PTO Today

Here’s a new twist (and I bet it will be the first of many of these). Talented volunteer puts together a video selling the importance of volunteering at school. Professional editing and a soundtrack make it really slick. Love it! I feel like I’m watching Oprah:

We’ve always said that if announcing: “Meeting next Tuesday at 7PM” is your main involvement-building strategy, then you’re in trouble. These guys clearly get that.

UPDATE AS OF 3/19/08: We had an overwhelming amount of interest in this program and it is now sold out. We know these sampling programs are popular so we’ll keep working on bringing more of them to you in the future!

Yep, another sampling offer to add even more excitement and fun to one of your upcoming events. This time it’s Tide and participating groups will receive free samples to distribute to parents at an event. Could be a nice tie-in with your spring carnival, field day, BBQ, or any other event involving sticky fingers, grass, mud, or all of the above! Don’t worry, ending up with muddy, dirty kids isn’t required to participate

This particular Tide product is so new it just hit the store shelves in February! And we’re told it has Dawn in it to help with those pesky stains.

Couple things to note:

• You need to have an event scheduled between early April and early June.
• You’ll receive 192 free samples along with “thank you” message cards and notes that you can distribute to parents attending your event.
• Limited number of samples available so participation is on a first come first served basis.

Lots more info and details on how to sign up here - ptotoday.com/tide

In our opinion, this is just a step too far for this Missouri PTO.  What’d they do?  Sent a note home to parents advising parents not to let their kids see the Golden Compass movie.  Several parent complaints followed and superintendent reports his office never approved the note home. The big issue:  what’s the role of the parent group here?  Of course, this would be a bad choice for a Family Movie Night, and that would be a perfectly appropriate decision for the PTO leadership to make.  But advising parents what movies kids should watch outside of school? There’s an area that just seems well out-of-bounds for the local parent group.

This issue is picking up some national steam.  Not surprised, as it’s the perfect kind of story for the 3-minute, “get them talking/ get them mad” kind of piece for the national talk shows and the like.   At least some folks are approaching the issue thoughtfully. Here, Patrick Riccards over at “Eduflack” jumps in. My favorite concept:  Kids riding around the neighborhood with “My Mom Made the Honor Roll at XYZ School” bumper stickers on their bikes. Pretty funny.

OK, all you involved parents — what are your thoughts?

Just had to share this Smilebox greeting Misti Steger from John Paul II PTO shared with us. She created it to encourage her school’s families to attend the next PTO meeting. Click on this link to check it out.

Love how it includes photos of kids and parents enjoying themselves at past events. Nice way to welcome folks and show how much fun everyone has at family events.

Feeling inspired to create your own Smilebox greeting? It’s really easy as Smilebox gives you the design template. You simply add any photos, videos, words, and music you’d like to include and then send it to your email list. (You will need to download the Smilebox application first but they’ll walk you through the steps). Get started at www.smilebox.com.
Thanks Misti for sharing!

We’d love to see what you put together. Leave a link to your Smilebox in the comments or email me at klagden@ptotoday.com.