We started a Facebook page and it has worked wonders. When we are having an activity that needs volunteers, I posted messages that we need help and the volunteers came rolling in.
Only the board members maintain the page and next year I want to create a publicity director that is in charge of it.
We also have many families without computer access, so we keep that in mind and still send home paper notices with the kids.
We have a facebook page for our school but unfortunately the only "friends" we have are members of the PTA Board and the principal. We have also started using JustBetweenFriends.com. I think it is great. After loading the email addresses of the households in our school we were able to send out notices, fliers and our newsletter to all families in just minutes. It has not stopped us from sending them out with the children as we do not have 100% participation yet but that is our hope for next year. This site also allows us to manage our PTA members and volunteers.
I work with a Green Fundraiser company and i have used facebook to keep all of my schools and groups up to date on the new products and or causes that running our fundraiser helps out or promotes. I think using social media COULD NOT be better for anyone trying to get the word out about their groups or organizations!!!!
I recently started a Facebook "group" (so people can join, but not be "friends" so that their personal stuff is not shown to other group members). It is just for parents. Teachers wanted to use facebook too, but it is blocked from the schools computers. My principal refused to distrubute flyers announcing it (although she'll gladly distribute flyers from outside groups and local businesses). he school has made its own Facebook "page" but the principal has not announced it's existance to the general population... Funny the more I write, the more I begin to think my principal is a control freak... oh well wish me luck!
Barb-
Thanks for sharing your positive experience. It sounds like you've found a good working model for PTO & PTAs and Facebook. Think it's important for people to realize that as the admin you can control who is friended and what information is shown (i.e. photos) and kept on the wall. It's just so great to hear you say that your PTO Facebook page has encouraged more participation.
Good luck with your blog.I have noticed that A LOT of schools have started blogs and Twitter accounts this school year!
I started a Facebook business page for our PTO at the start of the school year. So far it has 110 "friends" which include both faculty/staff, parents, and 2 students.
It is set up so I am the only one with Admin access to it. Pictures can be posted but only by me. (And I only post ones that are general nondescript shots mainly scenic/activity shots where no one can be recognized.) I have mainly used it as reminders for upcoming events, posting forms (as jpegs in the picture section) that parents might have missed in the normal communication line, etc. The group is set as private and everyone has to be approved. If I don't recognize the person (or the friends they are friends with) I contact them directly. They have to supply a certain set of confirmable information or I won't approve them. We also don't allow anyone outside of the school to join unless they join the PTO first. (Such as we don't allow grandparents to join unless they join the PTO and can be verified first.)
So far it has been a WONDERFUL addition to the PTO. I have a link on our website to Facebook encouraging parents to join and it has taken off. It is a wonderful communication tool! We have actually had 2 different events that people showed up at BECAUSE they saw it as a reminder on facebook! Even the day of the carnival I did regular "updates" to facebook about how the lines were, etc. and that encouraged more participation.
I think it can be a very useful tool, as long as it is well managed and controlled.
Between the facebook page and the website we have taken off in a new direction this year like never before.
The next step I intend to seek board approval on is a "blog" for the president. We need a way to communciate with a large group of parents on some general topics. We don't want to just share information though, we want a 2 way conversation/feedback type of thing. A forum had been discussed but that was attempted 3 years ago with rough results so a blog is most likely a better option now and perhaps a forum next year.
