PTO Today

First of all, a great big “Thanks!” to everyone who has uploaded a file to the File Exchange, our new document sharing tool. Other leaders are finding your docs really useful. How do I know? I receive all the feedback that goes to fileexchange@ptotoday.com and the comments have been really positive (also received some excellent suggestions for improvement).

The numbers also speak volumes. So far the 50 most popular files have been downloaded a total of 11,469 times. And that’s just the top 50 files. Many of the docs have been downloaded over 100 times each. That’s a lot of sharing and learning! Nice.

So your files are making a difference. They’re helping other leaders who face the same tasks and challenges in their own groups. Please keep ‘em coming!

BTW - If anyone is looking for help with bylaws you might want to check out the PTO Today Sample Bylaws file that our editorial folks uploaded. It was written by an attorney with PTO expertise and it’s an excerpt from our Start-Up Guide that comes with PTO Today Plus membership. Good resource.

Nancy Sousa and a bunch of other PTO Today staffers are working hard at getting all the pieces in place for our 5 expos this year. The first expo is just a couple of months away!

A lot of tradeshows and conferences offer earlybird pricing. Thanks to the support of our sponsors the registration fee is already pretty reasonable ($10/person) so we decided to do something fun this year. Everyone who registers before January 31st will be entered to win one of five $500 gift cards from the new Cherrydale!

Jan 31st is right around the corner so I wanted to remind everyone who is thinking about attending an expo to get your registration in soon.

The expos are a great way to get a ton of information and ideas. In a previous post, Tim talked about the palpable energy that comes out of 4-500 volunteer parent leaders getting together in the same room. I wholeheartedly agree. The ideas, energy, and excitement that is created is hard to put into words but it’s something I’ve felt at every expo I’ve attended.

There are five locations this year: Columbus, OH, Marlboro, MA, Secaucus, NJ, Chicago, IL, Denver, CO. At each one we’ll have over 100 vendors, PTO Today experts on hand, performances, presentations, and more!

Will you be joining us? I hope so! Don’t forget to register by Jan. 31st so you have a chance at one of the five earlybird gift cards!

In the January issue of PTO Today magazine we ask how you would handle this situation…

Deciding how to spend group funds can be tough, especially when the PTO and the principal don’t see eye to eye. What if your principal wants to redo the teachers’ lounge, but parents insist that the money directly benefit students?

What would you do? Click on ‘Add a comment’ below and tell us what you think!

(Some of you might have already received the January issue of PTO Today magazine. If not, it’s on its way!)

We’re in the midst of launching a new sampling program with a new partner - Tide® with Dawn® StainScrubbers™. We’re still getting all the pieces in place but I wanted to give you a heads up on what’s coming down the pipe for January.

Over the past year we’ve offered many free samples on behalf of our partners - everything from snack samples to Leapfrog computer systems – and the response has been incredible. Groups who have participated in these offers in the past are always telling us how much their school’s families enjoyed receiving a free sample, they really add an element of fun and excitement to events.

This will be a limited participation offer so you’ll need to sign up quickly if you’d like to participate. We’re scheduled to launch the week of Jan. 21st so be sure to check the website (and this blog) for more details as we get closer. And of course PTO Today Plus members get first dibs!

Last week I wrote a post about the File Exchange tool that we expected to launch this week. Thanks to our technical, marketing, and editorial teams we pulled it all together and the File Exchange went ‘live’ yesterday afternoon.

We’re pretty excited about this tool as we expect it’s going to be a huge time saver when you’re creating flyers, letters, invites, and all the other documents you use over the year. The other nice benefit is all the ideas you’ll get when you take a peak at how other groups are putting together documents.

If you’ve visited our message boards you’ll know how often folks are talking about the documents they use and others are asking to receive them by email. This tool will make it easy for everyone to share files. Plus, unlike the message boards, you can browse for documents by category and see any ratings and/or comments people have shared about that document.

