Lisa, have you tried surveying your members to see if they WANT a monthly meeting? Do you also prepare a newsletter? Or if not, couldn't you start one to relay the info usually presented monthly? Or maybe you could cut back and not hold a general meeting every month. Doesn't sound like you really need one.

The two general meetings we hold (budget and elections) are also planned before a school program. Basically, the parents seem to wait patiently while the President speaks, then they all raise their hands "yes" to vote in the budget or the slate of officers. It's a formality at best.

However, we try really hard to keep the parents informed and not be seen as a clique. We deliberately keep our Board large, and the newsletter is our key link to the parents.

We alternated between 3:30 meetings and & 7:00 meetings. We found alternating was helpful and more teachers attended the after school meetings.
We have approximatly 10 committees and a lot of our committees interact so we want to give enough time for everyone to get advice, talk about what their committees are up to and vote on money issues. The exec. can spend up to $500 and then inform PTO members at the next meeting. Again, no one wants to make that kind of decision without a vote. I feel every member wants to feel included, it's just very hard getting that to happen without boring them at the same time! Our exec. board meets,usually, one time a month before the "big" meeting. I also want to say this is the 'style' of last years board and this years. 2 years ago the exec. board was fine with making many decisions as a smaller group and that also worked. We are all so different that doing this work can be a challenge. I find it so interesting to read how other groups manage.

[ 08-22-2002: Message edited by: vp3kids ]</p>

We still hold monthly general meetings, as well as executive board meetings monthly. The board meeting is one week prior to the general meeting. But now comes the strange part. We decide on everything in the board meeting. We offer nothing to vote on at general meetings. It's just a meeting to let the parents know what has gone on, what is going on, and any questions or input they may have. Do you think we would increase attendence if we allowed the parents to have more of a say in what goes on? ie: what fundraisers to do, how best to spend the money. We are also having programs almost every month right after the meetings. We have done this in the past with no luck. The majority of the parents stay in the hall until the meeting is over, then come in to see their child in the program. We used to wait until after the meeting, but then the parents left as soon as the program was over. Its a no win situation. Anyone got any ideas?? :confused:

We had the same question posed at the 2nd meeting
last year and strangely parents said they wanted
the meeting, but as hold true no one came the rest of the year. This year we are having an executive meeting prior to the regular PTO meeting, which will hopefully take away some of the business things. The regular meeting will have basic PTO, teacher and principal news, a student assembly from a grade (could be a couple kids) and then hopefully present material that might be helpful to parents like things found uner the school family night. I have already ordered the college packet. Our hopes are that we can give a service rather than just ask for help all the time, but in the long run people might want to help more.

We tried meeting every other month last year. The executive committee felt the group did not have enough input in issues that came up. We have 30 or so members and a lot going on so every week there is a question to be answered and money is also in the mix. This year we are back to every month with the focus of a few meetings being fun and doing team building activities. Good Luck, I hope the schedule works well for you!

Our PTO has followed this plan for years now. I didn't get it at first, falling into the trap of thinking, "Well, we're a PTO, we HAVE to hold monthly general meetings." Now, after seeing this approach work so well in our school, I couldn't imagine trying to change it.

We hold a General meeting in August to approve the budget and one in May for elections. Unless we call a special one, that's it.

The Executive Board holds monthly meetings where are business is transacted. By design, we have a large Board (25-35 people) comprised of elected officers, 4 school reps, all the committee chairs, and parent rep from each grade. (kind of a room parent chair). We feel a large Board is necessary so that 4 or 5 people aren't controlling everything. Meeting dates/times are published and open to observers. Once in awhile someone comes, but frankly, if they are interested enough to come to an Exec meeting, they usually end up volunteering to lead something.

We have a lot of business to transact, so meetings take 1-1/2 to 2 hours.

Really, what we've done is cut through much of the red tape. Many groups seem to hold monthly general meetings where basically only Board members turn out. This way, we only expect the Board members - if anyone else wants to attend - great, but we aren't setting up for a big meeting that doesn't happen.

Generally speaking, we have good participation in PTO events with parent volunteers signing up for events and sending supplies. They just don't want to go to a meeting every month.

We make sure that our monthly newsletter keeps everyone up to date, and in 00-01 we asked in our end of year survey if people wanted us to have more or monthly meetings. The answer was overwhelmingly "no".

Our bylaws specify the two required meetings, but the Board can call others.

On funding requests, anyone can call and get on the agenda. Sometimes they come with a proposal; sometimes they write a request, sometimes they provide the information to a Board member to relay. Typically, if it's a teacher related request, it goes through the Principal. The Principal, Vice Principal, and 2 teacher reps attend every meeting.

It works well for us.

[ 08-20-2002: Message edited by: JHB ]</p>