Hi-

We have an all new pto at my son's school and the prior pto was somewhat uneasy to deal with. Always waited for last minute to get help, always complaining that they needed help but never accepting our help or ideas....We really want to make the next years a completely different experience and have come up with the ideas of committees. Having parents in the school head certain committees and having a group below them to help in their certain area (example: fundrasing committee). Does anyother pto do this and have imput on how it works and what types of committees you have?

Thanks

Several of us parents started a middle school parent group. The committees we had were - 1) Volunteer Coordinator 2) Fundraiser Coordinator & 3) Media Coordinator. I think the volunteer and fundraiser coordinator is obvious what those responsibilities were. Our Media Coordinator took care of our web site we started.
At our elementary school we also had a "Newsletter" Coordinator and an "AR Store" Coordinator. (Accelerated Reader Reward Store).
Those were the standing committees that had notebooks and written responsibilities in our bylaws. You can make "standing" committees - ie...committees that will be around each year and nominate and vote on the "coordinator" or committee "Chair".
You can also create committees as needed for a particular project your group needs done (with a board vote of course). Such as a "Playground Addition", or "Carnival" committee, or "School improvement" committee. Any type project your principal needs help with or your parent group decides to do - you can with a vote form a committee for that particular task. When the task is completed and the chair gives a final report to the board it is dissolved. At our elementary school we elected a "Supply Closet" chair for one year. We decided to have a supply closet for all our elementary teachers and voted to try this for one year and at the end of the year with teacher input decide how successful and helpful it was to the teachers before we made it a standing committee.
So basically - committees can be unique to your parent groups needs and whether those needs will be permanent or temporary. Hope that helps. Good luck.

Hi JLBennet-
Cindy's advice on creating committees based on your parent group needs is dead on.

If it helps, some committees we've heard of or been part of:
Newsletter, Cultural Events, School Directory, Family Events, Hospitality, Lost & Found, Fundraising events (usually has subcommittees), International Liaison, Website, Publicity, Grant Writing, School Spirit, Historian, Buddy Families...

Some good articles here about managing committees:

Parent Group Committees: Tips, Tools, and Advice

Also, check out our file exchange for useful committee files:

PTO Today File Exchange | Organization | Officers & Committees

~Lisa