A PTO can be whatever its organizers agree it should be - generally with some purpose of supporting the school. What that means can vary dramatically.
It can have no fundraising or have a primary focus on fundraising (which I personally think is a mistake preferring somewhere in between the two extremes).
Coordinating volunteers is generally a key activity.
It can be a completely separate entity, legally set up as a non-profit organization. Or it can be a volunteer arm of the school with relatively little independence.
My own elementary is limited to two sales fundraisers a year. 15-20 years ago, the school use to own both. By the time I joined, the PTO owned them both. Then it was 1 and 1. A year ago, the district asked PTOs to focus on volunteerism and for the schools to control all sales type fundraisers. (Note in all cases, PTO volunteers helped RUN the fundraisers.) Our PTO still raises some funds from T-shirt and supply sales and a Spring Event. But we no longer raise $25,000-$45,000 a year.
In all years, "fundraising" was last in our list of 5 objectives with the others being something like: </font>
- Encouraging volunteerism</font>
- Enhancing educational programs</font>
- Increasing school spirit & moral</font>
- Supporting the school administration</font>
- Raising funds to supplement existing programs</font>
(I'm typing this from memory, so that may not be exact.)
Some people have very strong feelings about the role of a PTO - but the fact is that it can be defined many different ways. The important thing is to work together to clearly identify the goals, responsibilities, and areas of control and then for all parties to understand and respect those definitions.
[ 09-02-2004, 12:40 PM: Message edited by: JHB ]
