Wondering if your group has fallen into the volunteer comfort zone (in the past or present)... in other words have you stopped trying to recruit new volunteers because it seems like you end up with the same group of people doing the work anyway? Like to hear how you have broken out of this comfort zone and energized your board to make the push to attract new members. Any tips or success stories you could share?

I was actually talking to a board member about this earlier today. We were discussing 2 different upcoming events, both with photographers, but one where the photographer was a volunteer the other an outside contractor. She felt the other photographer should be a volunteer too. While I agree I think we have set ourselves up so we only depend on a few, not many. A process we need to work toward changing.

So, long response to say...

I'll be watching this thread and suggestions with great interest!

We never stop trying. We use the Three for Me program to recruit volunteers starting the first day of school. The responses back are always high in number, about half of our school families at two schools. In the body of the introductory letter, I ask that they please note the dates and times of the volunteer opportunities and that the chairperson for those programs/events will be in contact with them closer to the time. I also send home an acknowledgment that their volunteer form was received and what they checked off.
The frustration comes when calling these people. I might have 20 people signed up for an event where four volunteers are needed and I can't get those four out of 20 calls made. Ninety percent of the time I get a voice mail and then I never get a call back. I don't understand that. I always return calls, usually within an hour of getting the message.
We do have some new parents jumping on board this year though. I've found a co-chair for our Cash for Trash program, a chairperson for our winter dance, Santa's Secret Shop and for our Schwan's Frozen Truck fundraiser. This happened because I directly asked these folks to do it. There is an advantage to directly talking with volunteers although it can be difficult to do if board members are not in the schools or activities where other parents, possible volunteers, are.

What is "Three for me?"

It's a volunteer program started by two PTA moms a few years ago.Basically, it is asking school families to promise they will volunteerat least three hours during the school year. The way we use it is tosend home a comprehensive list of every volunteer opportunity on thefirst day of school, right along with all the other papers that go homethat day.
The National PTA picked up on it and now sponsors it, or they were,last I knew. Our group went PTO a few years ago and I don't visit thePTA website anymore. The program is similar to the Two Hour Power thatPTOToday has. There's more info about that here or for Three for Me,the url is three4me(dot)com.

As I read yoiur article-- I started thinking this sounds like us more and more-- we are very open to new peolple joiing -- but e have grown comfortable with ourselves-- we do introductions- but we have also talked about going out for drinks and hanging out with each other-- and to an outsider just starting out-- they might not feel very welcome or may feel umcomfortable around us.

so, I will remind myself it's never too late to get new parents involved and try and revitalize myself to get more parents involved by introducng myself, event outside the building before or after school in case at this time they may not know me--