I have been doing lots of reading on this website and appreciate all of the advice and comments. What a good resource. I am a newly elected board member (take office June 1)for a middle school PTA. The new board members are considering the benefits of becoming a PTO. We have many reasons for considering this that include the basic argument, money paid to a National Organization that we feel little benefit from, the current PTA board has done little to foster a community relationship with the parents and the staff. The PTA meetings typically consist of the 5 officers and one or two additional people. The lack of parent participation, staff appreciation and general lack of confidence speaks volumes of the current PTA board's support. They are a very closed group, narrowly focused on their own agenda and refuse to accept new ideas. They have been downright rude to new parents and most parents who attend one meeting, never come back. It is a very unwelcoming feeling and it has permeated throughout our school. Parents who volunteer for committees are never called, ideas are dismissed, decisions are made with little or no input from anyone other than the 5 board members. The books haven't been audited in 3 years and the formation of an "Auditing Committee" was promised time and time again but to no avail. Because of these things, parents have lost interest, have a distrust and have become complacent with the situation. "It's too hard to create changes with the mess that's been made." The principal who is new has taken notice and is frustrated as well. We now have a new group of board members voted in and all have a true desire to "refuel" our parent organization. We want to create a warm, friendly environment where parents want to be involved. We want to dissassociate the negative image with the current PTA. We are considering the pros of becoming a PTO and want to create a fun, upbeat way to promote our changes without dragging up the negative issues of the previous board. How can we set ourselves apart from the previous group without resorting to casting disparaging remarks. We want to focus on the future and how we can make a difference now. We can't fix what was done in the past, but we want to build a trust with our parent and teacher community so that they want to be involved. We want their input and assure them that their voices will be heard. We want to create a way for each member of our group to feel that this is their organization, their ideas are important to us and that if they will trust us and sign up to volunteer, we will make sure they get called and offered the opportunity to help in the way they want to.

How can we repair the damage done by a previous board? Has anyone else gone through this? Will changing the name help? (Part of the problem is that a current board member is a district representative of the PTA and that has added to the problem of associating with the National PTA). Does anyone have a fun upbeat newsletter or brochure that we can look at as an example of what we can send out to our parents inviting them to be a part of our parent group for next year. We want to start early and kick off the first day of school with a new attitude and direction. If you have any advice for us, we would be grateful.