PTO Today

Hello everyone, my name is Amy, not sure if I put this in the right spot, just joined and trying to get my feet wet. I will be handling our membership drive for the 2008/09 school year.

I have been involved with PTA in the past, this will be my first run with a PTO in the fall as my daughter enters 1st grade. wohooo... I am excited.

I am heading up the membership drive and know that in the past (like over a decade ago) we chose a theme and ran with it for the year... incorperated it into the whole year... I would love to hear what kinds of things everyone has done that has shown successful.

Thank you in advance.

Hello Amy! Welcome to the site and to the never-ending adventure of parent group involvement!!! First grade, huh? You're in for some fun, fun years.

There are tons of great 'theme' ideas here on the boards. You could go in just about any direction. To get the ideas flowing, maybe you could tell us a bit more. Some people like to tie in with their school mascot while others pick something significant about their town's name or local history. Pop culture is chock full of posibilities: movies like Speed Racer and Indiana Jones; bands such as The Jonas Brothers or Hannah Montana; Popular book series and so on.

My son's last school was a NASA Explorer school so, of course, that was a big theme throughout everything.

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“Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same.”

I've belonged to a PTO that charged dues, PTO with no dues, and PTA with dues.

My elementary school PTO charged minimal dues and ran a membership drive each fall. There wasn't necessarily a theme, but there was a big class contest based on which class had the biggest percentage of family members. (Memberships were family, not individual and were very minor costs like $3-$8 depending on the year and what was included.)

So our empahsis was around the class contest, using posters as big scorecards.

The membership drive was mostly a marketing effort and an opportunity get people committed. The funds were incidental.

One of the perks of membership was that you recieved a free copy of the school directory when it was published about a month later. Others had to pay for it - which was about the cost of membership, so why not just join?

Technically, only members could vote but pretty much all our issues were unanimous, so that wasn't too big a deal for us. As far as activities, volunteering, communications, etc. - all the families were involved. There was no big distinction between members and non-members.

We operate a lot like JHB does. We have a small membership fee and while we do it by class contest we also offer a "raffle" chance for anyone who joins. The raffle prize were tickets to an area ski resort. Our cost is $5 for the membership and they get entered in the raffle. And on the form we state "for each additional $5 donation you will receive another entry into the raffle." We actually had a few pay $20 or more just for the extra entries so it certainly doesn't hurt to ask.

We didn't do the school directory last year, although do plan on doing one this coming year free for PTO members.

We also offer discounts to special PTO events throughout the year. Such as 1/2 price carnival admission (game tickets are the money maker there), discount tickets to Breakfast with Santa if purchased by a certain date, free bingo cards at family night, etc. Nothing big just enough to make it sound like a deal, especially for those on the fence about joining.