One of my main focuses is parental involvement. It is also the goal of the principals I have worked with in the past and also the school principal.

I set up a volunteer program at my boys' elementary school a few years ago. The principal suggested I take it before the staff at a staff meeting. I would say 99% of them were extremely supportive. Not everyone feels comfortable with volunteers being in their rooms. I can understand that. During my meetings that is one thing that I would discuss with the volunteers. It is not to be taken personal. So if you are talking about a program and a volunteer coord. that may make some teachers feel uncomfortable. I tried to devise the program where is it convienent for the staff and the volunteers and cuts down on classroom interuptions. At the begining of the year I send out info on how people can volunteer and why it is important. Infromation and communication is key. Spread the word and do it often. It is also important to make people feel welcome and wanted at the school. Parental involvement does not just mean coming to meetings and volunteering. It is importantt to every child that they have an involved parent in some form or fashion.

Our school has a Volunteer Coordinator and she does a great job with recruiting for school activities. We staff our our events with the committee who is doing them. We usually have a Vounteer Coordinator for each of the 9 events we do from the PTO itself.

One thing I do notice and I was in this situation before, is that you have the same group of parents who give their time 100%. Then you have the group who does a little when they can.
Then you have the ones who call the PTO a "click" which I resent. We "look" like a "click" because we are the ones who will always say, YES!!!
We invite others to join, help either with events or in the classroom. I personally have tried to work on this by keeping a book with everyone I ask if they can help and when they say "No" or give some kind of excuse I log it. Then when they come back to me and say how come I'm never called, I show them the BOOK. It's been working with some. but not all.

I am beginning to think that the families who put their kids first, are the ones who you will see helping with school activites. Either at school, take home projects, or weekends doing somethng for them. I have 4 boys and I couldn't imagine not being involved with them. They always say "So what are you gonna do in school today?"

We also use a web-site for our school and we have about 50 hits a day with a population of 950. I would like to see more and I hope it's not the same parents everyday.

Sorry this may be a little off topic or too harsh. But, in the long run I think Volunteer Coordinator is 100% needed in all schools. Someone who can be there a lot does wonders. Ours, just happens to work in the front office so she sees everyone.

~Gracee

I agree with KayCee above on not letting the few who help so much get burnt out. That's why I'd like to see "class parents" back in the classrooms at our school. I believe that more parents would be more willing to help out if someone they knew asked them. I feel that communication is another "key".

We have a Volunteer Coordinator chair position in our PTO, however have a hard time getting someone to fill it. My question is... isn't that the person chairing the events responsibility to enlist volunteers for that event or at least delagate someone else to?

If you believe that there are more effective ways to get people involved, how have you gone about selling this? Especially if your motivation is not simply to get all the work done, but to make certain your school is open to parents, and welcomes them, and tries as much as possible to show that there ARE opportunities for them to help out without it being a part-time job.

I second that!! Hey when you all figure out the answer to this, please share it with me!

We are hoping to rethink how we get volunteers next year, in an attempt to prevent so few from doing so much (and getting burnt out). One idea we had was to use the lead room parents as sources for getting volunteers. For example, the 1st grade parents will be in charge of staffing the Book Fair. That way parents will be volunteering with other parents they know or will be glad they met because their children are in the same class / same grade.

I've seen the demo for the Volunteer Builder stuff and it looks great! You might look into that, too.

I agree with you that timely information is critical. We're going to start a parents association website (separate from the school, for a lot of reasons) and post current event info on there. But we also hope to use phone calls as a more personal way to spread the word about what we're doing. A person is harder to turn down and easier to warm up to than a flyer or other source of info. Plus it's a way to answer questions and spread enthusiasm.

Increasing communication and participation is a big goal for me in our school. I don't really understand why anyone would want to prevent that from happening, unless they want to protect their clique, and unfortunately they do exist.

"Three4Me" programs

Great program, not really much need to change how participation is used.

In other words, does the goal of increasing parental involvement have to be on the target list before people really focus on it and make it happen? If so, is the principal the one who sets the tone, tells the PTO what needs to be accomplished, and has to be persuaded that this is a valuable and attainable goal?

Its always good to know what the school and PTO/PTA need in the way of event/program volunteers beforehand, not that it isnt always changing. Everyone should have somekind of measurable participation goal (# of parents, events, increase in attendance, community sponsors, etc)

I encountered resistance from our PTO when I suggested that a volunteer coordinator position might be worth discussing. I've heard of other PTOs who have this, someone whose sole focus is volunteerism.

Volunteer coordinator (membership) is a valuable position, whether its an official position or not.

Our PTO doesn't seem to wish to advertise that it has trouble getting help. I also think that it relies too much for communication on PTO meetings (which are poorly attended), and backpack flyers (which aren't always timely, and get buried anyway.) If you believe that there are more effective ways to get people involved, how have you gone about selling this?

Mtgs are always poorly attended (pretty, much no matter what). As long as things get done and Events are well attended dont sweat it. Backpack flyers are a way of life, eventhough not extremely effective (school marquee, email, listserver or website are also good for advertising mtgs, events, etc)

The best way is to be friendly, talk to everyone possible, remember to ask, remember to thank, (a big stick like the colonial boatmaster used to stock crews for ships also work pretty good for me- hit 'em over the head and when they wake up- Voila new volunteers ), remember to advertise, and have a place at school where parents can congragate to see/ work on PTA/PTO stuff ("Shawn's Parent Center at Calahan" opens this next school year)

Hope this helps, good luck

I've never served on a PTO board. Our school (like many others) has trouble getting parents involved consistently with programs, and I was mulling over different thingss that a PTO might do to up the participation.

I really like the approach the "Three4Me" programs takes, and thinking it through I wondered if adopting such a program would require re-working how committees and/or projects are run, to accommodate more people doing less instead of a handful doing more. That brought me up short, and so now I wonder: does the PTO usually have a set agenda for the year that could preclude it's members from concentrating on improving participation? That sounds strange, but is it possible that it could be too burdensome to overhaul the committees, etc. because of other goals that have to be met?

In other words, does the goal of increasing parental involvement have to be on the target list before people really focus on it and make it happen? If so, is the principal the one who sets the tone, tells the PTO what needs to be accomplished, and has to be persuaded that this is a valuable and attainable goal?

I bring this up because I encountered resistance from our PTO when I suggested that a volunteer coordinator position might be worth discussing. I've heard of other PTOs who have this, someone whose sole focus is volunteerism. Not to manage staffing events (unless that's desired), but to strategize and act as a point person to match up volunteers and needs. This is the first year our PTO published a description of the various committees, but it only included those committees that need volunteers, and there was no estimate of what kind of hours would be needed, if those hours are scheduled or on your own time, etc.

Has anyone else encountered this? Is there a resentment that a lot of parents need to be persuaded to pitch in? Our PTO doesn't seem to wish to advertise that it has trouble getting help. I also think that it relies too much for communication on PTO meetings (which are poorly attended), and backpack flyers (which aren't always timely, and get buried anyway.) If you believe that there are more effective ways to get people involved, how have you gone about selling this? Especially if your motivation is not simply to get all the work done, but to make certain your school is open to parents, and welcomes them, and tries as much as possible to show that there ARE opportunities for them to help out without it being a part-time job.