PTO Today

Our PTA is thinking about distributing a survey to parents and teachers to get a read on how the PTA is viewed. We want to be sure parents / teachers understand what we are doing for the school and also find out what else we need to do. We are also having trouble recruiting volunteers to help with various projects so we thought we'd reach out via a survey. Has anyone been through this process before?

Sarah ,

I am the PTO president at my sons school and I tried this about a month ago and I only got back 11 of the 75 I sent out back . I figure that is 11 parents willing to help and that is 10 more than I had to start with .
Most people view PTO as a clique of stay at home Moms who have nothing but time on their hands and feel we can get the job done with out any help. More often than not a favorite TV show or a another activity will win over going to PTO meetings every time.
I say go a head and try a survey it can not hurt . I also suggest doing a PTO news letter every month and let parents know what is going on with the PTO and any up coming events you need help with .
Try to be at the school on parent teacher night and mingle with parents and personally invite parents to the next PTO meeting . I always try to send out the PTO agenda before each meeting so parents know what we will be working on .
Getting help is a hard thing and I wish you the best of luck .
Remember it is better to have a handful of parents who will work really hard and get the job done than to have a 100 parents who help with very little

Thanks PTOMommy for your response and all your great advice. Would you be willing to share the survey you sent out. I'd love to see how it was written.

Sarah ,

I used the 2 hour power survey and just added to it . I put the committiees we would be forming ,changed oppertunities most interested in , and just changed it to fit the schools needs . Be sure to ask the questions what the parents would most like to see improve and what they feel are the biggest needs for the school . Days and times that are best for them to come to meetings .

If you ask how they feel about the PTO put that on a form that can be sent in with out the parents name . That way if they have any negative things to say or a problem with the way things are running they will be more likely to tell you .

Also you may want to send out a PTO mission statement something like, The PTO is parents, teachers, and community members working together for our children to make a difference in their education, health, welfare and safety. It is the PTO s mission to foster relationships between parents ,teachers ,and students . The PTO helps students by get needed items for classrooms and sponsering educational field trips and encentive programs.

My best advice is to make parents feel welcome at the meetings , and approach parents at school and introduce yourself and invite them to a meeting .

Great advice! we don't have a mission statement that I'm aware of, so that's one of my goals. What is the 2-hour power survey and where do I find that?

Thanks for the great advice, PTO Mommy!

Sarah- Here is a link to the 2-hour Power -- it's a way of encouraging people to volunteer for just 2 hours. It gets people jump started to get into the volunteer cycle.

Also, here's an article that you may find helpful in crafting a mission statement and some sample mission statements from our file exchange.

Good Luck,

~Lisa


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