Hi amoon,
Thanks for sharing. Lots of helpful info in your post. Really like the idea of co-presidents. Many really capable parents don't want to go it alone as a parent group president and can thrive with a partner sharing the responsibilities.
Perhaps you could consider asking 2 members to act as Co-Presidents? It might be too big of a job for 1 person to want to take on, but if they're sharing the load.... The other thing I would say is it's very daunting for someone not in PTO leadership to take on President right from the start. I did that - stepping straight from being "a mom sometimes involved in the PTO" to President, and it was a leap. If a couple of your current leaders would be willing to take on the Co-Presidency, it might be easier to find someone willing to be Secretary than someone willing to be President.
Alternatively, I know you're feeling burnt out, but would Co-Presidency be something YOU would be willing to do? Again, might be easier to find someone willing to take on part of your job rather than the whole, especially if they know that you'll still be involved and have all of the context and know-how to get it done. And if that person is willing to commit for 2 years then next year you're looking at replacing just 1/2 of the president spot (yours) and they can onboard the next person just as you brought them on board. Might give you a bit more stability in your PTO leadership.
All just my opinion of course, feel free to take what makes sense and leave the rest. The other thing that we're doing in our PTO to try to alleviate some of the same concerns is that we introduced class parents (had never had them before) and so we now have 2 people at each class level who right now provide another level of PTO leadership outside of the board, and might someday be interested in being on the board.
We are in desperate need of a PRESIDENT for next year! I've been president the last couple of years and I'm just not wanting to do it again. No one else among the leadership will step into the role and I've of course looked around beyond our smaller core group.
We've got a fair amount of parental involvement in events and everyone feels very appreciative of the organizational work we do. But it's been difficult to get people to sign up to be leaders. Can we go dormant? Or, alternatively, if I have to do this again, is there a surefire way to get more candidates for the year after next?
Honestly, I'm not sure I can be very enthusiastic if I have to take this on again. I did a lot for the organization in regard to getting a lot of people involved to staff events but I guess I failed in terms of getting someone to step into the leadership roles and I'm kind of burnt out.
You could try a simple note asking for volunteers with an attached copy of our document, 10 Reasons to Get Involved at School. It will help parents understand why volunteering is so important. Here's the link: www.ptotoday.com/filesharing/document/16...t-involved-at-school
Or, you could try a different approach using another document from our File Exchange. This one is called, Final Thoughts from the PTO. On this one, summarize all your group has accomplished this year -- showing how much great stuff you've done! -- and ask people to join your team for next year. Here's the link: www.ptotoday.com/filesharing/document/10...oughts-from-your-pto.
I am looking for some new folks for our PTO for the upcoming School year. I want to send a letter out before the end of the School year to our K-3rd graders to see if they would be interested in joining our Team.
