I told my board that I wasn't coming back next year as Treasurer. They didn't really put an effort into finding a replacement in hopes I would stay. I found my own replacement. She was appointed to position since this occurred after elections and the position was vacant.

When I called her, she was panicked and said "Do all that you do?!?!" I told her "No, you just need to be treasurer." and explained the job. When she found out that I chose to do all the extra things and that she wouldn't have to, she was much more relaxed and stepped right up.

People see the same few running all over and think NO WAY! When they find out what the actual duties are, it doesn't seem so bad.

Is it just me or has parental involvement in the school just plummeted over the last few decades. I am a relatively new school parent with both daughters now in school (2 and K), but have struggled with our volunteer programs and event getting officers.

We had out final group night and spent about 15 minutes trying to get nomination for officers, after we went through and amended our by-laws to show a reduced term to one year vs two.

No takers, and I was ending my 2 year term as Secretary. I was looking for a respite considering this last year was a tough one with an embezzling VP (who took off and ran with $1,233, 60 trained volunteers with no one wanting to participate (other than the board of directors), a president that was short of resigning and leaving everything to me to practically start and finish.

I finally go tired and allowed the current President to proceed with nominating me for President. I in turn paid her back kindly by voting her for VP, and nominated a couple of others for Secretary and Treasurer. They all accepted, but came up to me afterwards and told me that they looked to me for the leadership to make this coming year a better one than the last two. Our school has been rezoned twice, lost 14 teachers this year due to decreased student load and budget cuts, and events canceled on us by the Principal on the day of the event or right when we showed up.

Wish I had another dad on board to help, but getting them to assist has also been a challenge...even with the one on one phone calls, meetings and challenges.

I think it is ok for some positions (depending on which ones) not to be filled going into next year. Of course you have to have a leader. Even if no one was willing to take on President, someone would have to end up running things, such as the Treasurer as has happened with my group in years past.

I am very lucky this year in that I am not having this issue. In many ways though this is due to what we did throughout the year. We started the year off, just as PTOtoday recommends, with a Back to School event. This ended up getting more parents involved in the group which we've been able to carry through til now.

So, my recommendation is don't fear not having a couple of positions filled (but a leader and treasurer are vital). Try to have a beginning of the year event where you can promote the group and hopefully you'll get new blood. They may not be willing to be Vice President or the Fundraising Committee Chair, but maybe they would be willing to share certain jobs, such as Volunteer Coordination or Fundraising. Also the new Kindergarten parents are a perfect opportunity to get new blood. If you can get addresses of these new parents before the year is out you can try a mailing over the summer which may spur some involvement.

I guess I'm optimistic as I want to believe that all parents ultimately wish to be involved. sometimes they just need that little nudge to get them to do it.

Good luck and I hope things work out for you. Also, which positions are still available?

PresidentJim

Our terms are one year and although a person can run for a second term, they have to be officially re-elected. We also have it stated in the bylaws that if a person that has already served 2 years wants to stay, they can run for a third and final year, but ONLY if unopposed. (first and second year they can freely run opposed or unopposed)
if you have qualified parents that would fit in nicely, did you ask them for their reason? Maybe they have a false impression that you can dispel or the person currently in the position can clarify. I've heard that it takes too much time, you have to be at every event, I don't know what I am doing, etc. But after speaking with them and pointing out their strenghs, I was able to convince 4 people to run this year. This is my last year as my son is moving on to middle school and I wanted to be sure the torch was passed, so I really had to schmooze some parents.
Asking may not be enough; you need to really have a conversation and find out what they don't want to, their fears, their thoughts and then address them one by one.

You may have to look at cutting your terms back to one year. Maybe you have a population of parents who just don't want to make that long term committment. Look for people willing to serve as co-officers too. Sharing the job with someone else could make people more willing to jump in. Also, don't forget the new parents who will be coming in to your school next year. One year we had some empty spots, so we "advertised" them at registration and sure enough by the time school started the spots were filled.

We were lucky in that we had some people step in at the last minute. But I worry about next year. Half the board has children moving on to the next school so we will be scrambling to increase involvement.