oh my, you have your hands full but sounds like your heart is in the right place. First, go over the bylaws and create a budget or go over the previous years and cash flow reports. I would hold a Executive board meeting with the school principal attending to go over those things. So you have things prepared for your meetings. I am a second yr officer and parent of 9 yrs at our school. I will be running for Pres for next year and am so grateful for my experience. I had recently made a proposal to make the pres position be held by someone that has held a prior office. For the simple fact that there are so many details that the position is really not a learning experience. I wish you the best of luck.
Well--the good news is your familiar with the school...no bad news but sounds like a lot of work ahead. If you have a board established...get everyone working their lane to let you know the scope of your organization...I'm a BIG calendar person...we have one that we just updated and then we do long and short term planning using the calendar. That gives us ideas on budgets and money requirements. You cannot control the amount of money that comes in but you can control what you spend. All requests for support have to come in on a form we designed and be reviewed by the Principal first for comment before we get it. Once we have a project moving, I meet personally with the chairman to work the details and then they implement with my help. Right now for instance, we have a Karate Camp fund raiser going on, a morning math "Thinking and Games" program starting, our "Book Club" starting, a PTO meeting in 2 weeks, the school directory being compiled for the first time ever, a monthly newsletter being compiled, our pizza fundraiser, a Variety Show at the end of the month and we are beginning to prep for our Carnival in June. That is just for February, but the way we can do those things, is to have the calendar and to backwards plan. As to parent involvement--this year we have increased our membership by 25 percent (204 to 255 members). Communicate in every venue you can!!! Newsletters, emails, we do an award now at the school awards assemblies, phone calls to newly arriving parents, hand written notes to say thank you...a shirt that says you are a PTO person and wear it so parents can see you. All of those things get the word out. We do a section called Bobcat Sound Off in our newsletter where we pat ourselves on the back so folks can see all the good stuff we're doing. If you build it they will come!
I'd be happy to share our forms etcetera if you are looking for something specific...but also you can look to our website and see examples of by-laws, newsletters (which through advertising we brought in 1400 dollars allowing us to be self sustaining), however we can help we will. This site is wonderful for ideas as well!
Email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and/or check our website brentpto.com for other inputs. Since you are half way through this year..start thinking about the next one. Ask the principal to let you put something in the packet they give to new registering parents, if she does a school orientation, ask to speak at it, and even consider getting a welcome committee together to start calling parents as they come in. That will get you one step closer to having them feel comfortable enough to join in.
Anyway--more than you wanted to know I'm sure [img]smile.gif[/img] ....dianna
Don't forget to find a copy of the by-laws and policy and procedures. Hopefully someone left you some how to notes, if not make them as you go. Write everything done, the amount of details is overwhelming. I was thrown in with now experience also. Good luck! and keep checking the boards, they have lots of great ideas and help.
What I would do first is to find out exactly how much money is in your treasury. Then I would make a list of everything that is expected of your PTO financially. If there isn't enough money to cover all of it, you are going to have to cut out some things or raise more funds...maybe both?
Also, I know you have a lot of enthusiasm right now, but I would go slowly with trying to change things. You may find yourself facing opposition just for the sake of the fight if you try to do too much at once. Keep reading these boards, and you will find tons of great advice.
Hi, everyone! I've been reading all of the posts on this site and am thrilled to have it. However, I was wondering if anyone would be kind to share some ideas with me.
I have been a volunteer at my children's school since my oldest was in K (he's now in 3rd). I am very active. I agreed to share position as VP for the PTO this year. I was told I would not have to do much but that the board was new and they needed someone who knew about our school.
Well, our PTO President resigned his position two weeks after school started. No one volunteered to move up in position. I jumped at the chance to help my school. WOW! I had no idea what the PTO was responsible for. I was unaware of how much the PTO actually did. I was equally surprised about how much the PTO was asked to support. There isn't a lot of money (I think) in the account. I want to have some ideas to bring to our school that will just make the parents happy and excited that it's not the same boring stuff.
I want to bring money to the school. But, honestly, more important to me is that since we have just had a major boundary change, I want the families to feel like having fun and being involved in school. Is there any hand-holding that you would like to share?
