PTO Today

This week’s round-up features the fun and not so fun.

First the fun. At PTO Today we talk a lot about how important it is to infuse some fun into your parent group. Well, these groups certainly seem to have the fun factor figured out.

• Nothing like some good-natured competition to liven up a school community:  Iron Chef competition.
• This PTO is giving families a chance to get creative with an all-day scrapbooking event.
• Families at this school love their Spaghetti dinner family night tradition. Sometimes it’s the old fashioned favorite that is the most fun.
• Getting high schoolers on board with a fundraiser can be a bit tough. This NJ PTO figured out a fun event to do the trick: a fashion show fundraiser. Loved that they involved the students by sponsoring a contest for the invitation. Neat idea.
• This school combined a  school carnival with a silent auction and had over 1000 attendees. Wow, that says a lot about the community!

Ok, now for the not-so-fun. Speaking to the need of solid financial controls in your parent group, there were several stories in the news this week about embezzlement:

Woman pleads guilty to $35,000 PTA theft.

PTA treasurer sentenced to three years of probation for stealing nearly $75,000 over a six-year period.

Ex-PTA president sentenced for stealing funds.

This week’s round-up highlights projects and events that underscore the mission of  school parent groups.

Have some fun:

Caribbean style

Taking pies in the face

Do good:

Fighting world hunger

Organizing a prom dress swap

Sharing globally

Reinforce school curriculum:

Math-a-Mania

Multi-Cultural Festival

Support our kids:

Fabulous after-school programs

Educating parents on teen safety

Keep doing what you’re doing- you’re doing a great job!

Happy Valentine’s day, Happy Chinese New Year, and Happy President’s day!

Here’s a quick overview of articles from this week. Perhaps these stories about creative PTOs & PTAs will inspire some new ideas for your parent group:

PTO reaches out community members in need. Very nice.
Like how this Nebraska school puts the fun in  fundraisers.

Always enjoy reading about school auctions with fun, upbeat themes.

PTO sponsors afterschool program prepares kids for the business world.

There has been an alarming amount of news about bullying in schools recently. Nice to hear that this PTO is doing it’s part to take on bullying issues.

Also, it’s sad to read so much about school closings. Threats of school closings has sent some parent groups into fundraising overdrive.

Came across several contests that I thought parent group leaders may be interested in:

http://www.meetingtomorrow.com/audio-visual-giveaway.html
http://www.gardenabcs.com/
http://www.parenting.com/momcongress/

Enjoy!

I continued to be inspired by the creative ways that parent groups raise money and/or create a sense of community at their schools. Here a few of my favorite event articles in the news this week:

School Family Events:

Enthusiasm is the key ingredient in this parent group-sponsored math night.

PTO runs a fitness day where football rules.

Creative PTO party animals set the stage for success.

Teachers & parents with talent serve up plenty of inspiration at this school!

Loved this PTA event that encourage middle schoolers to honor family history.

And it always saddens me to post articles about thefts from parent groups but they certainly serve as good reminders for PTOs & PTAs to employ smart financial controls.

Parent Group Thefts:

http://www.brainerddispatch.com/stories/020510/new_20100205001.shtml

http://www.indystar.com/article/20100127/LOCAL1804/1270354/Maplewood-Elementary-PTO-chief-jailed-in-theft

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

Well happy Friday PTO Today community! Can you believe that January is coming to an end? Felt like a fast month to me, how about you? When you live in New England, winter months flying by is a good thing.

Here’s the news recap for this week:

Found more great stories about schools and parent groups coming through for Haiti with creative ideas:

http://www.mysuburbanlife.com/darien/newsnow/x1920347013/Glenbard-schools-host-fundraisers-for-Haiti

http://www.courier-gazette.com/articles/2010/01/29/news_update/252.txt

http://freehold.injersey.com/2010/01/28/freehold-twp-pupils-hopping-for-haiti-2/

Always happy to see articles about fun family events:

Mini golf:  http://www.cannonfalls.com/main.asp

Science Fair: http://www.morningsun.net/featured/x562888504/Lakeside-hosts-annual-Science-Fair

Fundraising, the good, the bad, and the ugly:

Good: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm

http://www.redbankgreen.com/2010/01/get-ready-to-keel-over-in-the-kitchen.html

Bad: http://www.ktvb.com/news/regional/Papa-Johns-franchise-short-changed-elementary-schools-83042432.html

Ugly: http://www.kvia.com/Global/story.asp

Remember, if your parent group  has been in the news and you’d like to share your story with other leaders email me at lgundlach@ptotoday.com and I’ll include your story in our round-up. If you are wondering how to get your school event in the news, be sure to read our article on how to write a press release.

Yes, I know it’s still January, but this is actually when we start accepting registrations from groups who want to sign up for our very cool annual Back2School package of know-how for your group and giveaways for your parents. You don’t want to miss this one.

Complete details on Back2School 2010 are here on the website. The program does fill up, and we have to turn away groups every year.

As a summary, the centerpiece of the Back2Schoool offering is Jump In! magazine, which is written to help parents make it a great school year. How and why to get involved. Tips for communicating with teachers and helping the kids succeed in school. Lots of stuff. You get one copy for each parent in your school to hand out from your parent group. (Check out some sample Jump In! articles and other content.)

We also provide custom materials to help you make the most of back-to-school night and ideas on kicking off a great involvement year for your PTO or PTA. There are usually extra giveaways from our sponsors and supporters, as well, which are always nice. And all of it is completely free for K-8 PTOs and PTAs.

Again, here’s the link for learning more and signing up. Hope we can help you take advantage.

For years now, I’ve been talking about family events as a tool for welcoming and connecting with families. Our School Family Nights offerings are based on this concept.

And while the traditional nights — like Family Reading Night and Family Movie Night — are great and deservedly popular, this tip is about even more diverse events. I’m always so impressed by the creativity of PTOs and PTAs in developing their own unique events. At our school, we had an awesome mother-son mini-golf event in the school gym.

What have you done? We’ve started a dedicated thread on our message boards for compiling a whole list of new family event ideas for you to think about in your planning. Add your own or just be inspired. Many times, these twists on the old reliable can be just what’s needed to rekindle interest in your events. Good 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.

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.

Is your group — like so many others — putting a focus these days on keeping children healthy? From exercise (and eating right) to the H1N1 virus to cough and cold and even to hand-washing, there are just so many concerns these days that affect our kids’ health.

It’s been interesting to watch so many groups getting proactive on the issue. Groups are spearheading flu clinics at school and hosting family events around healthy habits. Two great volunteers at my school just put together a weeklong health and wellness program, including a blood drive, pilates in the classrooms, and a road race. Love it.

With that in mind, we’ve recently put together a new dedicated space on ptotoday.com just about what groups are doing about Healthy School Kids. It’s already a nice resource and will get better each month as we add even more of the best ideas we find from parent groups around the country. And — bonus! — we also expect to have a whole host of free offers (samples and the like) from health-focused companies available for “Healthy School Kids” groups, starting in the next month or two. Check it out now (and preregister your group) at ptotoday.com/healthy-school-kids.