Welcome to the site! You will find plenty of ideas and support here to help you along. I'll introduce myself...I am the mother of 3 living in Venezuela and the president of our PTO. My children attend an international school with 170 students Preschool-12th. Our PTO has been extremely hit or miss for the past couple of years and hopefully this year's executive board has gone a long way to change that. We've implemented new ideas to go with existing traditions and we've made sure everything is DOCUMENTED!! I hated moving into this position with nothing to go on. Anyway, this site has been a God-send for me and many others who post!
I have just joined this message board and wanted to introduce myself.
I am a dad of 2 elementary school girls and 1 three-year old son. I am active at my girl's school, not so much in the classroom, but I spend a lot of time helping out at book fairs, santa's helpers, etc.. This year my wife volunteered US to put out the School newsletter (I should say create a newsletter since previous ones were few and far between). Of course, the US soon became ME since she works so much. I also arranged a T-Shirt sale this year, as well.
Last week, something that I never expected to happen to me, happened. I became the President of our school's PTA. The current President received a job promotion in December and vanished overnight. The Vice-President has been working out of town and vanished as well. The Secretary has a full time job and attends college so she might as well have vanished. No on else wanted to step up and we weren't having executive board meetings (I assume it was because everyone was afraid thay would get voted in if they went to the bathroom). As the editor of the newsletter, I knew the things that weren't getting done, because I had to keep taking them out of the calendar section. I also knew what wasn't going to get done if someone didn't take over. So I volunteered. I like to equate this action to a drummer boy taking over for Stonewall Jackson in the Wilderness.
Anyway, that is my story and I am searching for Ideas as to what makes a good president and alternatives to the "Sell, Sell, Sell" mantra of previous PTA boards.
