PTO Today

How cool is it that this PTA mom, Tricia Elisara, came up with an idea of a “Green Party Kit” to make classroom parties a little more environmentally friendly and ended up winning a “Green Effect” contest?  Elisara was one of five winners across the United States in the “Green Effect,” an event cosponsored by SunChips food brands and National Geographic, which asked people to submit ideas to help their neighborhood go green. For winning she received $20,000 and was profiled in National Geographic magazine. Not too shabby!

This Margaret Mead quote comes to mind:  ”Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed citizens to change the world. Indeed, it has never been done otherwise.”

If you are looking for a way to get your school on the green team, check out our Go Green Night Kit. It’s a fun way to build community in your school and teach families about ways they can help the environment.

Is your PTO or PTA involved in any green projects? We’d love to hear what you are up to!

Save time!

Just wanted to give everyone a heads-up that we have reorganized the popular File Exchange section of our site. We’ve added new categories, renamed a few, and moved around a bunch of files that were getting lost — so leaders can easily find the forms, flyers, letters, and surveys that they need. Hopefully, the changes will also take the guess work out of where to put something when you upload files to share with others.

Some new categories include:

• volunteer recruitment
• fundraiser forms & letters
• fun run, walk-a-thon
• spaghetti dinner
• holiday shops
• audits
• community service

New file additions of note include a slew of generic parent group logos and a new email opt-in form.

Thank you to all who have uploaded documents to share with fellow parent group leaders. We hear from leaders all the time that the file exchange is such  a powerful resource.  Happy sharing and swapping!

There is no shortage of stories about how California Schools are dealing with budget cuts.  Lots of schools are doing fundraisers to fill  the funding gaps. Just came across an article that talks about a school fundraiser, that caught my attention. Amidst the crisis, this CA school did a fundraiser for the Susan G. Komen for the cure organization. Very Impressive!

Top 5 things to love about this fundraiser:

1. It’s for a GREAT cause:  Susan G. Komen for the Cure
2. It ties into Breast Cancer Awareness month: October.
3. It teaches middle school kids to think of someone other than themselves.
4. It shows that this school has incredible school spirit & enthusiasm … love the photo of the principal with pink hair! No doubt Middle schoolers would think this was hysterical… and kind of cool!
5. It’s a great idea for PTOs or PTAs who want to do a fundraiser that gives back!

Sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of why we volunteer for our school’s  PTA or PTO. We’ve all been there at one time or another: maybe it’s a committee chair who doesn’t follow through on what they said they’d do… or the fact the only non-board member who shows up regularly for meetings is a nay-sayer who consistently tries your patience. Whatever form the distraction takes, don’t let it steal your focus away from the reasons you volunteer in the first place. Your kids.

A Connecticut mom recently shared her PTA volunteer journey in a blog titled To PTA or not PTA? Her vote was clearly “to PTA.”  She supports her choice by listing all the reasons why involvement matters, including the fact that  it boosts student achievement.  For me, this benefit meant the most:

I have such a great support system in the school. I know my children’s teachers. I see them on a day to day basis.”

You can debate whether your PTA or PTO is clubby or not, til’ you’re blue in the face, but the only way you realize the aforementioned kind of connection with the school is by volunteering.  Do you agree?

So if you are feeling momentarily discouraged, be sure to read her post for the full list of benefits of volunteering. It’s a good reminder. And if that’s not enough, read our One Last Dance article to remind you just how fast it all goes. Sniff.

So did you know that today was International Walk to School Day?  I did a quick scan on the net to see if there were any articles or blogs about schools participating. There were tons! Great to see.

Loved reading about what one PTO is doing to celebrate Walk-to-School Day.  Not only do they do some fun things to promote this day but they also have a  PTO walk-to-school coordinator for the whole school year.

Is your PTO involved in any programs that encourage healthy habits in the students at your school? We’d love to hear what you’re doing!

