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Procedures Book: Your PTO's Instruction Manual

What good can a bit of long-term organization do? Consider these dilemmas.

Sharon recently agreed to chair the annual fun fair fundraiser. Almost all of the members who worked on this in the past have moved on with their children to another school. Where to start? No one seems to know.

A conflict has arisen about the proper way to handle money generated for the PTO from a vending machine in the school. One faction of parents wants to use it for scholarships, another for projects that benefit the greatest number of students, and a third wants to dedicate the revenue to the teachers for classroom supplies. What to do? Where is the guidance for how to handle this kind of monetary disagreement?

Susan is the new president of her PTO. The recent leadership of the group was part of a fairly exclusive clique, and now that their children have graduated to middle school, they have disappeared. The immediate past president did spend some time with her in the spring answering what questions Susan could think to ask, but new questions keep popping up about how things get done, and that person is simply no longer available. Is inventing new ways of doing things inevitable with every change of leadership?

These situations could all have been made easier if the groups involved had used a simple binder system to record processes and practices. The formal name is a procedures book. It’s also sometimes called a policy and procedures manual when it includes policy statements.

A procedures book is a key element to ensure at least some continuity to the steps a group follows to get its work done. Think how valuable it would be for the new fundraising chairperson to receive a binder full of information on what fundraisers have been run, who to contact, and what worked and what didn’t. Creating a procedures book means that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time there’s a leadership change. It also means all the hard work you did and the knowledge you gained as a leader will continue to benefit the group after you’re gone. A procedures book can also transmit the values and time-honored traditions that are important to your group.

The procedures book doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be compiled in a simple loose-leaf, three-ring binder for ease in amending or copying the contents. Not all procedures books are the same; the more information you include, the better tool your book will be. Following are many ideas for what to put in it. Together, these ideas constitute a very complete procedures book indeed. But even a basic reference with contact information, some dos and don’ts, and a basic synopsis of what has happened in the past can be very valuable.

Information for Your Book

Start your procedures book with a copy of your group’s bylaws. Your bylaws are the foundation from which you grow the policies and procedures that help you carry out your mission. Everyone needs to understand the basic rules by which you govern yourselves. The rest of the procedures book then explains how your group carries out the rules toward achieving your mission day to day.

The next part of your procedures book might include important contacts within the parent group, school, and district. This section might also include a list of parent group offices and committees, plus any other pertinent organizational information.

Next could come job descriptions for all of the offices, including important committee chairs. Job descriptions should include those outlined in the bylaws and any you have created and use on a continuing basis. The basic function of any job description is to clarify expectations about who is going to perform what tasks. These job descriptions should be reviewed each year to fit with changes that have been made in the past year or changes that may need to be accomplished in the coming year.

Most job descriptions include a title, a job summary, a list of duties, and qualifications. (Qualifications only need to be basic. For example, if the secretary is in charge of creating the agenda, compiling meeting notes, and putting together the newsletter, it might be hard for a person without computer skills to do the job.)

With job descriptions in hand, your volunteers will have a clearer understanding of the tasks they are expected to perform and the time needed to get the job done.

Another section that many groups find useful is a timeline. Usually organized month by month, the timeline provides an overview of the major events and activities your group engages in throughout the year. Simply list the month and activities that take place within that month. (Or if you want to get more specific, use a calendar with no year listed.) For example, you know that your fall fundraiser always occurs in September, even if you don’t necessarily know what that fundraiser will be from year to year. You know the carnival is held in October. Teacher appreciation week is in May. Do your best to include all of the activities you run. When in doubt, put it on the list. This is a reference, not an obligation to hold specific events.

More Ideas

The remainder of your procedures book might be divided by function (president’s section), by project (fall fundraiser), or a combination. The method you choose needs to make sense for your group. The contents for each section consist of as simple an explanation as possible of how things are done for that position or project. It can be a step-by-step list developed chronologically, as in a timeline. This style is especially useful if you are describing procedures for a project. If you are describing how the parent resource room is organized, however, your description might take a more narrative form.

Some of the important procedures that groups choose to describe in their manuals include:

• How money is handled (including revenues from fundraising and any other sources). For example, you might choose to have the amounts counted and the totals verified by at least two group members, and then put in night deposits, never keeping any cash revenues overnight.
• Methods you use for building involvement (or recruiting members). It helps to chronicle what has worked and what hasn’t.
• Major fundraisers.
• Major continuing or annual projects: the fall dance, the spring carnival, the winter arts performance.
• Descriptions of how the major functions for each office in your group are carried out.

In fact, the list could go on and on. Each group decides what is important to include. It could be the review process you use to choose books to donate to the school library or perhaps how you choose the teacher of the year.

Writing the actual procedures can take some time, particularly to think through which processes are important and repeated enough to include, and then to detail all the steps that are performed. It can be a good job for a past president (or two).

Creating a procedures manual will pay off by helping your group weather the inevitable changes in leadership to stay strong and healthy. That’s not to say procedures can’t be adapted and changed as the times change–of course they can. But having a starting place is simply invaluable. In fact, it’s the best gift an incoming leader can get.

Too Much for You?

Does the idea of compiling a complete procedures book seem too overwhelming for your group? At its most basic, creating a procedures book involves purchasing a binder for every officer and committee chairperson. Each person simply three-hole punches every piece of paper pertinent to the job, makes a notation on it about what it is (when necessary), and places it in the binder. At the end of the year, you have at least a basic reference to help the next person who does that job. Compared to starting from scratch, this simple organizational plan can be a godsend for any new officer.

Darylen Cote is a parent and community leader. She holds an M.S. in educational leadership from the University of Southern Maine.

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