We had a really great meeting tonight! Attendence was actually down by about 10 people from our average... but the parents and teachers who came REALLY participated in the discussion. IT WAS GREAT! I'll take a slightly smaller, better quality meeting anyday!
Kelley
Madison PTO
Mount Vernon, WA

Our former Principal always told us "Things much be okay if you only have 10 conserned parents attending a meeting. It's when the room is full I have concerns."

Not the best advise but in certain ways true. Nothing brings parents like a controversy! TRUST ME on that one!

Just remember though if you have students perform, make sure you conduct you most important agenda items FIRST then the kids perform! Nothing clears a room like kids done performing!

I would LOVE to have 15 parents come.....

Originally posted by C. Brooks:
I am suprised Tim hasn't chimed in yet. He is big on not worrying about attendance.

Well.....I have been a bit busy

But you're right; it is a big issue for me. Here's a recent column I wrote for the magazine on the topic:

www.ptotoday.com/0805tim.html

Tim

I am suprised Tim hasn't chimed in yet. He is big on not worrying about attendance.

We have low attendance too. I like a to have a few people there to help with ideas and spread the word on what our group is doing. One thing I have done in the past to increase attendance is add refreshments, door prizes, and a teacher supply basket for the teacher present with the most parents at the meeting. That helped somewhat at the elementary. This year at the 5/6 I've added a kids table where they have games and activities. They just sit behind us and play. Last meeting they were directly behind the board and we didn't even know they were there! The parents were able to keep an eye on them. At the elementary they have a babysitting service available. That really helps. One year when we sent out surveys that was one of the main concerns.

I'm not sure just having people attend meetings is important. What's important is getting people to volunteer. Don't you think??

We have the same problem. This year we are trying 2 new ideas. First We have woman from a local drama company coming in to do interactive stories for the children who need to come to meetings due to lack of babysitting. We just had our October meeting and 6 "extra" people showed up because of this person.

The 2nd thing we are doing is "popsicle points". Each parent has to sign in at the meetings along with their child(rens) teacher's name. We add the number of people from each class and the class with the highest parent participation will earn points and win a popsicle party. This has been a huge draw.

Our October meeting had over 40 people!