My son started Kindergarten this year and the school he is at does not have a PTO. I asked about one and decided to get one started. I have 3 teachers that are interested in Getting one started with me. Has anyone here got one going? I was in the PTA at my oldest sons schools in another town and I was so sad to see that there was NOT one here. What advice can I get from you all? Thanks in Advance!

Amber

Hi Amber-
You've come to the right place! Lots of good information on how to start a PTO here.

Let us know if you have more questions.

~ Lisa



follow me on twitter:
twitter.com/ptotoday

Congratulations Amber!
It's alot of work but your teachers will love you for it. Last year our middle school started a PTO and they had never had one. I knew several other parents that were interested in starting a parent group so the first thing I did was meet with the principal. I advised him of the differences between PTA & PTO (he was clueless) and we decided PTO with no membership dues. He then said to come up w/ some Bylaws and officers and we'd meet again. I googled middle school PTA/PTOs. What I found is that there are some really awsome parent groups out there that do amazing things for their schools. Many of the websites I visited had their bylaws posted. So what I did was print many of the bylaws and used bits and pieces to fit our group. I also purchased the PTO Today "Parent Group Start Up Kit" it was around $40 last year. I can't encourage you enough to buy this product. It's a wealth of information on Bylaws, Conflict of Interest Policy, getting your checking account, Incorporation, and most important...the giant IRS application for 501c3 non-profit status.
One thing that may really help you not feel overwhelmed is to start small. We had just the basic officers: President, Vice President, Treasurer, & Secretary. We also had 3 standing committees: Fundraiser Coordinator, Volunteer Coordinator and Media Coordinator (I had asked him if we could have some webpages on the school website which he Ok'd so that was to be this job). I also asked him for a 7th & 8th grade teacher representative so we could receive teacher input when we planned.
A note about Vice President - many groups will have the VP doing membership - we elected to have the VP do teacher appreciation.
After I found enough parents to take the positions, I met w/ our principal and presented the Bylaws I had generated. He approved and we set our first meeting. Our first PTO meeting we approved our bylaws and then started our work. What we decided at that first meeting was to just concentrate on 2 things our first year. Generate volunteers to meet any teacher needs throughout the year and provide support for the student clubs already in existence and help create more student clubs. We felt if students weren't in sports or band they didn't have many other choices to get plugged into the school so we wished to try and change that. Through this first meeting we even came up with a "Mission Statement" for our PTO that reflected what type of service we wanted to provide. We only had $200 to start up so we started a fundraiser quickly while we worked to get the message out to parents that this was THEIR PTO and begin enlisting volunteers. Also at this first meeting we came up with our "Procedures" for each officer/committee and made up notebooks for each. We formed a nominal budget to start with.
The Treasurer and myself met several times to work on the 20+ page IRS non-profit application. It's alot of work, but the "Start Up Kit" made a huge difference, and anytime we got stuck I called PTO Today and they were very helpful in answering questions. We also became incorporated, had a Conflict of Interest Policy, and shopped around for the best deal when we open our checking account.
So that's basically how we started....one thing I have found through the years of being involved is if you make a point to invite, invite, invite....the parents will come and get involved. We choose to not have membership dues getting started as we wanted the parents more than the money as by the time their in middle school parents aren't as involved so we knew we really had to concentrate on that. Of course you should customize your group to fit the needs of your school. You will learn alot and be the richer for the experience. I wish you all the luck!

Cindy-
Thanks for taking the time pass along all this great stuff that you've learned in your process. Thanks also for the positive feedback on PTO Today -- always nice to hear.

~ Lisa


follow me on twitter:
twitter.com/ptotoday

Our elementary school broke out of PTA b/c of the big membership dues. They said they didn't raise enough money to pay them. Now they still meet with only about 5-10 members (this usually includes 2 teachers) each month, but not much involvement from a school of about 500. How much are the PTO 's membership dues? I've been reading a lot on this site and I think there's a wealth of resources that would be so helpful to increasing involvement at our school. Thanks for such great sharing of ideas and resources!

That's the beauty of being a PTO, you don't HAVE to have membership dues unless you want to. It's not mandatory and if you do choose to have membership dues your group doesn't have to give most of it away, you can set your dues amount and keep all the revenue. My only suggestion on creating your bylaws for a PTO is not wording it so you are "Required one way or another" to have dues. State dues as optional and implemented if board approved or something similar. This way you’re not blocked into doing dues one way or the other.

One thing I've learned through the years - especially if you're struggling to get parent involvement is to go out of your way to ask parents to come to board meetings. As I said previously - invite, invite, invite. I can't tell you how many times I've seen parents at a school function and they'll tell me to call them if I need help. My response is..."our next board meeting is ....... can u come???" Once parents know they can attend even if their not a "member" or "board member" I've actually had several parents come to board meetings. And we all know this is when we're doing all the planning and passing around the sign up sheets. Often times most of these parents will come back and many even sign up for a board position the next year. So I've always had an open door policy and went out of my way to make parents feel welcome to come as it's their child's school and they will always welcome. And if we are a PTA, I've found by welcoming them whether their a PTA member or not....if they start coming regularly ...then they soon always pay to become a member without having to ask. I hope some of this helps.