PTO Today

Lots of PTOs and PTAs in the news. Here’s a round-up of some recent articles and blogs:

Loved reading these stories about what schools and parent groups are doing to help Haiti:

Dimes for Haiti teaches kids math skills and more importantly, about helping others in need.

PTO organizes “dress down day” to raise funds for Haiti.

Some nice work done by PTOs & PTAs (maybe their events will spark some ideas for your group):

PTO sets up “Study Island” for parents.

PTA runs Healthy Family Fun Night.

PTO surprises staff with break room make-over.

PTO helps turn Principal into a human cake!

Theft and controversy in PTAs & PTOs:

Middle school in Texas wonders what’s going on with their PTA funds.

Former PTO President accused of theft.

Parents protest alternate school zoning plan.

Has your parent group been in the news and you’d like to share your story with other leaders? Email me and I’ll include it our round-up. lgundlach@ptotoday.com

Have you tried to get more dads to be involved in your PTO with little success? Tim gives a dad’s perspective of why more fathers are not jumping into the parent group volunteer fray and offers some simple, practical suggestions on how to engage those dads and turn them into active volunteers.

What does your PTO do to help dads be more connected to your school? We would love to hear about your programs and ideas.

Tim mentions Watch D.O.G.S. and Safeteam — two organized initiatives that are doing their part to engage dads in their kid’s education — in this video. Thought you might like to check out their websites.

We hope that everyone’s New Year is off to a happy and productive start. In today’s video blog Tim offers some motivational thoughts about the power of PTOs.  Sometimes when January rolls around, parent group leaders hit a mid-year slump. Hmmm. Did we get  some heads nodding? Whether this applies to you or not, re-energize yourself and your group by taking the time to watch this video – it will reinforce why you do what you do!

It’s that time of year. New Year’s resolutions abound. One of my resolutions is two-fold:  1) to figure out how to be more efficient with my volunteer gigs so I can 2)lead a more balanced life and enjoy my kids.

That’s why I love the My PTO Today feature of our website (in the top navigation bar).  It lets me chose what content is most relevant to my role in our PTO and delivers articles, message board threads, Q & As, and customizable documents related to my chosen topics — all to My PTO Today page and to my email inbox.  Such a great way to keep me focused on the task at hand. Gotta love that.

So have you taken advantage of this way to streamline and personalize content yet?  Here’s how to get the most out of the My PTO Today.  You designate what’s most important to you during the registration process.  When you get to the second screen and the section that says “Customize My PTO Today for you”, pay careful attention to categories across from the “Topics I am interested in” header. It is here where you define what topics you want pulled into your My PTO Today Page.  Once you have checked off the boxes you can redefine the topics you want to watch as often as you like. Just go into your profile and select “edit profile”.  Use this feature as a tool to help you manage your time and focus. Are you knee deep in planning an auction this month? Maybe you want to go back and just check Auction and Planning and Organization categories. Spend less time searching and more time reading and doing, so you can get the task done more quickly.

Hope you take advantage of this neat tool. It’s always nice to make good on at least one New Year’s resolution!

Word is out that Simplified Scrip ceased operations on December 21, 2009. The following is a direct quote from their website home page:

“We will now concentrate on taking care of all customers. If you have an outstanding order, you will receive a refund check for any unshipped items. Once all refunds are processed, we will send donation checks for any funds earned during the last quarter.”

A tough economy has forced some tough decisions. We hope that all that are owed refunds are paid promptly and we wish those who have lost jobs, due to this closing, the best of luck.

School fundraising is no doubt an important part of a parent group’s role. But is there such a thing as too much fundraising? Absolutely. Yes. That’s what Tim tells us in this week’s video tutorial. Learn more about his take on the right amount of fundraising and how fundraising relates to the overall health and well being of your school community.

Excited to share that PTO Today is now on Facebook! We’d love to have you join us there to stay on top of the latest news, happenings, and offers.  If you don’t have a Facebook account, you can set one up here.  Hope to see you on the new PTO Today Facebook page soon!

Maybe it’s because we have a few months of school under our belts and people are feeling more comfortable…. or maybe it’s because the holidays are upon us and patience is wearing thin due to overload … but it seems that we’ve been hearing about an awful lot of drama going on in parent groups lately! That’s what promped us to do a video tutorial on how to combat PTO or PTA drama:

Hope it helps. Maybe this can be your group’s collective new year’s resolution: to stop the drama and move from controversy to consensus.

Our online community is expanding! We are excited to let you know that we are adding “groups” to our community. What are groups? Think of this new area on our site as a virtual coffee shop, where you can collaborate with leaders around one topic or theme. Our goal is to help you share and discover targeted information more effectively in a supportive environment.

Our first group is the Family Movie Night Group. Why Family Movie Night? We hear from schools all the time that Family Movie Nights are their favorite way to build community. And if you’ve spent any time on our site, you know that we’re all about building community.

So visit our first group today. Lots to do on the Family Movie Night Group page:

• Share photos in the photo gallery – help other leaders with your great set-up and theme ideas.
• Chat with other leaders about ways to run a successful Family Movie Night.
• See which movies worked and didn’t work for other schools. Jump in with your two cents.
• Find helpful articles, tools and resources relating to Family Movie Night.

As always, we love to hear your feedback. What do you think about our first group? What other groups would you like us to add? Please jump in with your feedback and suggestions here.

Who decides how our PTO money is spent? How do I deal with a controlling principal? Should the principal have the final say on what goes into our newsletter? We get questions like these — and many more — on our site all the time. The basic question is who’s the boss? This week Tim addresses this question in his video tutorial, where he talks about the importance of making the principal your partner.

What steps have you taken to make your principal your pal? Anyone have any stories about how they have successfully worked out differences between parent group and principal? Love to hear them!