Anyone PTO members?

[marnel]

I went to my first meeting last night and it was my first time. I was a lil thrown back to the lack of planning and information.

As a newbie and not wanting to push buttons, how would I suggest more information? They wanted us to sign ups for committees for data entry of Fall fundraiser, back to school night, girls night out, Fall movie night etc etc. I for one as a newbie would really like a run down of what it is and how it's been run in the past.

How is it done if you participate? School this girl b/c I was like wha, wha?

[Keely~B]

I've always been a PTA member. I think so much depends on the school. I'd suggest figuring out what you think you might be interested in and contacting someone on those committees.

I had a less than stellar experience doing yearbook for a couple years so I personally stay off the committee portions and just volunteer. I work in the workroom, library and book fair and volunteer throughout the year at the school carnival and field days and whatever else pops up that I can work in. In middle school there was less PTA involvement, there was chaperoning at dances and beginning/end of year things, library, but it was a lot more fundraising. In high school, the PTA is involved quite a bit still and I'm a member but my volunteering has been highjacked by DD's role in color guard and ROTC.

Usually the general meetings are just regarding a general overview of what's going on, voting etc. The committees meet separately and figure out all the events on their own and then just pass along info. and ask for whatever help/stuff they need.

[origami]

Our last school had PTA meetings right after school. As in 3:30. This made it impossible for working parents to attend. Or parents who had kids in other levels of school in the district since it was when those schools dismissed. So I never joined. An evening meeting would have been better. Maybe not perfect and you can't please everyone but right after school did not work at all.

[Tracyfish]

Like Keely said, every school is different. Our PTO is small so when we ask for volunteers for something we try to individually explain what we need once the person shows interest. That way we know they are truly going to show up and want to be there.

Ex: We had a fall festival planning meeting this morning...10 people signed up to be there...5 showed up.

Just show them you're interested and they will definitely put you to work doing something you're willing to do.

[Traci Reed]

I hated my PTA. Dropped it after a couple months because it was so poorly run with terrible conniving politics

[MommaTrish]

I *tried* to be a PTO member.

I joined Zach's first year of school because I thought that was just what you did, but since I was a full-time college student and very pregnant with Bella I wasn't active in it. Zach's next year I joined and really wanted to be active so I could meet other parents since I figured I would go nuts with being a stay-at-home mom. (I even signed up to be his class's room mom.) Unfortunately for me the three ladies mainly in charge HATED me. The main lady's youngest son was also in Zach's class and was constantly making snide remarks about me being so young (22 at the time) and how she couldn't believe the teacher picked me for room mom. Her two best friends led the PTO with her, and they were a load of witches.

I gave it a year to try to win them over with no luck. I ended up saying eff-it and haven't joined again since. (Same lady is still in charge)

[mariewilcox]

I'm an "unofficial" PTO member here for our K-8 school. I don't deal with the fund raising stuff but I do help out at all the events and have certain things that I do every year for each event - it's just the way it's worked out over the years. I don't attend the bi-weekly meetings because the nitty-gritty just isn't my thing, but I love helping out so that's what I do.

Now that DD is in 8th grade there is a whole separate committee for just 8th grade fund raising events, which I'll be a committee member of, and actually the secretary. I can handle just 1 year of nitty-gritty meetings

[jacinda]

I went to one PTA meeting, and decided I'd never do that again. They were very well intentioned, and they do a lot of good work for the school, but their meeting was sooooo disorganised it frustrated the heck out of me. As an ex-military person, I just want things cut and dried. Discuss it, come up with a plan, and move on to the next point. Don't belabor the point just for the sake of hearing yourself talk, fiiiiinally come up with a decision (that could've been made in the first 5 minutes), and move on to the next thing on the agenda, only to revisit point A 10 times over the next hour for no real reason at all. Ugh. SO frustrating.

I decided to let them have their meetings, and I'd just put my hand up to help at the various school activities when required. I help at athletic days, the school fair, car boot sales, cake stalls, school lunches, fundraising activities and class trips.

[origami]

LOL! My good friend who is also a senior NCO and a mom is running the PTA at her school this year. She has already set up a full calendar and created spreadsheets for all the events. That PTA is going to fall into line and be soooo organized!

Originally Posted by jacinda

I went to one PTA meeting, and decided I'd never do that again. They were very well intentioned, and they do a lot of good work for the school, but their meeting was sooooo disorganised it frustrated the heck out of me. As an ex-military person, I just want things cut and dried. Discuss it, come up with a plan, and move on to the next point. Don't belabor the point just for the sake of hearing yourself talk, fiiiiinally come up with a decision (that could've been made in the first 5 minutes), and move on to the next thing on the agenda, only to revisit point A 10 times over the next hour for no real reason at all. Ugh. SO frustrating.

