Sorry to have opened up this discussion then disappear for so long. [img]tongue.gif[/img] I had no idea it would generate a fair amount of responses!

I'm happy to report that our first speaker was from the Rape Crisis Hotline in Denver, who spoke about how to talk to your children about safety, strangers, and more personal issues (the whole right and wrong about touch, etc.) Attendance wasn't overwhelming, but it did draw a sizable group! The speaker did not charge us anything.

We have also started a babysitting venture called Eagle's Nest (school mascot is the eagle). We have seven girls who have volunteered to do this free of charge to apply to community service (high school, scouts, church groups, etc.), and they bring planned activities each time. Their first activity was tie-dying! It was a huge hit!

Since our first "meeting" was just an ice cream social for a meet & greet sort of thing, we didn't conduct any business at that one. So this meeting started with a brief intro of the board and principal by me, then a 5-minute schpeal from a legislative rep about a bond issue, followed by the 30-minute speech by the guest speaker. After that, we had the principal's report, notice of committee openings, individual committee reports, Q&A, a brief description of next month's speaker, and adjournment. The entire meeting took 1 hr 20 minutes!

Next month's speaker is from Sylvan Learning Center: Study Skills Presentation. This will take about an hour, so business will be kept to a minimum with only the most pertinent issues being discussed. Eagle's Nest will probably do a fall-related craft.

We're still playing around with a couple ideas for November. With the holidays looming and stress mounting then, we may do a stress-buster under dimmed lights with scented candles burning and a sound machine playing a babbling brook in the background. I don't know! Maybe something on nutrition and the picky eater or something on anxiety in both children and adults. Maybe we'll just invite everyone to an open forum to discuss these sorts of things. Sometimes it's comforting just to know we're not alone in dealing with these things. You know?

When we figure it out, I'll let you know!

Separately, we are planning our first Family Fun Night on October 17: Monster's Ball! November 15 is our annual Craft Fair along with a Kids' Korner secret shop and photos with Santa. In January we're having a Family Game Night, and in April it will be a Family Movie Night. The school carnival is always near the end of May and is always a fabulous hit!

We have committees that plan and organize each one of these, so it's really nothing above and beyond for us. The only pay-off we're looking for is building a sense of community. We have no other motive really. Our major fund raiser earns enough to carry us through the entire year, give generously to the school for their wish list, and still have money in the bank at the close of the school year.

Parents love to watch their children! If you have a music program or art program, ask the children to perform at a meeting. One song. I guarantee your attendance will go up.

We have also added child-care on-site during the meetings. That increased our attendance because many parents just couldn't leave their kids at home.

We have had speakers or a lesson at our meetings but that just makes the meeting longer. Attendance actually dropped. KISS- Keep it simple, you know the rest.

With our group, it just evolved. After awhile, they just quit trying to set up the extra speakers and programs on a monthly basis. It was just "PTO meeting". Whoever came, came - and it was usually just the officers, committee chairs, and school reps, anyway.

When I became active, the bylaws were pretty lame and what constituted the Board was not even clear. So we started formalizing things, promoting the monthly "Board Meeting" as "Business Meeting" and emphasizing that anyone was welcome to attend.

We found that it was important to deal with perceptions in the beginning of a year - especially with new parents. Many expected there would be a general PTO meeting each month - not that they would attend, mind you - but just that that's the way it should be! We were very careful in our newsletters and flyers to explain and to encourage everyone to get involved.

Frankly, what I see a lot of groups doing is exactly this by default with only the Board Members and officers showing up anyone. We just moved it to a recognized plan of action. It works really well (for us), but we do believe the board should be large in this model. Having all the funds/decisions made by a small group of 5-6 people just opens the door for too many possible problems.

We do survey our parents about this periodically. Overwhelmingly - they don't want it changed.

[ 09-03-2003, 02:49 PM: Message edited by: JHB ]

We have a meeting once a month and hash out our stuff. We are perfectly content with just the chairpeople there, especially the committees active at whatever time of year it is. We like to invite new people to fun events, hope they see it's meaningful to volunteer and then step up to chair something. We usually have about 25 people attend each meeting and it's lasts about 1 hr and 20 mins. We want people to feel like we accomplished something at the meeting, that they can have meaningful input and then get on with our lives.

We are starting a parent education committee this year. We are organizing speakers and groups, parents specifically interested in the topic may attend. Stuff like: New Math 101, Teach you child how to develope good Study habits, etc.

We hope the we communicate our plans and activities through the newsletter and website. If someone has additional input they can certainly attend our meetings.

Our parents voiced the opinion that the meetings should be short and on target. Frankly, they were a little put off when the District had speakers come last year and made the meetings 2 1/2 long. Maybe it's because they knew that meant their taxes were going up.

[ 09-03-2003, 11:02 AM: Message edited by: tradechi ]

I would like to know how you went about changing from regular monthly meetings to 2 meeting per year. I think this is a great idea, but how can I make it fly?

I think those of you plan activities like this for general meetings are wonderful - and more power to you!

However, as I posted before, our group gave up the battle long before I became active. I'm not proposing YOU give up, but if you find it just isn't working, know that there are alternatives.

We tried the interesting speakers, door prizes, and wonderful activities. Despite good efforts, it didn't work for our group, instead adding to the effort and stress without any additional payoff. Our group now chooses to have a large Board (25-35 people) that meets monthly to conduct all business. Anyone is welcome to attend. Beyond that we have two general meeting per year - one in August to approve the budget and one in May to elect officers.

We don't worry about how big our meetings are but focus on getting parents involved in specific activities and volunteer efforts.

Again, I'm not suggesting any of you change what you are doing. Many organizations have been successful at the monthly general meetings. It just didn't pay off for us, so we found an alternative way to be successful.

[ 09-02-2003, 09:36 PM: Message edited by: JHB ]