Our dues are $6.00 each and we credit every child(whether or not the family pays dues) with $10.00 3 towards classroom supplies and 7 towards field trips. As you can pretty well guess our dues just doesn't cover our expenses. We have only 3 fundraisers a year, knowing this our parents participate in all fundraisers. They have asked us not to do the catalogs anymore, so this year we tried other events and they are working out better than before(1 was a catalog but it was educational items and they sold like hotcakes).

We do alot of family nights and to keep a head count(for refreshments) we charge a small fee($1-$5.00 per family). We also pay for ALL assemblies (5-10 per year)and we bring in a hands on science class for all grades and classes.

Our 1st newsletter of the year we list all fundraisers and what the money will go towards, I feel this is why our participation is so high.

As for voting rights, if you pay your dues you get a vote.

Talk about timing. We were just talking about this. Our school had a $5 membership until last year then upped it to $10. I did't hear anyone complain, but up to $50 would probably have people up in arms. You could potentially alienate too many families. You never really know who does and doesn't have the ability to pay just by looking at them.

I like the idea of jonwilson and letting people know how much it actually costs per child/family to run the PTO and what they get in return. Perhaps that may stop some complaints about the fundraisers. I think choosing two or three good fundraisers instead of a lot of little ones would help as well.

Our families also get a school directory included with membership. We don't even offer it to purchase.

Tim-

Mostly the dues paying is a form of support for what we do. We do well on our fundraisers during the year(only 2) that we do not rely on the dues as a financial necessity. It is a show of committment. We provide so much to our kids throughout the year and these people acknowledge that by paying that small amount at the beginning of the year.
This is how we do our membership drive.We have a table set up at our back to school nights at both schoolsto accept dues for membership. We have lots of photos up on poster boards of all the things we have been able to fund through the years and of the children at assembly programs,and our Winter Wonderland, and book fairs etc... to visually show what we do. I strongly believe a picture is worth a thousand words. A lot of people do not know all that is accomplished and showing it in pictures has been a great success.(Everyone runs when they see me coming with my camera!!!) Then after the back to school nights,we send home a form with a tear off section for those who didn't have the money that night or forgot to stop by the table. The form reminds everyone to send in your dues and that by doing so they are showing their support for all we do, that you get voting rights. It also tells that each school's class with the highest percentage of members will get a pizza or lunch party and that they can take part in our family fun nights for free. (

As far as voting is concerned. Yes that is for anyone who has paid dues. No one (who has not paid dues) has voiced a concern that they can not vote. We have a sign in sheet at our meetings. The treasurer and Co Presidents have a list of who is a "dues paying member".

Usually, people who are going to get involved or actually care about what is going on will be the ones who do pay the dues. Our meetings generally have about 35 in attendance.

It is incredible to me that when I go to, lets say a concert at the schools, and I look around in the audience how many people are there that you never see helping out or taking an active roll in ANY of the happenings during the school year. I know people are busy, busy, busy, however, there are a lot of apathetic people out there who let "everyone else" do for their kids and you never see them. There are "doers" in the world and there are also "takers". But that is a whole different subject. LOL! (It's the end of the year... I'm tired and crispy as, I am sure lots of the forum readers are.)

Back to the subject at hand: Dues -It has been fine for us. We have never had any complaints.

Hi,
We don't have dues. We fundraise all of our funds and it gets more and more painful each year. In order to support all of the items in our budget, we run three fundraisers thru the year. After hearing repeated complaints about fundraising, I sent out a note stating that we can stop fundraising if we went to a dues system. Once people found out that our 200 families would be paying about $70 per family, the grumbling stopped.
I'd love to not fundraise, but I haven't come across a system that could replace it yet.

I belong to two PTO's - one charges dues ($5 per family), the other doesn't. Personally, I think both models can work.

In our elementary PTO, the membership drive is actually a form of marketing. People don't really mind the $5, and some feel that paying dues helps build commitment. Once we get rolling, who paid dues and who didn't isn't terribly relevant other than a few perks. For instance, members get the school directory for free, others have to buy it. (Essentially, it's the same price as joining.)

In our middle schoo, it's a much smaller, much less formal organization. There are no dues.

Both methods serve their purpose (but I would have a hard time supporting $50 as dues).

Thank you all so much for the input and will table the idea. My family can't really afford the $50 up front but for most families in my district it is not a problem. I think the request for a donation would probably work better and not alienate anyone.

I also want the families to see clearly where the money goes and how much their children actually benefit from it. Maybe that would help also. As a PTO member for the past 5 years, that goes to the majority of the meetings, I haven't seen that addressed very well.

Again, thank you all for your help.
Marie