What works well for our small school is to have the teacher a grade behind recommend someone. Example - the first grade teacher (having gotten a chance to know the parents) will recommend a class parent or two for second grade. Our volunteer corodinator will then call the recommended person and ask if they are interested.

We always have bad luck with sign up sheets and great luck asking people directly

Use your back to school night as a chance to get parents to sign up. Every teacher has a great opportunity to direct them to the sign up list that you will have supplied them to sign up for class helpers, trip chaperones and parties.

We send letters home as well as put out sign up sheets at every event like Open House, Market Day pick-up. Anytime we have a chance we ask for "room helpers". Good luck

We call our parent helpers "room parents". This has always worked for us; send home a notice be sure to mention that this is a great way to be "involved in your childs school" if you do not have a lot of time. We have found that some things such as helping with class plays, parties or even a small class project can be worked on from home and that the parent does not even need to be at school. We've had parents who cannot commit to help during the day but are happy to handle small tasks at home at night even phone calls to inform other families about an upcoming class event. Even if we get 6 - 8 parents per room; we choose 2 to be the main contacts (persons the teacher will contact) and the rest as helpers. Also, if you haven't had open house yet hand out something that night or set up a booth. good luck

We have 14 classes of P-2. I sent home a note requesting Homeroom Helpers, I think we got great response. Right now we're at 49 and they're still coming in.

Any ideas on how to get more parents to sign up for class parents? We will have a board up for sign ups at back to school night... not sure how to make it more creative.