I too am new at this! New president as of the beginning of the school year. I had to volunteer for it (not that I mind) but our parent involvement is just that low. This site has given me so many ideas that I don't know where I'm going to start. We've had a couple successful small fundraisers already now we need to focus on some family nights and others things for the kids to do. Good luck to you in your new role!
Welcome to the adventure that is PTO. My biggest tip -- especially for new PTOs -- is to focus on creating community, having fun and building involvement. Everything else stems from there. You'll be tempted to jump head-long into major fundraising. Slow down. Your fundraising will actually do better *after* you've built a connection with parents.
Grab a cup of coffee or two and explore this site. We like to think that there's an article or a discussion on here about virtually every PTO challenge.
Here on the forum, you'll generally do better with specific questions. You'll find tons of helpful people with insight on a whole variety of PTO topics.
I'm new in this field as of November 9, 2004, but just by reading the discussion at hand, I have learned alot. At this point I have a few ideas to run by the principal and the president. If anyone have anyother ideas on how to get the PTO off and running, I would appreicate any suggestions. At this point we had to elect new officers and that is how I became the VP. I believe that this is a first for all the new officers, espeically me.
