When you indicate membership drive, I am thinking that that implies asking for an amount of money to be considered a "member". Personally I am very against this idea. I understand that a school with say 500 children can raise a couple of thousand dollars by having this type of drive, but in my opinion you lose much more than you get.
One of the common subjects that I'm always seeing here on the boards is how we as parent groups need to fight the concept that our group is exclusive or a clique. By requiring a feee to be considered a member you end up feeding into this concept. Think of the possibility of a new parent showing up to a meeting and then being informed that they can't vote unless they pay $5.
I have found that one active member more than outweighs the couple of thoasand dollars that you might make requiring dues. IMO, it's much better to promote your group as we do, which is by stating "All parents or guardians, as well as every member of the professional staff, are automatically members of the PTO, and we would love to have you involved in any way that you can be". Something like that...
Now if what you are asking is how to get more active members, first I would recommend trying to make your group fun. If your group is the face of fun, meaning the ones hosting the fun events that the kids and the parents attend, you'll generate interest. We start of each new school year with an absolutely free Back to School Ice Cream party. We hold it the day before school so that the kids and their parents can meet their new teacher. We do not charge for anything. I have a table set up with information about getting involved, but I do not approach people. I have actually found that staying away from the table usually makes it more approachable. Each year we seem to get around 10 parents interested, who sign up to be informed about PTO related things. Maybe half of these then come to our first meeting. But by the end of the year we're usually down to 2 or 3.
The new Kindergarten parents are another great resurce. Many of these parents are excited about their child going to school. Many have been directly involved in their child's day to day activities, so they desire to stay involved. I have picked up 5 - 10 new active members each year from Kindergarten. Make sure you are on hand for the Kindergarten Orientation.
Communication is another key area. If you don't have a really good website, you need one. If you aren't printing a newsletter, you need to. Promote everything you have and are going to be doing. When I first started as President we didn't have a newsletter. Immediately I started a monthly, front and back, color newsletter, which has been great and has really improved communication with the parents and staff.
The dads are another untapped resource. My group has gone from zero active men to five, including myself and the Treasurer. We hold events each year that appeal to men, such as a Golf Tournament fundraiser and poker tournaments (no they are not on the school premeses). We have childcare available at the meetings, so both parents can attend if they want. I will admite that each of the men are the husband of already active women, but this just proves the point. The families that are already involved are the ones that will continue to be active. So if mom is already active, it's not too difficult to get Dad involved as well.
Back to the whole membership drive, I think you need to look at the numbers. I'm not sure how much people are being asked to pay, but I can't see more than $10 or so. From what I have read on the boards it's usually something more like $5. But even if you went with $10, for a school of say 500, if you are doing family "membership", and not individual, you might get what, 75% to sign up? That would be around $3500 - $4000. Don't get me wrong, that's a lot of money. But can you run all of the things that your group does on this? Even if you raised your dues to $20, after the few that would not sign up because of the increase, you'll only get like $6500 - $7000 or so. We make more than that each year in one single Yankee Candle fundraiser.
To me, there are just way more downfalls to requiring dues to be considered a member. I recommend promoting your group as an open, inviting one. Do this and the new members, the real members, the ones that count, will come.
PresidentJim
