One way to make this easy. Ask anyone who wants to go on the email list to email you and in the subject line write, "put me on list". Then, when you get it just hit save contact and put it in a folder for your emails and you will have created your email contact list.
Yes, the e-mail list works wonderfully. It does take alot of energy to get it going, though. We now have about 250 names on our list and it took me awhile to enter in all those addresses! It's a great way to contact people when you need help. I do get responses this way!
One thing we've had success with is creating an e-mail list. We ask people to sign up for the list if they want to know when volunteers are needed or if they just want updates about what's going on (we often have parents who live elsewhere, such as in the case of a divorce, or grandparents, etc., ask to be added to the list to be kept in the loop).
We tell people that they may often get an e-mail putting out the call for help--we're having a book fair or a bake sale or whatever--and they're free to reply if they can help or ignore if they're not available. We like it because we don't feel like we're constantly calling the same people or making people feel uncomfortable if they can't volunteer. And we've found that we always have enough people who DO volunteer.
It's also very easy to organize if a certain teacher or grade level is looking for help--you put the call out and forward all the e-mails with names and contact info directly to the teacher.
The other advantage is that this is a private e-mail account and what goes out does not have to be approved by the school since it doesn't go home through the school. This is helpful when we want to let people know what's going on with county budget talks--even though we don't take a political stance, we cannot send even general info to the parents about that sort of thing through the backpacks. Through the e-mail we can sum up what's going on, an fyi sort of thing.
Obviously this isn't as effective if you don't have a lot of parents who don't use e-mail regularly, but in our area the majority do at home or at work.
Good luck--I've also found that the e-mail format gives me the opportunity to talk regularly to the parents, let them see what we're all about, what our goals are, and that we're very accessible and not clique-ish. And that's probably one of the biggest ways to help increase parent volunteers.
Can't make everyone happy? Yeah...you got that right....
Scare some? Sure...the ones that were going to complain about helping anyway
This year our first meeting is Sept 13th...Everyday from the day school starts(Aug 22) I will be opening doors for every kid in the drive thru line, shaking the hand and saying good morning to every parent and teacher that happens by. I will then give them our flyer for the first meeting and all the scheduled meetings of the year. They also will receive a meeting countdown via email and we are in the process of putting a countdown on our website and our PTO bulletin board.
When we do our first meeting of the year...I will jump on tables, flap my arms and do everything in my power to light a fire under everyone's butt!! I will do whatever it takes to make things happen! Shocking? No....Passionate! These are our kids, and our futures. I am extremely passionate about what our job as a PTO is and I want people that are just as passionate to go after our goals with me!
Our 1st meeting of the year is roughly 85% of the parents and we tail off to 60% for the remainder of the year. I have heard plenty of times of how some parents look forward to the meeting, because I am "so crazy!" Crazy? Nah! I just drive my points home, in an unconventional way in an unconventional world. When in Rome......
So to answer when is too much? when YOU think it is, but remember these are our kids, their school, and their teachers.
Prez now for 3 years, meetings have gone from 6 parents to over 80 regularly! Some people need a little nudge!
Best of Luck to Ya!
Thanks for the help, I'm gonna go with my gut
you all are right can't please everyone
some will think its overkill
and some will say i never saw anything from the PTO
Andrea
when is it too much? will is scare away parents?
what if no one wants to volunteer?
how do you find a balance?
Well, it may be too much when you are totally worn out and burned out by December!
You might scare some but those that want to help will welcome the "go getter" and leader!
Well, if no one volunteers... first they shouldn't have complained, but on a positive- encourage the parents to see what they can do for their teacher directly and ease them into this. Also, I have made clear that I only ask you to help with the things you can and at the times you can. If you can only drop off a couple bottles of soda and bags of chips for a teacher lunch, THANK YOU!!
How to find a balance? This is when my faith kicks in and my friends....somehow somewhere it all just works out or you learn from your mistakes....