Our resident PTO Today experts will be posting files but this is ultimately a community tool and we’re relying on you to make it great so everyone (including you!) benefits. Please share a couple of your docs and of course browse through the categories and download a few for yourself. The File Exchange is here - http://www.ptotoday.com/filesharing/

If you have any questions or you’re having trouble downloading/uploading documents please let me know. You can email me directly at klagden@ptotoday.com or leave a comment below.

And of course we want to know what you think! Email me or add your comment below.

If you’re a regular on our message boards you’ll know how often folks are looking to share documents with each other. Why design a brand new ‘Donuts with Dad’ flyer or ‘Welcome Letter’ when others have already done the work and are willing to share?

We’re pretty excited about the File Exchange tool because we know how much time it takes to create all those flyers, letters, surveys, etc. you use all year long. By sharing documents everyone can save time…and tap into even more ideas by looking at the documents other groups use. You’ll be able to grab a document whenever you need and hopefully you’ll use the very simple ’submit a document’ feature to share the files your group is currently using.

Our webmaster is working hard to get the last few bugs fixed and have this tool ready to go next week. And now that I’ve made this announcement here on the blog there’s even more pressure for him to finish on time…sneaky of me I know

It’s never fun to go live with an empty stage so we’re hoping you can help! We’ve seeded the File Exchange with the documents we currently have in the bonus tools area. But we’re looking for LOTS more! Do you have any documents to share? Welcome letters, event flyers, donation requests, notices, etc. Please send them to resources@ptotoday.com in the next few days and we’ll make sure they’re in the File Exchange when we launch next week.

The October issue of PTO Today magazine hit the mail a couple of weeks ago. If you’re waiting patiently for the other folks in your group to pass this latest issue along once they’ve finished reading it, you might want to take matters into your own hands and check out a few of the articles online:

Tim’s Turn: Involvement Step by Step
She Said It: If I Knew Then…
Group Dynamics: Catering to Families
Send a Powerful Message

And a couple of articles for PTO Today Plus members:

Don’t Say It! 12 Casual Comments That Discourage Involvement, 12 Positive Alternatives That Build It
Leadership Forum: Taxes, PTOs, and the IRS

There’s a neat story on page 17 of the October issue of PTO Today magazine. Mary Phelan-Jackson, a principal in Hayneville, Alabama, had herself arrested to get parents involved at her school. The only way to secure her release was for at least 200 parents to attend the school open house that week!

It’s a neat idea that received a lot of media attention so we asked Mary to share a few more details. Apparently the idea came from a similar campaign the United Way runs where they lock up public officials until they’ve raised enough money to make their ‘bail’ payment. Mary believes “parent involvement is the key to the academic success of all children” so decided to adapt the focus from ‘fundraising’ to ‘involvement’.

Flyers were sent home with the kids announcing that the school principal was being arrested due to lack of parental support and 200 parents were required to attend the PTA open house to secure her release. The warrant was served and Mary was taken off in a squad car amidst a rally of students pleading for parents to attend the open house.

After coverage in the local media the school office was flooded with phone calls! Some parents wanted clarification and others committed to attending. By 6:30pm that night 214 parents were in attendance and Mary was released from jail.

Sounds like a very successful start to the school year!

The old proverb says ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’. I also think a picture or graphic can add a splash of color and fun and make the whole communication piece (including the words) a lot more interesting and engaging.
A couple of months ago we added a clipart gallery to our website. Lots of parent group related graphics that you can use in your newsletters, emails, websites, letters, flyers, and any other piece you use to communicate with parents.

If you’re feeling really creative you might want to check out this website I stumbled upon that lets you customize graphics. It’s pretty simple to browse the images, select the one you want to customize, and add your text and preview. If you’re really tech savvy you can get the html code and include the image wherever you like. I took the simple route and simply right-clicked on my image and saved it to my computer. Now it’s ready to be inserted into a flyer, letter, or maybe even an email.

Here are the two I created:

Do you use clipart in your communication pieces? Any topics or themes that you’d like to see in our clipart gallery? Please share in the comments below (or email me at klagden@ptotoday.com).