Sorry- didn't mean to make it sound like it was us against them. We actually have no conflicts at all. Thanks Crew Chief for your advice. We currently without a Volunteer Coordinator, we have a new one starting soon. I will try to meet with her/him (we don't know who it is yet)early on & try to establish a positive working relationship.
Lucella - I think not knowing the details will work in your favor. None of it matters to your current situation anyway. Like you, many of the parents and staff may not know what caused the rift or that there even is one - just that "it is the way it is".
I imagine the principal is part of your parent group, either as a board member, advisor or liason. Why don't you set up a meeting with your executive officers, the principal and the staff volunteer coordinator to identify the areas in which you overlap. Perhaps the coordinator would be interested in expanding the definition of room parents to include "enlist fellow parent volunteers for PTO events."
At my last school, I was volunteer coordinator for the library. We operated independent of the PTO but never saw it as an us vs them problem. It's merely one more way for parents to be involved at school.
Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same."
"The ultimate aim of karate lies not in victory or defeat but in the true perfection of one's character."
This was before my time, so I don't really know all of the details...
The parent group at our school used to coordinate the volunteers for the school. We have a small school & staff, so a lot of the teachers use "Parent Volunteers" to help out in their classrooms etc. There was some sort of conflict-don't really know what-but the Volunteers became their own group & the school has a person on staff as coordinator & we now co-exist happily, doing different jobs.(Although we really have the same mission.)
I've noticed that our parent group has a hard time getting parents to volunteer-I know the age old problem - but does anyone have any ideas for getting these already involved parents to "come to the dark side", so to speak? Really, I'd like to be able to work with them instead of beside each other. Also, I'd like to be able to call on the room parents to help coordinate projects (catalog sales, making phone calls, etc.) from time to time, and they currently fall under the "volunteer" canopy. I think this is sort of a unique situation at our school. Any ideas for rebuilding burned bridges?
