This is my first day on this web site. I'm so glad I found it. Writermom, I think I'm in the same boat as you are. I got more info out of this day than I have in five years in our PTO. It is so unorganized. Crew Chief thank you so much for that idea!!
Way to go, Writermom, for trying to establish a written history. I've relied heavily on the 10 or so years of binders we keep in the school's library. I'd feel like I was reinventing the wheel if I didn't have them. Each annual binder has the agenda, minutes and treasurer's report for every meeting. Also, the officers and committe chairmen keep their own binder that they hand over, along with previous binders, to each new person. For major events, such as Arts Day and the School Carnival, a parent volunteer makes a video of event highlights. Those videos have been very helpful!!!
It'll be hard to start from scratch, but you and your team can do it.
I'd give each officer a basic timeline starting with the first day of their term through the end of the year. For example, my 'president' timeline (just for the first three months) looks like this:
July 1 - First Day of Term - meet with outgoing and incoming officers and school principal
July 1-7 - Begin planning Registration Activities
July 25-29 - School Registration
August 1 - Prepare welcome packets for officers, teacher representatives, principal and committee chairmen
August 20 - Mail welcome packets
August 26 - 1st Day of School
1st Thursday of each month - PTO Board Meeting
September 1 - Plan for Open House/Newcomer's Welcome scheduled for September 29
September 29 - Open House/Newcomer's Welcome
I continue through the school year. Depending on how much you know and trust your officers (and what your leadership style is like), you can stick to the basics and let them flesh out the details, or you can lay out exactly what needs to be done.
I highly suggest a Welcome Packet for each officer and committee chairman. I include:
Welcome Letter
School Year Calendar
PTO Meeting Schedule (with quorum requirements)
Current Bylaws
Contact Information Sheet (name, address, phone #, email address and positon of each voting member)
Minutes and Treasurer's Report from the last meeting of the previous year
Agenda for the first meeting of this school year (and voting procedures - i.e. who can make and second a motion and who has voting privileges)
Any other information relevant to that school year
I send it out a week before school starts so everyone can look things over. This makes the first meeting of the year go a lot more smoothly.
Every summer when I receive all the committee books, I make sure that there are copies of all flyers from that committee.List of all committee members. Reports from the committee members on what worked & what didn'tand overall feedback. And of course a copy of the committees budget and expense reports.
I'm president for next year, and since the likelihood of my getting any notes from any of the current board members is slim, I want to make up procedural binders for next year's officers. WE have never done this before, although I have kept one of my own this year as VP.
So what I need from you guys is examples of what goes into the binder for each position. I'm guessing form templates, notes from previous years...anything else? I'd like to have these ready to hand out at the first board meeting.
