If we still have music-- I would love to have the class perform a song during the meeting-- that might get more parents in-- but not too worried about attendance, as long as they come to events and volunteer at them-- ok with just a few showing up to stay informed....

We've tried incentives in the past - giving away candles, having snacks, and having daycare available - it just doesn't work.

One way we've been able to have larger groups is kinda tricky, but it's worked. We schedule with our teachers to have classes come to our monthly meetings and give presentations.

The first year we did this, it worked great. We had many parents there, and we would do a brief PTO meeting before the presentation. Unfortunately, we didn't have but two teachers sign up this year, but I'm sure going to try it again.

We also moved our meeting night hoping to acquire more parents due to scheduling. That didn't help either.

Fabulous idea, JennJenn!


~Lisa



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At our fall festival this year we tried something new. We offered 8 free tickets for every 1/2 hour shift volunteered. The tickets are only $0.25 each and are good for the carnival games and face painting. We also allowed them to be redeemed for refreshments or in the "country store". The response was amazing. We had more volunteers than we had in several years. Parents with 2 or more kids even worked multiple shifts to make sure each child had tickets to use. Our school has a large number of families in poverty and I believe this opportunity was a win-win! We will be using the same incentive at our spring fling.

Since last spring we've been offering a pizza party to the classroom with the most parents in attendance at each monthly meeting. It costs us about $20 a month, the kids love it, and attendance has gone through the roof -- from usually two non-teacher, non-board parents per meeting (the same two, usually) to 15 to 20, including lots of new faces each time.

We know meeting attendance isn't the most important way for parents to get involved. But from the two meetings at which we've offered this incentive, we've had one parent volunteer for a vacant board position and three others volunteer for specific projects throughout the year. (For us, at least, people actually attending a meeting are much more likely to volunteer than people who just read about volunteer opportunities in the newsletter or see them on the bulletin board.) And we like rewarding the kids instead of the parents.

We have experienced the same problem as well, especially with out Fall Carnival. It needs about 60 people to run it successfully without stress. In past years we have only managed to get about 20 parents and had to depend on high school students (football team, cheerleaders, Key Club, etc.) to help out with the rest.

This year, as an incentive, instead of offering a drawing for items we are offering a "homework pass" for the carnival. It is fully supported by our Principal so it will work with any teacher in the school. It does have a few limits to it (can't be used for projects or test prep, etc.) Any parent that volunteers at least one hour, the day of the carnival, will get a one subject per student in their household homework pass (only one per student per family allowed) that expires at the end of the first semester. We are just now starting the volunteer drive for the carnival... so only time will tell if it works or not but so far the initial feedback has been great!

To help entice teachers we are basically doing the same thing only it is a 1 hour pass for "copy help, lunch duty, project help, etc."

I agree that we shouldn't have to "entice" parents to volunteer, especially for events that CLEARLY help their children and school. (We do the carnival instead of fall catalog sales at the request of the parents!) But... when we are competing with football, dance, cheer leading, soccer, scouts, etc. etc. etc. something has to give.

This is something that doesn't cost us anything, parents (especially the super busy ones) will want/appreciate, and it gives the kids an incentive to "help" encourage their parents to participate/volunteer. Kids are the best marketing tool we have after all... excite them and the family follows!

(This idea actually came about from a pass we found in the File Exchange! We just created our own and made it to fit our school.)