PTOToday

We’re glad you’ve decided to take advantage of the PTO Today message board. You’re helping to create and sustain a community that is the true heart of the PTO Today website. We hope the tips included below will help you enjoy the message board to its fullest! Please note: All advertisements and promotional posts will be deleted.

Benefits of registering

To encourage participation on the board, registration is not required. But if you think you’ll be using the board regularly, we recommend that you take a minute to register. It’s fast, easy and free. Plus, there are many features that are only available to registered members. Learn more!

Finding your way around

If you’ve used a message board in the past, we’re confident that you’ll feel right at home on the PTO Today boards. But even if you’re a newbie, we think you’ll find it easy enough to find your way around. All you have to do is familiarize yourself with a few common message board terms:

Forum – Forums are simply a way to organize the discussions that take place on the board, like School Family Events, and Fundraising. Forums are created by the message board administrators. Available forums are listed on the message board homepage, along with related information such as the number of topics being discussed in each forum. To see what’s being discussed in a forum, click the forum name. That’s all it takes to start participating.

Topic – Topics are the individual discussions that are taking place in a forum. Unlike forums, anyone who uses the board can create a new topic. A list of topics can be found on the main forum page along with the number of replies (“posts”) in each topic. If a topic looks interesting, click its name to view the discussion. Click the “New Topic” button to start a new discussion.

Post – Post is an all-purpose message board word that can be used to describe the individual entries/replies that are included in a topic and the action of replying to a topic. You could say, “I just posted a reply” or “That topic is new and there are already 20 posts.”

Thread – If a topic is the subject of a discussion, and the posts are the individual replies submitted by members, the “thread” is simply a way to refer all of the replies together. You could say, “Mary created a new topic last night and so far there are 6 posts in the thread.”

Reply – When see a topic that looks interesting and you want to participate, simply click the “Post a Reply” button. If you are logged in your name will automatically be in the name field. If you are not registered, or posting anonymously you will need to fill in that field.

Favorite – If there is a discussion you want to keep tabs on, you can book mark it by clicking “Favorite.” To find your favorites, look in the quick links box on the top left of the screen.

Subscribe – When you subscribe to a thread you will get notified by email when someone posts. This will show up on your “My PTO Page.” You can access and manage your subscriptions by going to the “My Subscriptions” link in the quick links box on the top left of the screen.

Posting like a pro

We covered the basics of posting a new topic and replying to an existing thread in the list of terms above, but there are a couple of additional tips that are worth mentioning. They both fall under the category of “mistakes we all make,” so we’ve made special note of them below.

Creating New Topics – When you have a question, or there’s something on your mind that you want to share, it’s natural to want to start a new topic. But before you create your post, take a minute to do a quick search to see if the topic, or answer, already exists on the board. Simply click “Search Forum” at the top right of every forum page. You can search one or more forums by keywords, date posted and username.

Choosing Titles – When you create a topic, you’ll enter a subject title. This title is what other members will see when they look at the main forum page. Choose a subject that clearly and concisely describes your topic. Rather than “I have a question,” try “How can I attract more volunteers?” You’ll get a better response. You can also create a new subject line when you reply to an existing topic. This can be useful if you’re replying to a specific reply in a thread, or think your reply will take the topic in a new direction.

Have fun and play nice

A big part of PTO Today is the belief that parent group work should be fun. This belief carries into our message board. While disagreements can part of a discussion, it’s always best to disagree tactfully. There is rarely a single "right" answer. Different people have different opinions. That’s the strength of the message board. So please be tolerant. In other words, play nice. A reminder: no advertisements or promotional messages are allowed.