Neat that some folks in Minnesota think that parent involvement in education is so important, that they set aside an entire month to celebrate it!   According to this recent article, October is Minnesota Parent Involvement Month —  a time to celebrate the powerful role parents play in their children’s education.  Wouldn’t it be nice if every state did this?

But I guess I am preaching to the choir! We know if you are on this site you care a tremendous amount about being involved in your child’s education. Bet you wish there were more parents at your school that shared your passion! If you’re nodding your head, check out our Parent Involvement Toolkit! And remember, it doesn’t hurt to remind parents – again- why involvement matters.

Wanted to call your attention to PTO Today’s newest program, Healthy School Kids. You can find a link to the Healthy School Kids (HSK) sign-up page on ptotoday.com in the main navigation bar, under Helpful Tools.

This is a great program for parent groups who are trying to mix healthy habits into fundraising and school family events.

By signing up to become a HSK group, you’ll get:

1) Priority notice for FREE Healthy School Kids sample offers to share with parents at upcoming school events (you”ll also be one of the first to be emailed of any health and wellness free samples offers that come up throughout the year – i.e. hand sanitizer samples for an upcoming fitness night, healthy snack samples for Family Reading Night, etc.)

2) Immediate access to a special HSK home page web page on ptotoday.com, which features all of our best health and wellness PTO content. We’ll be adding more content to this page each month.

So go check it out and tell us what you think.

Some important changes being made to PTOtoday.com the next couple of days. Listen to what Tim has to say about these cool new features and what it all means to busy parent group leaders.

How many of you have lamented, “If only I had more time in my day?”

We hear that from parent group leaders all the time! That’s why we’re excited to let you know about some changes to our site that will give you the tools and information you need to do your job more efficiently! Not only that, you’ll also feel more connected to other leaders.

Later this week we’ll be going live with some pretty cool community sections on our site:

My PTO Today will allow you to designate what content is most relevant to you and then track all the articles, message board threads, and blog posts that relate to your interests. Very cool feature for busy leaders.

Community will help you connect with other leaders who share the same roles, interests, and issues.

Ask a Question will let you ask a quick question within specific categories and get concrete advice from PTO Today experts, or community members.

Our message boards will still be your place to have conversations, express opinions, and bounce ideas off of other leaders —  but you’ll see a new look and feel, and some added functionality. Think you’ll like the new ways to connect and identify with your peers.

What you need to know about the upcoming changes:

- The existing message boards will be down between approximately 9 and 10 pm EST on Thursday night. All of your past conversations, user and login information will be carried over.  Note that when the boards come back up  at @ 10 pm, your profile will be turned off.  On Friday morning  it will be back on and you will have the ability to edit your profile so you can participate in the PTO Today Community on a site-wide basis.  Posting anonymously will still be an option.

-Note to night owls: from 1am to 6am EST on Friday night there may be an interruption of service, but ideally we are aiming to make this upgrade as seamless as possible.

- You’ll see in the top navigation bar that our new sections: Message Boards, Ask a Question, and My PTO Today all have the word “Beta” on the tabs. For those of you not familiar with this term, here’s the scoop:
Beta level features are between 60% and 70% complete, generally include all features, but may also include known issues and bugs of a less serious variety. So we’ll be very busy working on enhancements in the weeks to come.

Your feedback is very important. There will be a new section in the message boards called: Comments, Questions and Feedback on the New PTO Today Community. You can also email me directly with your questions and feedback at lgundlach@ptotoday.com

Look forward to seeing you around the community! My username is Lisa @ PTO Today – be sure to friend me when you update or create your user profile.

Lots of articles out there about the economy putting the squeeze on schools, and how parent groups are being asked to pick up the slack.  I just came across this article about a parent group that decided that they were not going let their PTA and school community feel like victims of the economy.  Instead, this creative bunch put together a free all-night, camp out event for their K through 5 families and called it a “friendraiser.”  Love it.  Instead of only focusing on fundraising, this group showed that family nights are the perfect way to build community at any school.