I went through this a couple of years ago, and the hardest thing for me was to get possession of the old records, like the bylaws, annual financial reports, membership records, etc. The first thing I did was reincorporate and get a new EIC. Also, I looked for new officers/committee chairs while calling to verify membership, and found a boxtops/labels chairperson who soon also became my co-president/secretary. My co-pres. started up Market Day near the end of the year. Over the summer, our playground committee painted equipment and hopscotch, etc. on the playground, which made an exciting start for the kids for the new year.
We had a full set of new officers elected for the new year, but the new President and Vice President moved to another school over the summer, leaving us with three empty committee chairs, including Market Day! On top of it, halfway through that school year, we realized the Treasurer hadn't made any deposits or paid for the fund-raisers, insurance, etc. since the year before. So two of us who were supposed to be co-secretaries became co-everything. At least this time I had one other person to help me rebuild, and luckily, we both save everything and knew approximately where our finances should be. The principal let us salvage a file cabinet to keep PTO records at school.
I set up an igoogle page to function as grand central, giving us shared access to email, forms, files, records, etc. online from any computer. A teacher volunteered to be Treasurer with our help making deposits so they could be made before the bank closes each day. We recounted and deposited around $12,000 into a new bank account and got our financial affairs in the best order we could. We sent out newsletters in paper and email, did the 2 hour power mid-year, and arranged for volunteers to have positive first experiences.
We got more volunteers to chair committees, which is easier than getting people to be officers. We still had a couple of committee chairpersons from the previous year and were able to restart other projects that had been dropped for lack of manpower. We updated our bylaws, got supplemental insurance and membership to PTO Today, which has been an excellent source for forms, ideas, and information. We took as many people as we could to a PTO Today convention last spring (four people,) and we brought back goody bags for those who could not go.
One of the best bonding experience was decorating for the grades 1-2 spring musical. We were lucky to get an awesome duo to chair whom we did not have committed to do anything else. Then the rest of us could just show up and paint, etc. Attendance there was higher than monthly meetings. For part of the set, we built and painted play houses out of cardboard then raffled them off the night of the show. The oohs and aahs when the curtain was opened (by two of us who had older students) was outstanding.
Our school now has around 300 students, and last year we elected co-officers for each position (except Treasurer) from those who had been (and still are) committee chairpersons. We also set up as much of our calendar for the next year as possible and made it available to everyone online. All officers have access to our internet sites, email, and resources. We tried to keep in touch through email or telephone over the summer.
We are getting projects into the hands of more committee chairs and spreading out the workload. We are doing 2 hour power again as a membership drive, also asking teachers for 2 hours of meeting attendance. We greeted everyone at open house using the Back2School program and had a Market Day rep passing out samples. Also, over the first two weeks of school, we have distributed school supplies purchased over the summer, helped with Kindergarten orientation, held an Executive Board meeting, kicked off our Fall brochure sales, and held one Market Day sale.
Keep sowing seeds. Even if they don't seem to take root at first, they may turn out to bear fruit. Our VP-elect who had moved last year has moved back this year, and is ready to get involved again and can help fill the void I leave when my child moves on to middle school next year.
