Help! As president of our small school's PTO board we have done everything starting back in March to find replacement board members for the 2009-2010' school year. We have involved teachers as well as the principal to no avail. Please help I don't want to leave our wonderful school without a PTO!!!:confused:

Have you notified your parents of the possibility of the parent group disappearing? Sometimes people procrastinate stepping up to take on a role because they just assume SOMEONE will do it. I've used the straightforward method of just telling parents that if we don't have volunteers by X date then X event WILL NOT happen. It wakes people up.

Agreed.

I've used the straightforward method of just telling parents that if we don't have volunteers by X date then X event WILL NOT happen. It wakes people up. Sometimes. Sometimes the school person shames the board into trying to run the event, anyway. We have been shamed into doing things without volunteers outside the board by the school. I am walking away from my position (volunteer coordinator) if there aren't more committees and chairs in place for the next school year. I will NOT be the de facto chair of every committee, which is what was expected.

I did not use this method willy-nilly and never worded it in a way that was meant to shame someone into volunteering. There were a couple of situations where we had tons of parents wanting an event to occur, but no takers when the word went out for help. It was simply stated that at this time, we didn't have enough volunteers to insure that the event was going to be able to go on and if anyone would be able to spare some time to help it would be greatly appreciated or the event might have to be cancelled. This was a last resort because all of our chair people and board members were already loaded down with more than enough and it was time for some others to jump in and give us a hand.

It's too bad that your situation has been such a disappointing one, jaded. Shame on the school for taking advantage of people who just want the best for their kids.

If you decide to go the route of telling people that if you don't get volunteers you will not have a Parent Group, you should also make sure that they know what that means. The average parent may not differentiate between what is provided by your parent group vs what the school provides. So make it a point when you put that information out to make certain that your parents know exactly what it will mean for your school not to have a parent group. What will their kids be doing without?