President Archive

Whether you're a new leader or a veteran, you'll find tons of ideas and tips for presidents in the articles below. Find more helpful tools and info on the Parent Group President resources page.

Articles with a plus sign () are available to PTO Today Plus members only.

• How To Be a Successful PTO President - Tips and advice for new PTO and PTA presidents.
• Don’t Do It! - Sometimes it's more important to know what not to do. We outline 12 common mistakes PTOs make and offer positive alternatives.
• Use PTO Experience To Get a Job - The skills you develop as a parent leader and school volunteer can give you an edge when going back to work.
• Is It Time To Pass the Gavel? - Questions to ask yourself if you're thinking about retiring from your PTO leadership role.
• Responding to Criticism - To deal with criticism effectively, leave your emotions out of the conversation.
• Are You a Leader or a Manager? - Good leadership and effective management call for different skills. Depending on the situation, you'll need to decide which of those skills to employ.
• Three Decisionmaking Methods - These processes for reaching a decision can help parent group leaders get past (or avoid) a stalemate.
• Public Speaking: Overcome the Jitters - Some advance preparation and a few best practices will help your next presentation go smoothly despite any butterflies.
• 17 Dos and Don'ts for Presidents - Get off to a fast start and keep the momentum going all year long with our list of essential dos and don'ts for leaders.
• To Build Support, Celebrate Success - Make publicizing your group's good works and thanking the people who contributed to your success a year-end priority.
• Measuring Meetings - There are much better ways to gauge the success of your parent group than counting how many seats get filled to go through a monthly agenda.
• Build a Strong Executive Board - Working to form a cohesive executive board can pay off in long-term success for your parent group.
• Celebrity Leadership Quiz - What’s your leadership style? Find a celebrity match for the way you lead your PTO.
• 9 Ways To Spot a Micromanager - Do you find yourself giving all the reports, working at every function, and fielding all the questions about your parent group? You just might be a micromanager.
• Change Your Micromanaging Ways - Could you be a micromanager? If so, you're probably limiting involvement in your group. Here's how to lighten your grip without having everything fall apart.
• 23 Essential Tips for Presidents - What you should know about your group's finances, how to build a strong executive board, and tips for recruiting committee chairpeople.
• 16 Tips for Executive Board Members - Doing these simple things will help make you a more effective PTO or PTA board member.
• Protect Volunteers From Legal Risks - Having a few key policies in place can minimize the risks to parent volunteers.
• The Secret to Successful Leadership - The most overlooked skill—delegation—might just be the best one you'll ever learn.
• Leadership Is Learning From Others - Valuable lessons are all around if you know where to find them.
• My Life as President - A parent group president reflects on lessons learned during her term in office and offers down-to-earth suggestions and advice.
• 10 Mistakes Parent Groups Make - These common problems can undermine your parent group's success. Learn to identify and fix them early.
• Rate Your Leadership Skills -  Take the quiz to see what your strengths are as a leader and determine which skills could use some work.
• Becoming a Great Leader - Even if you have no experience, you can be an effective leader. Just play to your strengths.
• Balancing PTO and Personal Life - It can be challenging to find balance. But a little strategy, a little organization, and a lot of support from friends and family go a long way.
• Are You Ready To Lead? - Being an effective parent group leader requires a commitment to the big picture and a willingness to let others help achieve those goals.
• Quiz: Rate Your Involvement IQ -  See how your group's attitudes and practices for building parent involvement measure up.
• Get the Principal on Your Side - The right—and wrong—ways to build communication with school administrators.
• My First Meeting: Presidents Remember - Parent group presidents recall the worrying, the nerves, and the lessons learned from their first time wielding a gavel.
• Robert's Rules: What You Should Know - Robert's Rules do help you run an effective meeting. And you don't have to know a whole book's worth of details—just a few key concepts.
• Procedures Book: Your PTO's Instruction Manual - How to create policies and procedures books for your leaders. This tool can make a big difference for your group.
• You're Elected! Now What? - An overview of what lies ahead for first-time board members, and tips for getting off to a strong start.
• From Controversy to Consensus - The way you handle the decisionmaking process can determine whether a difficult issue grows into an acrimonious fight.
• 11 Midyear Problems and Solutions - From low turnout to conflicts with the principal, our PTO answer guide will help make your whole year great.
• Build Support for New Ideas - When members resist change, reduce the chance of conflict with patience and understanding.
• Energize Your School - A strong parent group can instill pride, promote a positive attitude, and get parents involved in the school all year long. Follow these tips to help your PTO build—and maintain—school spirit.
• Energize Your Parent Group -  Tips to build interest and enthusiasm, then keep the momentum going all year long.
• Visibility: A Leadership Challenge - You've done the work—do people know about it? Getting your group's name and message out to a wide audience, in the right way, is an essential part of success.
• 501(c)(3) for PTOs - How to make your PTO tax-exempt. We sort through the mumbo jumbo and tell you what to expect—from the process and the IRS.
• Create a Mission Statement - Talking clearly and intentionally about group goals can inspire your PTO and help make decisions to achieve them.
• Whose Rules, School or PTO? - Collaboration between PTO and school is crucial to success, but it's also important to know who has final say when disputes arise.
• Figuring Finances for Events - How to build a simple cost model and estimate the start-to-finish finances for your group's new events.
• Polish Your Delegation Skills - Doing it all yourself leads to burnout—and isn't good for your parent group, either.
• 38 Ideas To Start the Year Right - From getting organized to getting to know the school's families, a great year for the parent group starts with some advance planning.
• Care and Feeding of Key Volunteers - Your core members are so important to the success of your group. Make sure they're getting what they need out of their volunteer experience.
• When Conflict Splits Your Group - Ways to prevent controversy from escalating, and how to bring the PTO back together if it already has.
• Preventing Theft: Why It's Crucial - Theft from PTOs and PTAs is all too common. It doesn't happen because there's a criminal in your midst. It happens because need meets opportunity—opportunity you can and should prevent.
• Find Your Leadership Style - The best leaders recognize their natural tendencies and use that knowledge to respond appropriately in different situations.
• Budget Basics for PTOs - Budgeting makes all of your financial decisions easier. Follow these steps to create a budget for your PTO, even if you've never had one before.
• Make the Principal Your Partner - Good communication about priorities and respect for each others' roles makes for a strong partnership.
• 9 Stress-Busting Organization Tips - A little planning and organization now will help you breathe easy the whole year through.
• What Should PTOs Pay For? - Tighter school budgets mean parent groups are asked to fund more and more items that used to be paid for by the administration.
• Keep Up With District-Level Issues - For a greater understanding of the issues facing your school, have a delegate regularly attend meetings of the school board.