As a brand new president taking ove r a "stagnant" group with all new officers I sent the following memo to all my officers:<p>
"Hi everyone,
Well, we are in the hot water now! We are the backbone of our PTO and we have a very busy year ahead of us, but if we are aggressive in recruiting the other parents things will go smoothly. Remember all they can say is no, and no to one thing doesn’t mean no to everything.
<p>I love working with children, I have been a Scoutmaster, Cubmaster and Girl Scout leader including Cookie Dad. It is my belief that everything the PTO does is ultimately for the children. And that determines my priorities for the year.<p>
We have to increase our fundraising efforts, but we must apply the “smarter, not harder” philosophy. The money is out there in grants, corporate donations, trusts, personal donations and, of course, selling things for profit. Note I put that last. Parents, as we well know, are tired of sell, sell, sell. Let’s change it to recycle, collect, and ask.<p>
While we will have fund raising activities, like Trash & Treasures and Silent Auction, let’s also have some Family Fun Nights. No pressure, no selling, except donations by choice and raffle drawings for prizes, low key no pressure. These are my general ideas, now I need yours. Remember we are a team, united for the children.<p.
Good luck and hang in there!

In your newsletters etc., really stress that "it takes a village". Tell your treasurer, "try, try, again". How do you know it will fail if YOU haven't tried it. That is a lesson you need to learn for yourself. Sounds like your treasurer is out voted. I say go ahead and try it and do not let her negative comments get in the way. Every parent needs a change to be involved and every child needs involved parents.

Gather parental involvement info and publicize it. That really helps too.

Nm and Pals thank you for the encouragement. I know that I will be steepping on toes but I am willing to give it my all.
Di

Hi dianne...been there, done that! Like Nm mom said start out adding a couple of things a year, you need to get the message out that you are a "new" group, new look, new motto.... If they fail, they fail...you can't be faulted for trying. I have to agree that we have seen our fundraisers go up each year as we add a couple of new events a year( we are entering our 4th year). More events=more members! Dont get discourage, from my example I will give you numbers ...three years ago our first fall fest had 162 kids attend, last year 276! This year...??? the biggest compliment I received was the old pta prez telling me I have done things with the school that they never could! it takes time ...you will get there!

Don't get discouraged!! Change takes time. Some of the things your tres. is saying mostly comes from being burnt out. I would just try to do one or two great things this year, and more later on. You will have to prove to the parents that things will be more oraganized and productive to bring them back into the parent group.

Find yourselves a definate mission. This will help you get everyone on the same track, do you want more parent involvment, is there a project you want to make happen?

I have found the more free stuff we do for parents, the more we make on fundraisers and the more involvment we get. They like to know we think they are all important.

Good Luck!! :cool:

the school i am pto president has about 300 students
and for the past few years membership has be falling off greatly. there were so many clicks and lots of complaints. our community is not rich in money or opportunities.
well i and the new vice-president want to change the membership status, but are getting some oppisition from the treasure. she has been the treasure on and off for 4 years. i had a pre meeting of the officers to get their ideas on where we would like the pto to go and everything we suggested she had said oh that was tried or you cant change this cause of the way the old president did things. with new leaders should there be change. every fundraiser over the past 4 years has been so screwed up and unorgainzed that many of the parents refuse to get involved. any words of wisdom from anyone!
thanks Di-ane