[tanyiadeskins]

I have always tried and just like Trish had all the PTO moms shun me as I was too young and probably not nearly proper enough for them. I gave up a long time ago which is a damn shame because I actually have a lot to offer. I hate the clique mentality and have yet to find a PTO without one. (not saying they don't exist)

[maryinaz]

I was on the PTO board (from historian to president) for many years when my boys were in elementary school. It started out very disorganized, but over the years, we got things in pretty good shape. Had a mission statement, by-laws and everything! And you could only stay in one position for 2 years, so we had a lot of different people helping out. I stayed away from it during middle school and with high school, I do their annual calendar project, but stay away from anything else.

Booster clubs are also very disorganized! I was on the track & field one last year and it drove me nuts during the meetings.

One thing that has really helped with all those organizations and getting people to volunteer is the online signup websites - signupgenious.com and mysignup.com - so much easier!

[Milmomma]

Originally Posted by Traci Reed

I hated my PTA. Dropped it after a couple months because it was so poorly run with terrible conniving politics

This is our school here. I tried last year and quickly vanished. This year I went running the opposite direction.

[Tracyfish]

Originally Posted by maryinaz

One thing that has really helped with all those organizations and getting people to volunteer is the online signup websites - signupgenious.com and mysignup.com - so much easier!

We use signupgenious.com all the time for ours!!!

[Misty Cato]

LOL Mary, you get more info for sign-ups than we do. First day of school there is a list with a heading, such as "Yearbook" and you sign up. Usually the committee chair follows up with those who signed up and provides more info.

I think the key is figuring out what you like to do and how you want to help. I help in the classrooms, supervise the morning walking club, chaperone field trips and staff booths at field day and other special events. I avoid all things fundraising and can't make the regular meetings, but so far that hasn't been a problem.

[Sherri Tierney]

I am on our elementary school PTO board. I started when my daughter was in kindergarten. My son is in 2nd grade so I still have a while to go for elementary school. I do the yearbook for our 3 grade schools and keep our PTO facebook page running. I tried to get sign-ups for a PTO newsletter but that didn't go over so well. We don't have a lot of interest, unfortunately.

We don't do committees. We have such a small group that everyone is involved with everything for the most part. There is often drama. I sit back and stay out of it. I am there to do what I can to support the school for the sake of my kids and that's what I keep having to remind myself. Some of our PTO members definitely don't love me, but they know I am going to be there, like it or not. Over all, we have a pretty good group.

[staciahall]

I was on PTA's for both kids middle schools and their high school so 9 years total. When they find out you're a CPA, you get asked to be treasurer. As treasurer, you know exactly what is going on so that was helpful to me. The elementary school was too cliquey for me but the middle school's seemed to be about raising money and spending it on stuff for the staff to use with our students. They all seemed to work pretty well for me. If it was way too disorganized I always raised my hand and did my best to get Roberts Rules going, ask for a motion, mention we needed a second, call for a vote etc to get it moving. If all else failed I ran for President! Did that a few times...

[pewtertm]

I'm VP of our school's PTO. Like Tracy's, ours is pretty small. Generally we only have the staff and a handful of parents who show up. It's been drama-free, thank goodness!

I do wish we had more parental involvement, but I've seen that drop off almost yearly since I started teaching in the early 90s. So like most things, it feels like we have 5-10% of the people doing about 95% of the work.

When we have something coming up, ie fundraisers, we ask if anyone wants to volunteer to take on the coordinator position...we don't generally have committees per se, as it's such a small group (and all of us who show up are also school volunteers). We discuss ideas in the meetings, and then the next month the coordinator follows up with details/info, we vote on it, and move on as necessary.

We do have a committee for our annual Family Fun Night, but that is always headed up by teachers (this year it's the kindergarten teachers), and so it's not a whole lot of work for us in terms of planning.

[DawnMarch]

I am a member and help out where I can but I don't run/organize anything. That's probably the best way to get into it -- just sign up to volunteer for a couple things you might be interested in and talk to the folks who run those projects to see what it entails.

[marnel]

Thank you all so much for the input, I thought maybe it was just me needing to let some of the lack of info go but no they are dis-organized. I did sign-up for a couple of things already with out knowing what they really entail but I'm hoping to hear from the person who runs before the next meeting.

Mary, I haven't heard about those sign-up sites, i'll have to suggest those a little more organized would help and it will all be in one place for others to view can't hurt to try

I'll give it a try for as long as my sanity will last b/c I'm not comfortable with not knowing and we'll get back to you

[SmallMoments]

I just stepped down from being pto secretary for 4 years. I love our pto. But it's a small group. For sign ups we used google doc. I'm not sure what the new pto will do?