Thank you everyone so far for sharing and posting. With the lack of support or involvment this year it's been tough to tell what is enough and what is too much. I believe that if you do it, they will come, as evidenced by our successful movie nights. And also thank you for your ideas and time lines, that is helpful and encouraging. Honestly everything we've thought of so far has come from ideas from this board and from this site.

Keep those ideas coming!
I am going to cut and paste this thread to our PTO exec. board.
The school year is winding down and now all of the teachers are petitioning for the PTO to fund their pet projects. We did very well with our auction this year so there will plenty of money to go around.
I want to see more free family 'FUN-raising' events at school. We have the resources to underwrite all of them. I have been met with little resistance at this idea. At the next general meeting, I will throw out all kinds of things we can do to increase family participation.

Mind you, I am outta this school next year but still would like to leave my mark.

We have family nights once a month (except for December), as well.
August- Back TO School BBQ
Sept.- Ice Cream Social
Oct.- Fall Festival
Nov.- Pajama Night
Jan.- Craft Night
Feb.- School Carnival
Mar.- Chuck E. Cheese Night (We think of this
as a family night rather than a
fundraiser because the profit isn't
large, but we sure to have a great time
talking with each other! It's a great
time to solicit new volunteers, as well!)
Bingo Night
Apr.- Student Vs. Teacher Triathlon
May- Cinco De Mayo

These are in addition to on-going programs (like Club Day) and our fundraising efforts.

Hope this gives you some ideas!
Kelley
Madison PTO
Mount Vernon, WA

We actually do a family night Sept thru February, skip February because of snow storms, then do March and April. so that is seven Free family fun nights out of 10 months and to be honest and the turnouts are tremendous. We also run a few day time events/projects as well, if you have the volunteers, funds and support why not? Next year we are looking to shake things up a little/lot by adding new things...and a new look!

This year we tried to have a "Free Family Night" at least each month that a fundraiser wasn't being held. In August, we had an ice-cream social for back-to-school - all ice cream was donated by our local Dreyer's.

In Sept. we had our fall fundraiser, but in Oct we held a movie night. Everyone just brought their own snacks, pillows, etc. It was packed!!!

In Nov we had a pumpkin carving night with all the family. It was hilarious! The dad's got so competitive and it was better attended than our "packed" movie night. Everyone just brought their own pumpkins and utinsels.

We did skip Dec. Too busy. Jan was our family reading night. We had bookmarkers for the kids to make and we got the governor's wife as a guest reader and also a BSU football player. They both read their favorite children's story. We served cookies and punch. (all brought by parent volunteers)

Feb was our annual Sock Hop and Silent Auction fundraiser. March was our family game night. We had board games set up in the library and a huge Bingo Game in the gym. It was packed once again. For prizes, we used video gift cert. that were donated, as well as some of our school t-shirts, sweatshirts, water bottles, and magnets.

April will be our Lap-Attack-A-Thon. This is a fundraiser where the students run around the track and get pledges for it. It's a great time!! May will be our annual Fun Run and Art Expo. Families are invited to watch the students run a mile and we have a "special visitor" come. One year, an Apache Helicopter landed on our field, we've had race cars from the local track, K-9 police unit, local firefighters, etc. Students also do original works of art and they are set up in the gym for families to walk through and look at while the students are running. We serve popsicles. Also donated.

Our attendance at events has really gone up since we started doing things like this. The families don't mind bringing their own supplies or food, it's just fun to gather at the school and not have to pay anything.

Try every other month, or even alternate events to keep people interested.
Somethign we are talking about doing is a couple book clubs, one for the students and one for adults! Special events could be done during book fairs (even the big retail bookstores offer great events for schools that are worth looking into!!) As far as family nights, have a night for moms/then dads/ and "someone special" (a special night for kids without a parent or-like in my family there is 10 years difference between my oldest and youngest so she could be that someone special!

Just hang in there and even if 20 people come, that's way better than NONE!!!!