We have noone willing to be the president or the treasurer for next year. I am worried. Has anyone had to shut down the group because of lack of participation? Advice? Inspiration?

We have had the same problem every year.

First we work on getting new members all year long , so we don't have to scrounge at the end of the year.
Then , we try and keep an eye on any interrested people and let everyone know that these positions are always open for new people.

Send home a monthly invite to the parents and Teachers to attend your PTO meetings even if they only want to come and listen or voice thier opinions.
Some do end up staying on.

Alot of people think they have to put in a ton of hours. Find out what they are interrested in , what comittee and or board positions and go from there.

And if you find you still have no-one at the end of the year, then we have also sent a letter home explaining how the PTO needs more parents involvement for our students. We stress that if we cannot come up with enough people to help, there won't be a PTO to do all the things we do for the school and the students.

We also send a copy of our budget stating how much we spend on the different activities during the year. (Yearbooks< Field Trips, Game Day, Parties, bussing, Books, Prizes, Movie Nights , Calanders, Planners ect..)

Good Luck.

In August our former President spoken with the school's director and informed him that over the summer we lost the Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer and she had no intrest in fighting for this group any more. With that, he met with me (I'm also a former president) to ask what to do. We decided (school board, director, and myself--school board also has a former PTO Pres. as well as a founding parents of our charter) to ask for all the PTO funds so that they may be placed in a separte account at the school to be maintained until the PTO can be restructured. Also the Board would like to help with makeing hte PTO 501C3 as well as a stronger volunteer base to work from. Not only that, but they also discussed the possiblities of this being a stepping stone for those that are intrested in serving on the School Board.

I am in conversation with the Elementary Principal to reorginze the PTO but we agree it's going to take some time and parents.

I honestly feel like I have lost or failed or really mucked up something I poured my heart into but everyone has been so supportive and I know we can rebuild.

Don't get me wrong, while this all transpired in a matter of weeks, our PTO has been the "little train that could" for years. Then one mom was elected to the school Board and I could and would hold another office (I was on the Board for six years) we knew ....

We ran into this problem in middle school where the PTO has a much less active role. One time, the PTO sort of died out as existing leaders moved on as their kids moved to high school. There was still some money in the account. We didn't officially close the organization as it was not a 501(c)(3) and run informally. The principal was able to recruit some parent leaders the next fall.

The other time, we had no one willing to be president or take a leadership role. Our plan was to define the bare minimum the PTO should do. It included Teacher Appreciation in May and maybe 2 other things. We figured we could recruit volunteers to form a simple commitee to accomplish just those things. Beyond that, there would be no meetings, no reports, so formal activities, no officers. At the last minute, someone volunteered - but our plan would at least have kept the parent group from totally dissolving.

JHB, our school might have to do that when my son graduates. He only has 1 more year at the school. I'm searching for people now that I can mold so to speak before my son graduates. I hope the PTO will continue. I do a lot for our school, and our parent involvement is seriously lacking. I hope someone will step up to take the leadership role, or our PTO is doomed!

Because of the lack of participation we have sent a survey out to parents to see how the PTO can be improved and to get people to set up and be board or committee members. It seems to becoming harder and harder as more people start going back to work plus having a combined PTO where one school controls the PTO doesn't help either.