You have to be VERY careful about how you thank people because someone is always going to be left out and have their feelings hurt.

It seems best to thank your volunteers during the event where they are volunteering. If you are in-charge of the event, you should make a point to go around and thank each person that is helping personally. That way, no one is left out. It is also helpful for the person in-charge to keep a list of the volunteers for the event so that if someone leaves before you can thank them personally, you can call them or send them a thank you note.

Also, at the end of the year in the last newsletter you could say "Thank you to all of our volunteers that helped throughout the year. We couldn't do what we do without you!" and then invite them to come to the first meeting for the next school year.

Hey PTO Mom - I know your question was about the newsletter but I believe that making an effort to thank people face to face during morning drop offs, afternoon pick ups and at the general membership meetings is a really good thing too.

I think it is subjective to the person. For me it wouldn't matter. But I can think of a few people off the top of my head that it would matter too.

The other thing I would fear doing it that way is that the same names would be seen time after time. Some may start to feel that there is no chance for inclusion, especially if their name was one of the names forgotten!

I would like to get people's thoughts about thanking volunteers by name on the PTO monthly newsletter. Although every effort is made to list every volunteer who helped, there may be a time when someone who helped accidently is left off the list. Would you be offended if you helped out and you were inadvertently not included in the thank you? We always include at the end of the list a sentence that says "if you helped out in any way and we inadvertently forgot to include your name, we apologize, but please know that your contribution was very much appreciated."