PTO Today

In our last post Tim talked about the importance of planning out your entire year. Good stuff. Once you have that down, consider thinking about long-term planning for your PTO group. Hot off the “press” is a new article about how to create long-term plans without the headaches. Read that for some practical tips, then check out our new Sample PTO Strategic Plan.

Summer is a great time for thinking about what you want to accomplish this year. It’s important not to get stuck in the brainstorming process, though. If you want your vision to become reality, it’s important to plan. Here are a few tips to help you get started.

Plan out your entire year. Write down all the activities, programs, fundraisers, etc. that you hope to run. Include when they’ll start and when they’ll end. Think about how much each one will cost (or raise), and think about how many volunteers you’ll need for each. You want to make sure that you have a balanced year, that you aren’t caught off guard, and that you have the resources you need at the time you need them. And by the way, it’s OK to change your plan along the way. Starting with a road map makes picking a new route a lot easier.

Plan to build involvement. How will you attract the volunteers you need and the participation you’re hoping for? Getting people connected to the school and to your group through family events and low-key activities is an important first step. Make sure a big part of your plan for the year focuses on building involvement. The better you do that, the easier everything else will become.

Use our tools. We have lots of free planning tools on ptotoday.com. Finances are not a sexy topic, but we have two terrific articles
that walk you through the basics of creating a budget for the year and figuring a budget for a specific event, even if it’s one you’ve
never run before. Our 2 Hour Power volunteer pledge program has proved to be a successful way to build involvement all year long. And ”9-Stress Busting Organization Tips” offers a nice list of objectives to make your year a success.

Came across this interesting article about how one school board is saying no to using extra funds to hire teachers.. What it boils down to is one school fundraised enough money to offset the costs of cultural events, field trips, technology and more. As a result, the principal was able to use operating expenses to fund a technology teacher.

Recently their county school board announced a new policy that states that principals will no longer be able to hire extra teachers for their schools using operating funds. The reason: budget and equity concerns. The result: no more technology teacher, one very unhappy school parent group! Tough economic times mean tough budget and policy decisions all around. It also raises the question of what should PTO and PTA groups pay for?

On the business side of the PTO world, a couple of us from PTO Today had a great meeting last week with the folks from Rhode Island Novelty and Fun Services.   Nice guys, and very interesting company.  We got a tour of a ha-uge (very huge) warehouse filled with every kind of carnival prize and plastic snake and stuffed animal you can imagine.  My kids = very jealous.

The key point is that Fun Services is very much still going strong.  There had been some questions about what would happen, because Fun Services was technically a part of a big behind-the-scenes fundraising company called “Giftco”, which went into bankruptcy.   But the various Fun Services franchisees have been working throughout the transition, and now are on even stronger ground with the Rhode Island Novelty folks.

Will keep you informed of any other developments.

The annual national PTA convention, which ends today in Florida, is always a good marker for tracking financial performance of the well-known national non-profit for past year.

From my reading of various public documents, a few key items:

Membership – 5.16 million in 23,094 units.  Membership year earlier = approx. 5.4 million.

Revenue of national PTA = $12.5 million.  Revenue year earlier = $13.2 million. 

Expenses of national PTA = 13.2 million. Expenses year earlier = $13.1 million.

Net realized and unrealized loss on PTA investments (fancy term for stock market losses) in past year = $3.6 million.   (I think everyone who has a 401k knows that pain this past year. Ouch.)  Still a good chunk of assets ($14 million) as safety net even after that loss.

National PTA Employee Count 2009 = 81.  2008 = 73. 

My reading:  Expenses and employee count going up is going to be a tough mix with membership still going down.  It’s been several years now since last national dues increase.  Next increase has to at least be under consideration.  Was surprised that there seemed to be little if any questions re: these financials at the national meeting.

This time the stealing from the PTA was done by a couple! Ugh. When the parents at Erdenheim Elementary School in Erdenheim, PA, decided to switch from a PTA to PTO an audit was done and numbers just weren’t adding up… to the tune of $17,000! Ouch. Unfortunately, this group learned the hard way about the importance of fiscal controls in PTOs and PTAs.

Always love it when a PTO project gets completed successfully.   In this case — thanks to the PTO — this school backyard no longer looks directly into an active cemetary.

Love it even more when a Lowe’s Toolbox for Education grant is a big part of the reason why the project worked.. 

Nice.

I honestly don’t think Lowe’s support of parent involvement and of PTOs and PTAs gets near enough credit.  These guys really walk the walk when it comes to supporting schools in the communities where they do business.  I may be missing a program, but I’m fairly certain that the Lowe’s Toolbox for Education program is by far the largest and most generous grant program focused primarily on school PTOs and PTAs in the whole country.

Thanks Lowe’s!

The 2nd cycle of the 2008-09 school year was just completed.  The totals — more than $4,000,000 shared with more than 900 local parent groups across the country.  And that’s just this year.  The Toolbox program is now well over $10 million in total.  Double thanks, Lowe’s!

PTO Today is proud of the modest role we play as the communications and administrative team behind the scenes of Toolbox. None of this would happen without the generosity of the Lowe’s Charitable & Educational Foundation. Hundreds of playgrounds, hundreds of school grounds upgrades, hundreds of school signs, and innumerable creative building projects that don’t fit squarely in a common category (but which all are making schools better places…) — awesome.

Let’s Build Something Together is the Lowe’s tag line.  With this program, they’re really making that a reality.  Can your group gear up now to get involved next year?  

Congrats to this PTA mom from Maryland who’s up for a statewide parent involvement honor.  Her achievement?  Securing a $300,000 grant for a new handicapped-accessible playground for her school.  Sounds like it’s going to be amazing.

Wow — this is the harshest sentence we’ve seen yet for a PTO or PTA embezzle case.  This Arkansas treasurer convicted of taking $23,000 (and that’s just what they can prove).

We do like the fact that this case was prosecuted and taken seriously. Too often, groups or schools try to sweep these cases under the rug or prosecutors downplay the damage.  Make no mistake — this is stealing from kids and violating a trust.  There’s also often even further damage to the support and involvement at a a particular school for years.

More than worth it to use smart, basic money hanbling procedures.  And to get insured.