One other thing that helps us is that the size of the positions available range from "Bulletin Board" to running one of the major fundraisers...There are jobs that can be done solely from home, and others which require a great deal of time at school...Being able to start with a smaller job and see if they like how things are run is definitely less scary....
We're in the middle of securing chairs for about 40 positions we have on our board. Phone calls definitely help! Some people avoid the calls, but others are genuinely flattered to be asked. We do try to take into account those who are now working full-time or have young kids at home.
We've also started asking teachers about parents we might not know about who they think would be interested. I've also been asking friends about people I might not know about. Ask! Ask! Ask! The worse thing is that someone will say no...
An email to the entire school community will also be sent asking people to volunteer as well, but the best results come from phone calls.
We are in the same position as FoxMom. We have a handful of people on the board and they mostly run all the events. More people want to help out but not be in charge of anything. We have our fingers crossed that we will have some new people sign up for next year's board. We will be sending out a Nomination form, with descriptions of each position. We will be electing next years board in May.
I think the poster means that they do not have enough volunteers running for board positions-- so how can they recruit more volunteers that would like to run for a board position...
We are in the same position-- we have only a handful of volunteers that run events and most are on the board already-- we do not have very many new people that want to be on the board like there used to be--- so we combined a few positions but still look for volunteers that want to help but do not want to be in charge...which is what we are finding more and more.
I don't really understand the concept of "recruiting" officers. We have elections coming in June and I will be running for PTO President. I have been an active volunteer and committee member all year. Why would a PTO recruit officers who haven't previously served on the PTO?