Hey CRAZY MOM:

Here's an idea for you.

Do you have a school choir that can sing or drama club that can put on a play? How about christmas cookies and milk, water and coffee?

If the program is in the evening....Class that has the most in attendance gets a $100 to use for the students and teachers as they see fit. This way they sign in on your form with room for class, name, email address, address and phone number Optional check box in last column on form says they want more info on volunteering at other PTO events.

This Is My First Year As President And Only My Third To Be Part Of The Pto. We Are A Very Small School. The Meetings Are Always The Same People That Do Everything. I Just Found Out That We May Have To Put On The Christmas Program This Year. Any Ideas On What Kind Of Program We Could Do.

Just to clarify--the pumpkin was in the middle of the table--the penny was placed under a chair! My mind was working faster than my fingers!! We have also had the reading consultants come and give presentations on reading stategies with children (Keep it short and to the point and it WILL WORK!); We have presented "Super Students" and "Cats of Character" students (Wakelee's logo is the wildcat) with certificates--which bring in several parents. Make them feel welcome! We have our "usuals" spread out throughout the room and make new parents feel welcome at meetings. We spend a few minutes "socializing" BEFORE the meeting with new parents because everyone is so quick to leave when it is over. We also hand out "Year at a Glance Calenders" (Tri-fold brochures) that are updated each month. They list ALL the events that are happening in the school and all PTO sponsored events so parents can plan ahead (of course the PTO meetings are highlighted so that they stand out with the theme for the children provided!)

Kathie

I have been involved in PTO's for the past 16 years. We have good years and we have bad years. Recently, attendance hasn't been a problem at our first few PTO meetings--we typically have to hold them in our schools auditorium. I think there are several reasons for our success--One, on our membership forms we ask for e-mail addresses and send reminder notices a week prior to the meeting--highlighting important information we will be discussing. Two, we use these e-mail addresses to vote on a day that is convenient for most of the parents to attend. Three, we keep our meetings brief and to the point--our goal is for under an hour. At the high school and elementary level, we invite teachers and students to give presentations on projects they are working on in class. For example, one class was working on a Social Studies "Journal" project where the students wrote about their town/city, then sent their journal to a relative or friend out of state. That relative/friend wrote about their state in the journal--places to visit, places to eat, the climate, favorite sports in the area, etc. When they finished they sent the journal on to another friend/relative in another state who did the same thing and sent a post card from their state to the student. Eventually, the journals were returned to the students who tracked their journeys on a map. The lesson culminated with the students writing a report on one of the states that their journal visited. The teacher and students came and explained this exciting project to the parents. We have 20+ students in each class which brings out 20+ new parents. Keep the meetings fun, exciting and SHORT, and they WILL come. At the elementary level, we did offer raffles. In September, we highlighted random lines on the sign in sheet, and the parents who's names were highlighted won a gift. In October, we placed a penny under a pumpkin on the middle of each table and one parent at each table won a pumpkin. We also recruited middle/high school students who were looking for volunteer hours and offered "free babysitting" during the meetings. Each month was a different theme for the students. The volunteers played "Bingo" with the students who were able to win prizes, they did arts and crafts, supervised a movie night, etc. (All while the parents attended the PTO meeting!). We are also looking at the possibility of holding a FEW meetings during the day for parents who work in the evening. Is transportation an issue for parents? Perhaps you can start a carpool list or look into local transportation options. Hope this helps.

Kathie

I was president of our PTA for two years and the attendance was always low. This year I am not on the board and am in charge of Box Tops. Since I don't have the resposibilities of running the meetings I can focus on the fun things more. The Assistant Principal agreed that for every 10 box tops that a student turned in at the begining of school they would get to throw 1 water balloon at him. We had this event planned after our 2nd PTA meeting. We had an over flow crowd. Kind of overwhelming for our new president. We collected over 3,500 box tops. The result is that a few more parents have come to our other meetings and at our recent book fair there were some new faces.

hope all turns out... used to be a volunteer and a member just got elected to V.P. We have already done two fundraisers a cookie dough sale and fall book fair maybe one or two different people volunteered i have the same people for every event still can not get it in their heads that we are here for your children sure i have a full time job just like you but i find time to volunteer.got some great ideas on the site allready and look forward to try and boost participation.

TODD