We alternate one month day and next month night to be fair to all working and stay home parents. Our night meetings are at 7:30 we found it an easier time for parents to get out of the house after homework and sports!
We've always had our meetings at night and still suffer from "lack of participation". I can't imagine that changing from day to night would have that bad of an effect, anyone that really wanted to be involved would stay involved. I'm slowly learning that even though they can't make it to meetings doesn't mean they're not participating. We still get our 200+ volunteers every year for our Ice Cream social.
For at least the past 5 years, and probably longer, our PTO has been mostly run by stay-home moms, or moms with flexible work schedules. The meetings have been held at 8:00 in the morning. Until this past month, I have been one of those stay-at-home moms, who also substituted occassionally. Last month, I was elected President, and the next day, I was offered a full-time paraprofessional position at the school. My vice-president works a flexible schedule during the day. We agree that we'll need to have our meetings now at night. I'm thinking at 6:30, and not go past 8:00. Has anyone else experienced these kinds of changes, and if so, what was the outcome? I'm really shaking it up by being a full-time working President AND calling for meetings at night. I can already anticipate some of the possible negative feedback, but I can also see many working parents being able to come in the evening. I've been preparing some of the "old guard" by telling them that things will still be good, just different. Not sure how convinced they are, though!
Thanks for the help!
