I think really the principal and VP have a huge piece of this. I also make an appeal via email the first weeks of school and finally, and this is pretty blatant, but on whatever form you put out for folks to apply for money with put a check block on there that the applicant is or is not a PTO member.
Now if you do that, you may find some teachers that are not as enthusiastic in supporting your fundraiser etc...so you have to kind of decide how important this is for you.
For me--I make the initial pushes and then let the P and VP handle it. We usually get about a 60 percent join rate by the teachers which really is very good. I'm hoping for even more this next year based on all we did this year. But I guess we'll have to see...
I think really the principal and VP have a huge piece of this. I also make an appeal via email the first weeks of school and finally, and this is pretty blatant, but on whatever form you put out for folks to apply for money with put a check block on there that the applicant is or is not a PTO member.
Now if you do that, you may find some teachers that are not as enthusiastic in supporting your fundraiser etc...so you have to kind of decide how important this is for you.
For me--I make the initial pushes and then let the P and VP handle it. We usually get about a 60 percent join rate by the teachers which really is very good. I'm hoping for even more this next year based on all we did this year. But I guess we'll have to see...
Thanks for the advice, How Do you "Strongly Urge" the teachers to become members? Part of the challenge is that the teachers want the support of the board by requesting additional funds, but do not want to pay the membership dues.
I will add to things to ScottsMom's answer. All of our requests go through the principal who is very good at vetoing anything that isn't academic and who also then has a say in what reaches us. She is on the board and understands our financial reality.
The other thing we do is try to make our folks benefit from PTO assisted fundraisers. For instance, the music department wanted to get all new tshirts and a bus for a music competition. We supported them in sponsoring a school dance and raised MORE than the money required to do that. All the money was then "passed through" the PTO account and directly to them. They received the benefit of the dollars without the hassle of a school sponsored event that needed to be declared in September when they didn't know the requirement would come through till February. We've done the same with the art department (tile painting fundraiser) and are now prepared to assist the computer folks with their "Cyber Camp" this summer for 3 days that should raise them about 3000 dollars for extras. It's a neat way to have "not another PTO requirement" and gets the teachers really pumped and involved.
If you are starting with no money, I would consider not accepting any requests for extra money until you have what you need for the year in the bank. Everyone understands that concept. After that, if you don't have a mission, work on one with your group and only consider requests that meet your mission.
We read all requests for extra funds at our Board Meetings. We discuss each of them very carefully and document on each request why it was approved or turned down at the time-we've needed this before. Essentially, we work really hard to plan for our year and only set aside a small amount for extras. This keeps us from getting blindsided by tons of requests for huge amounts by saying we have a limit and we have met it. We also had one grade that went on 3 field trips last year and wanted us to pay for what they couldn't raise even thought there were classes struggling to get one trip. So we did what was fair, we offered the same amount to each group.
My experience is, when you are dealing with money, some people just see it as personal and will always have an issue and others will understand about business and will understand and work with you.
The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating-in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life. --Anne Morris
Does anyone have guidelines that lay out how they make the decision on what requests will be approved, what is priority etc. We have the regular budget items, plus a stack of requests already piling up for next year. (And since we are in the process of changing to PTSO, we are starting with no money!)
How do you also decline without discouraging or upsetting the requestor?
