Idea Bag

  • My Tip of the Week: Help Make Your School Green

    With Earth Day coming up this Friday (April 22), the focus is on environmental awareness. There are lots of things your PTO or PTA can do to help students think more about the environment and to make your school more green. Here are some of my favorite ideas.

  • My Tip of the Week: Fall Carnival Ideas

    Recently a lot of people have been searching ptotoday.com for information on carnivals and fall fairs. A fall carnival is a great event to create excitement among kids. It's also a terrific way to get parents involved and create camaraderie, since you'll need a lot of volunteers but the jobs are mostly fun.

  • My Tip of the Week: Welcome All New Volunteers

    Three facts: First, this is about the busiest time of year for PTO and PTA leaders; second, this is the time of year when new parents first express interest in helping out at the school; and third, it takes work and patience (which are in short supply) to get a new volunteer started.

  • Parent Groups in the News Round-up 3/4/11

    Here are the featured articles for this week. Hope you find something that sparks an idea -- big or small-- for an upcoming event or program.Don't forget to let us know if your PTO or PTA event gets press! We'd love to include your story in our round-ups. Email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. document.getElementById('cloak70c7dc2c01eea9e651c8e4acaed2d981').innerHTML = ''; var prefix = 'ma' + 'il' + 'to'; var path = 'hr' + 'ef' + '='; var addy70c7dc2c01eea9e651c8e4acaed2d981 = 'lgundlach' + '@'; addy70c7dc2c01eea9e651c8e4acaed2d981 = addy70c7dc2c01eea9e651c8e4acaed2d981 + 'ptotoday' + '.' + 'com'; var addy_text70c7dc2c01eea9e651c8e4acaed2d981 = 'lgundlach' + '@' + 'ptotoday' + '.' + 'com';document.getElementById('cloak70c7dc2c01eea9e651c8e4acaed2d981').innerHTML += ''+addy_text70c7dc2c01eea9e651c8e4acaed2d981+''; .

  • My Tip of the Week: How Many Fundraisers Should Your Group Run This Year?

    We get this question a lot, and my answer is, probably fewer than you typically run.

  • Congrats to PTO Today Teacher Wish List Grant Winners

    Have you signed up your school for Teacher Wish List yet? What are you waiting for? Order a free kit to get started or visit the Teacher Wish List site.

  • My Tip of the Week: Maximize Your School's Hunger Fighting Efforts

    If your parent group or school (or even the student council or National Honor Society at your school) does any sort of hunger-fighting work, you're going to love the fall 2011 offerings from Schools Fight Hunger.

  • My Tip of the Week: Create a Signature Event

    Believe it or not, now is the right time to do some assessing of your PTO or PTA. Sure, rest. You've earned it. But also try to find some time (even just trading emails) with your fellow leaders to think about the big picture of your group before you get back into the craziness of a new year.

  • Weekly Q: Should Website Guidelines & Procedures be Added to Bylaws?

    We are in the final stages of rolling out our PTO Website and we are very excited about this!!! The Procedures and Guidelines have been developed. Does this need to be added to the Bylaws. If so, how do we go about doing this? Thank you.

  • Trend Watch: School Book Clubs

    School-based book clubs have increased in popularity in recent years, in part due to the support of parent groups. PTOs and PTAs often sponsor the clubs, sometimes leading discussions, providing refreshments, and even donating books.

  • My Tip of the Week: The Key Traits of Successful PTO Leaders

    One of my favorite leadership maxims is also a powerful tip for growing your PTO or PTA.

  • Parent Groups in the News Round-up 5/13/11

    It's so refreshing to scan the recent parent group news and see so many articles about schools taking on gardening projects. In general, we are seeing a trend of parent groups taking a more active role in green school initiatives. This week's article round-up speaks to the benefits of school gardens:

  • The Voting has Begun - Cast Your Vote!

    Now it's up to you! Which fun phase would you like to see on the 2012 PTO Today Expo giveaway t-shirt? Two random voters will each receive 5 free t-shirts with the winning slogan. Be sure to tell your fellow school volunteers to vote too!

  • My Tip of the Week: Share Great Ideas with Volunteers

    A bit of a self-serving tip this week, but I still think it's a pretty good one. Do you get ideas, helpful tools or even a bit of inspiration from PTO Today and ptotoday.com? I hope so.

  • Five (or Six) Months Left in the School Year

    Happy New Year to all our PTO, PTA, HSA friends! Did you have a chance to re-charge over your holiday break? Are you ready to do great things in 2011? Flipping over the calendar in a new year is always energizing for me -- fresh possibilities, new ideas, a clean slate. But where school is concerned, it's also a bit daunting. Only 6 more months of school (in some of your cases, 5). Gulp. So much to accomplish on the PTO front. That's where resolutions or goals come in! Just to write them out lends clarity, purpose and a new sense of calm.

  • My Tip of the Week: Find Your Next Crop of Leaders

  • Can't Make It To a Meeting? Replay It Online!

    Parents who can’t make it to PTA meetings at three Staten Island, N.Y., schools will soon be able to catch the proceedings online. Thanks to a funding allocation from the area’s city council representative, the meetings will be broadcast live and recorded for replay online. Parents won’t be able to participate in the meetings online, but they will be able to watch or replay them later.

  • My Tip of the Week: Streamline Your Meetings

    I'm not one who thinks PTO or PTA meetings are super-important (really, your meeting attendance doesn't matter that much), but they're definitely on nearly all parent group calendars and they're almost always too long.

  • A Low-Key Family Event = Way to Recruit Volunteers

    Word is that families love the low-key aspect of Family Movie Nights. A table set up with volunteer sign-up sheets near the snacks inspires parents to contribute to future events. Parents are much more likely to sign up for a shift when they feel like part of the school community and after they had a good time a school family event.Leaders also told me that finding a volunteer to run a Family Movie Night is easier than most because you can hand them a kit with:

  • My Tip of the Week: Help One of Your Friends

    Do you know another parent group leader (or someone starting to get into this crazy stuff, or thinking about it) who could benefit from ptotoday.com or from these email newsletters?
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