I can give you some insight into what I have done differently with my group and how that has affected active membership...

First and foremost, before I came in as President last year, I found that we had about 15 active members with about 10 showing up to the meetings. I also found that the group was running without a President for the past year and a half. They had not sent out a newsletter in over 2 years and had almost no website to speak of.

I held a summer meeting to discuss my priorities as the new President and to throw around various ideas...

My number one priority was to dramatically increase communication between the PTO, the parents and the staff. To do this I planned on creating a monthly newsletter and felt that it was important to make it fully colored. I also started to work on a brand new website, which would have a table of contents to the left side that would include everything from the enrichment programs that we bring in, a members page with photos and positions held/committees on, the apparel and spirit items that we offer, the newsletters, agendas and mintues, our Bylaws for all to see, some general financials, and a main page that would be updated regularly to discuss things that are going on.

At the same time we had a new Principal coming in that was not afraid of change. In addition he was very much into technology and had many ideas that would play right into what I wanted to do. He recreated the schools website and even started a daily morning podcasts of the announcements. This provided another useful way to promote the PTO activites, including the meetings.

Next I started to suggest new events. Sure some of the "old timers" looked at me like I was crazy, but here we are a year and a half later and even they love all of the new things that we do. Here's some of the new events that we now offer, which is in addition to all that the group used to do before I got involved:

- A free Back to School Ice Cream Social with the local radio Disney Party Patrol providing the entertainment and prizes.

- A Harvest Hoopla, which is a autumn time family evening with music, dancing, havrest party games, a Mad Scientist, Gypsy Fortune tellers, a Wizard, etc. We allow the children to dress in costume if the wish. It includes free raffles for spirit wear and prizes. We include numerous DJ games, such as the Mummy Wrap (a child wraps the parents in T.P.), Pass the Pumpkin (like hot potato) and the Monster Mash dance off.

- Poker Tournaments. Being a poker enthusiest myself I verified that it would be legal to run up to three poker tournaments a year under the raffle license we get. Being that we were raising arounf $1000 with the raffles, but over $2000 with the poker tournaments, this has turned out to be great, and a nice way to get the dads involved.

- A yearly golf tournament fundraiser. Last year we raised about $8500 allowing us to finance a new portable laptop cart for use within the classrooms.

- A February family social event. Similar to the Harvest Hoopla, but with a Valentines theme (without using the word Valentines). We have a DJ, with DJ games, such as the Cotton-eyed Joe-off - dancing to the Cotton-eyed Joe song, and the parent Hula-Hoop contest). We also have a photo area that the kids can pay a minimal fee to take a picture with their friends. With our new mascot (from last year), Hunter the Husky, we call this event the Husky Hearts Family Social.

We are looking at adding even more this year with an "Are you Smarter than a 3rd or 4th Grader" evening for those grades, using the state requirements testing questions.

Another big thing I did was create a Hospitality Chair, whose job is to setup snacks and coffee for the meetings, but also to provide childcare services.

Due to this our male active membership has increased from just myself to presently seven. To me this is one of the biggest things I am proud of!

In regards to general active membership we have gone from the 15 total members, with around 10 at each meeting, to over 50 active mebers with more than 30 showing up to the meetings. And this seems to be continuing as new members are showing up all o the time. It's like that commercial, and they bring a friend, who brings a friend, etc.

So, the best suggestion I can give you is to increase your communication through any means possible.

Good luck,
PresidentJim

Good point on work numbers. I use them as a last resort, rarely or never. Some people have more flexiblity than others. Parents could just not complete that portion, or it might be a good idea to put optional.

Paul

I would never ask for a parents work phone number. I for one would never give it out to anyone except the school officials. Personal calls at work are for emergencies only. If you can't get me on my home phone, cell phone or email, then you can send a note home with my child. But no phone calls at my work. Many companies will allow personal calls at work.

If this is elementary, this may help.

You need several avenues to communicate with the parents. Make up a note to send home in the backpack. Get the president and principal to approve it. Get copies made. (The school may have a way this can be done cheaper than you can get it done)

The note needs a tear off bottom half membership form. Hopefully you do not charge dues. It may discourage a few and you need everyone

The top half should be how excited you are about the showing of the movie, "Title given" the will be shown on mm/dd/yy at HH:MM PM. It should tell the parents about how statistics show parents that are involved in the school. Tell them how you finally realiezed you needed to get involved. It should tell them about event #2 you have coming on mm/dd/yyyy.

You need PLEASE PRINT, Mom and Dad's name - email addresses(4 his and her work and home) , mailing address (1), Phones numbers(5) His and her cell, his and her work, and home. You need a place for multiple students first and last name, homeroom teacher, and grade.

A few more should be left in the office.

Get the principal to make it clear in mornign announcement to kids that they need to get this filled out and returned.

With this, you can contact them directly.

This is my first year that I have actually been able to get involved with our school and PTO. When I attended our first meeting this year was surprised to fin 2 people & 2 school officials as well as I at this meeting. We have a self appointed president and someone to help and me! I could not understand why! Why are people not getting invoved to do things for the children in our schools and community. I stareted to talk to people in the community and found the number one response was "they do not like change and pretty much ignore any new ideas brought to the table". I have to say that in some aspects i do agree. So i purposed the family movie night and took 2 meetings to get approval.i really thought that this idea was going to be shot down as well. To my surprise it was not! i am very excited about it and have gotten a committe together to help with all the details. i have told my committee they will need to attend the PTO meeting in Jan so that i may introduce them at that time. I am hoping by doing so maybe 1 of my committe may want to get involved with our PTO. I am looking for suggestions and ideas that may help get more people involved, so we can start to make a differance in a community that does the same old same old every year and there is nothing new ever happening. Some of the people i talked to said that was the other problem, same old fundraisers every year and nothing new! So what can I do to start to change that? I think i have taken a step in the right direction i just need to figure out other things to help that first step so i can take a second step on the ladder to a more involved PTO.