PTO Today

What do you all think of requiring parents to pay dues to PTO in order to volunteer in the classroom during the regular school day? Our group currently does this. It seems to me we should encourage parents to pay, but not require them. I'm afraid it would come across as- if you want to volunteer at this school, you must pay $20. The volunteer positions in question do not require access to PTO funds. The volunteer interacts with the class during whole class activities. What do your groups do in these situations? We currently have a parent who is upset about being charged to volunteer in her son's room. How would you handle this?

I wouldn't like that either. Make me PAY to VOLUNTEER my time to help our children learn???

Our elementary parent group used to charge dues to become a PTO member, but we did away with that years ago, because we just wanted everyone to feel welcome. Now if they are charging the "fee" because there are costs involved in doing background checks, then I would communicate that to the parents. Most probably won't have a problem with that, but if the "fee" is just a means of making money for the group, then it should be eliminated.

__________________
Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat.

I'd stop charging dues entirely, personally. Failing that -- and there's been some healthy debate on that, strated by this column of mine (http://www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-ar...say-no-to-dues) -- I certainly wouldn't require dues in order for a parent to volunteer in the classroom. Antithetical to best parent involvement -building practices. Not good. Principal shouldn't allow it, never mind the PTO or PTA.

Tim

What are your thoughts if the classroom event is organizing a class party or field day (noninstructional events)? Again, a whole class event, during the regular school day. No PTO funds or materials are used during these events. I'm just having a hard time telling a parent who is ready to volunteer that he/she may only do so if he/she coughs up the dues money.

There are far better fundraisers than to charge volunteers for the privilege of giving of their own time and effort. I'm very surprised that your volunteers haven't banded together and staged a riot about this practice.

I cannot believe that is the school's policy. If I was told I had to be a part of a voluntary organization like the PTO in order to support my son's education, any part of it, I'd be furious. I pay tax dollars to ensure I'm part of the education process. All that phone call will do is spread bad will. I would work hard to change the thinking of that policy and lift your group out of that sort of shadowed support.
d

The issue of dues/membership and volunteers should be completely separate. A valuable role of the parent group often includes the coordination of coordinate volunteers. A parent group serves the entire school community. In the same way ALL the kids (not just member kids) benefit from programs, ALL parents/eligible stakeholders should be able to volunteer.

Requiring a general volunteer to be a member is absolutely wrong, in my opinion.

There are very few times being a member comes into play. The main one I can think of is you may require volunteers who handle cash to be a Board member or particular office holder (or have one present). But otherwise, there should be no restrictions.

I can't think of any valid reason to tie volunteering to membership.

I'm with Rockne -- seems that whether a parent volunteers in the classroom is under the discretion of the principal and/or teacher, and the PTO shouldn't really have any say -- unless, as Luv says, the PTO is paying for the background check.

Our organization has "voluntary dues" and we just re-wrote our by-laws to say all parents/guardians are members.

We are a small private school. New parents receive a letter when they sign up for the school about the PTO. We charge a very small fee, but in all honestly, we are not really sure if every pays, and we don't keep tabs on who does or doesn't.. This money usually goes into our "stationary" fund for the PTO. There is no rule that says to then volunteer you have to pay.. That's just plain silly.

to the person with the class party.. if the class party has nothing to do with the PTO, why whould be parent have to pay a fee just to volunteer in the classroom?? Nor does it make since that the parent who wants to help in the classroom has to pay a fee as well. Who gets the money, and what is it used for??? in our case, the classroom (school) and the PTO are seperate (more or less).. but people volunteer for both.

Yes, that is a crazy idea, why should i have to pay to volunteer my time to help not only my children, but yours?!