At our school, the Room Parent Chairperson puts out a letter at the beginning of the year to all the parents in the school asking if they would like to be room parent or assistant or donators for parties for their child's class. Responses are collected and made into lists that are given to the volunteer chosen as room parent and assistants. When we have more than one parent checking off that they would like to be room parent, the RP Chairperson decides who will take the position. Rule around here is one RP, but may have more than one assistant(s).
Our group of active PTA members are overworked and welcome new people helping and getting involved by room parenting!

We seem to have a mix at our school. Some classrooms have several moms who want the job while other classrooms have no one. We send home a specail form for parents to fill out asking if they are willing to be roomparent and a short survey asking what they are willing to send in for parties etc. The form clearly states that the roomparent job is first come first servered. HOWEVER, I always ask the Teacher if she has a preference in who her roomparent is. Lets face it somepeople are easier to work with than others and I think the teacher deserves to have a say in who is in her classroom.

Our town seems to be lucky, because this is one thing we NEVER have problems getting volunteers for!

Personally, I think EVERY mom should be included, because every mom that wants to be in the classroom with her kid shouldn't be denied. There should be one "class mom" who's the organizer that makes sure everyone else gets turns during the year to be with the kids.

I gotta toot my own horn here. When I managed to get the honored position when my son was in kindergarten, I was so paranoid that people would think I was being selfish, that I made a little chart of all the mom(or dads) with their phone numbers, and any scheduled events (unscheduled ones I added in as I went along).I checked off on a little box which parents participated in what activity, so that way I didn't lose track. Parents that weren't into it were let off the hook, because I ALWAYS had moms who wanted to come in, especially for the parties. I'm a little neurotic, YES, but my parents were so happy because they felt that was fair, and that's actually how I ended up making the friends I have now! It IS a little time consuming getting it set up, but well worth it.

OK, so that's probably NOT the answer you wanted to hear.

Well, as one of the moms who's not in our "in crowd" and therefore out of the running most of the time, I suggest this:

This time around, try not to choose moms who have already done it--give someone else a chance. A lot of families in our town have two or more kids, and it seems those moms ALWAYS get a turn somehow, when there are plenty of other moms who NEVER had a chance.

If there are a bunch of newbies, choosing two is tempting, but then sometimes you get into power struggles (sad, but true). Put names in a hat.

If someone is a kook, or trouble, or undependable--I think it's safe to "lose" those names if they're going to be responsible for things like phone chain on snow days, or arranging the gift for the teacher.

But like I said, if a parent wants to be involved in a class, I think it's a crime to keep them out!

We beg.

If there happens to be more than one offer, we let a couple people do each party. Field trips are separate from the class mom poistion. The teacher recruits from what I have seen.

We normally only have 1 person offer. If we are lucky we get 2 people to offer and we just make them both room parents. Its a huge help to have 2 moms in one room. Sometimes we've had classes with no room mom where a room with 2 moms is willing to move over to the empty room. I couldn't tell you what to do if you have 3 or more we've never expierenced it lol

Help! Our PTA is having a serious fight over how to choose class parents for next year. We used to pick from a pecking order(who does the most for the school & work downward from there). Then we started picking from a hat, which upset the people who are always doing for the school. It seems there are a lot of people at our school who won't give up any of their time for the PTA but expect to be chosen for classparent and attend all parties and fieldtrips.

I feel the classparent position is a reward for all your hard work during the previous year and our by-laws state that the PTA President & 1st VP pick the classparents. So it's up to me & the 1st VP.

I need to come up with a fair way of choosing before someone kills me & my 1st VP. I know we can't make everyone happy but there has to be a better way! Any and all help would be appreciated!