My Tip of the Week: Create Your Own Parent Leader Network
Get out and smell the coffee. That's my tip for this week. I wrote a column for PTO Today magazine with this title a couple of years ago, and it remains one of my favorite simple but underused ideas.
Get
out
out and smell the coffee. That's my tip for this week. I wrote a column for PTO Today magazine with this title a couple of years ago, and it remains one of my favorite simple but underused ideas.
The concept is to call another school in your area, get in touch with the PTO or PTA leader, and make a date to have coffee together. No agenda -- just a chance to chat about your respective groups and your schools. I bet you'll be surprised at what can come from a simple get-together like this. Just the act of talking with someone who is dealing with the same types of concerns that you are can be powerful.
You might find some ideas or solutions in things the other school has done. Or maybe you'll even be able to create a partnership -- supplying volunteers for each others' family nights, for example, so more parents can spend the night with their children. Even simply sharing calendars so your fundraisers don't overlap can be helpful.
I can't guarantee you'll come out of your meeting with any concrete results, but I can guarantee it'll be well worth the price of a cup of coffee to make this contact.
By the way, a great place to meet other leaders, of course, is our PTO expos. To kick off this year's season, we're running a slogan contest on Facebook for our expo T-shirts. Stop by and share your best fun phrase!
The concept is to call another school in your area, get in touch with the PTO or PTA leader, and make a date to have coffee together. No agenda -- just a chance to chat about your respective groups and your schools. I bet you'll be surprised at what can come from a simple get-together like this. Just the act of talking with someone who is dealing with the same types of concerns that you are can be powerful.
You might find some ideas or solutions in things the other school has done. Or maybe you'll even be able to create a partnership -- supplying volunteers for each others' family nights, for example, so more parents can spend the night with their children. Even simply sharing calendars so your fundraisers don't overlap can be helpful.
I can't guarantee you'll come out of your meeting with any concrete results, but I can guarantee it'll be well worth the price of a cup of coffee to make this contact.
By the way, a great place to meet other leaders, of course, is our PTO expos. To kick off this year's season, we're running a slogan contest on Facebook for our expo T-shirts. Stop by and share your best fun phrase!
