.
Sorry I corrected that statement. After reading it sounded like I was buying the PC's. No, I am not Bill Gates.
Check with your local hospitals. They are always updating there PC’s. A PC is useless to a hospital after 4 years. Before you ask make sure you have a plan for how these PC will get the support they need. I worked with the school’s IS department to make sure they handle any problems once they take over the PC’s.
Jeff Welch<br />
<br>North View Elementary<br />
<br>PTO President
New president here. I have an IT background so I am all for the Email as a tool for communication. I have already started collecting addresses and acquired about 30% of the schools email addresses at open house. I want to adopt the digital world for my group. My dilemma is the paper to be sent home.
I was surprised by the number of people who did not have a computer at our school. So I will be supplying a computer lab for the students and parents with the help of my employer. I asked my employer donate 30 PC's to the school we were going to trash. The sad part is they are all better PC's then what the school is currently using. We have also been given a Parent Room from the school. I am also going to add a PC in that room for the Parents.
Jeff Welch<br />
<br>North View Elementary<br />
<br>PTO President
This is our first year of including the option to receive PTO e-mails. This is also our first year as a PTO AND were everyone is considered a member. I created a distribution list from our e-mail account and it will be used only for reminders about meeting dates, fundraisers and events. We had 43 people sign up on our Three for Me volunteer forms to use this option. I am quite excited about that. I sent out the first email today for Tuesday's meeting.
Email is the cornerstone to our success as a PTO. It is a program that we put together and now reaches out to 389 addresses each week. Parents (and teachers) feel connected, they feel part of the community and they feel informed. I make them light, fun and enjoyable to read...and the pop in important stuff and "Kenyas" when needed.
Last night at our opening event for the school we served 322 ice cream sundaes in about 43 minutes and 75 non eaters looked on. I am certain that our email program has facilitated such healthy participation in our programs.
d
