PTO Today

The Alex-Bradley PTO in Alex, Okla., sponsored a noodling tournament fundraiser last June. More than 50 competitors wrestled giant catfish, which they caught by hand from the Washita River. The largest fish caught weighed 57 pounds!

When it comes to building involvement and engagement at your school, there’s no better starting point than hosting several fun, free events for families.

This is what our School Family Nights series is all about.

These kind of nights are the entry points for families, especially the families who are least likely to come to a meeting or step up out of the blue to volunteer. In other words: the parents and families you have the most trouble reaching.

Whether you use one of our free kits to host a Family Reading Night or a Family Movie Night or a Go Green Night or you come up with a creative family event of your own, these are the events that bring in families. There are so many benefits. Families having a positive time connected to school is great, even if nothing else happens. Those parents getting a new appreciation for your PTO (it’s about more than fundraising) is another. And I can tell you from experience that your volunteer recruitment gets easier after parents have connected with your school in these light ways.

Last point: Please don’t charge admission. These are exactly the kinds of events you raise money to support. And you’ll make more money from your actual major fundraisers if you resist the urge to charge for everything else. Serving parents and providing a free movie and some popcorn is a perfectly great function of your group.

Parent Involvement Day 2010 is Nov. 18; here are some ways to tap into the parent power at your school:

Coffee and Class
Work with administrators to invite parents to have breakfast at school, then go with their children to the first class of the day. Be sure to let parents know about volunteer opportunities.

A Banner Welcome
Recognize parents for their support of the school by hanging a banner outside the main entrance or placing a message on the school marquee. Hand out a brochure about the benefits of parent involvement.

Tutoring Sessions
Recruit parents to work with students struggling in math or reading. Then hold a family reading night or math night after school.

Not sure what your parent group should do for the Halloween holiday? Consider these activities for a scary good time:

Costume swap
A few weeks before Halloween, plan a time when families can trade their old princess and superhero outfits for something new to their kids.

Pumpkin carving contest
During any October event, invite families to carve (or simply decorate) pumpkins together. Then display the spooky creations at school.

Trunk or treat
It’s trick-or-treating right in the school parking lot. Families pop open their trunks, which are decorated according to a theme. Costumed kids collect goodies at each car.

I don’t often plug specific programs here (and full disclosure: the NFL has been a client and partner of ours here at PTO Today), but I love ideas that add spirit and fun to the school environment, and the NFL’s new tradition fills that bill.

Basically, the NFL is encouraging schools and businesses across the country to show their NFL team spirit on Friday, Sept. 10, 2010, which is also the Friday of the first NFL weekend of the year. It’s not too late to participate. Maybe the kids can wear NFL shirts or perhaps you can have an art or banner contest. Who knows? It just feels like the right kind of fun, low-impact but high-interest program for the beginning of the school year.

There are more details on the NFL’s site. You’ll notice there is also a nice prize aspect to the program for schools that sign up and add the most creative and most active elements to their celebration. (Back to Football Friday is connected to the NFL’s Play 60 healthy lifestyles campaign.)

P.S. — Another quick one for you — I just reread this “balloon poem” on our message boards. Loved it for back to school. Hope it inspires you and your group.

Yes, there is humor in the fact that we’re crazy enough to get angry when we see a box top in someone’s trash can. The horror!

What better time of year to look back and remind ourselves that it’s OK to laugh at the sometimes absurd parts of this job? So here are just a few of our best light-hearted looks at PTO and PTA life:

• Top 6 Exercises for PTO Leaders
• Confessions of a Compulsive Volunteer
• Taking Aim at the Head Table

For me, I always laugh when I meet a new PTO leader and ask her, “OK, which room in your house have you completely forfeited to your school work?” Usually it’s the dining room table. I’m still waiting for the first child of a parent group leader to be lost in a tragic PTO paperwork avalanche. Egad!

Enjoy June!

Take a look back at your just-ending PTO year. Do you have one really memorable event that went off great, one that people remember and that has become identified with your PTO or PTA group?

I call that a “signature event,” and I talked about why having a signature event is so important in a recent video blog entry.

These can really be anything, whether it’s the annual school fair with the fire trucks and antique car parade or the dinner dance gala that has become a highlight of the (adult) social calendar. The key question is this: Is the event becoming a well-known, looked-forward-to annual tradition?

If you have one of these, make it even better. If you don’t, work hard to get one. I can tell you with great confidence that one awesome event plus one good event is a way better recipe for PTO success than six just OK events. Success can help change your reputation in the school community, and successful events definitely attract the best volunteers.

Want a jump-start on creating your own signature event? You can start with one of our School Family Nights as a platform for making something really special. You can also get great ideas from our Facebook discussion on signature events that’s been going strong.

I like the sounds of this NFL “Back to Football Friday” program for this coming September. The details for your school are here: http://www.nflrush.com/footballfriday

Basically, on the Friday before the NFL season starts (September 10th), schools across the country are encouraged to put together a spirit day of their own choosing to kick off the season. The more creative the better. The more physically active the better.

And the NFL will provide some tools and templates (look for a Back to Football Friday poster in your August issue of PTO Today magazine) to help you make it even better. $10,000 grants for schools that do the best job aren’t bad either.

There’s a lot I like about this idea: 1. It comes at a good time, a Friday right when the back-to-school season is finishing up for many schools. Lots of seriousness (new teachers, new assignments, new homework policies) followed by some fun. 2. It’s extremely flexible, which is always good for PTOs and for school schedules. Before school, after-school, during school. Contests, activities, decorations. It’s all up to you and your group and your school. And 3. Did I mention the $10,000 NFL Play 60 grants?

If you’re looking for a hook for an early-season fun school activity, this new NFL initiative may be just the fit. That link again is: http://www.nflrush.com/footballfriday

Enjoy!

If you have been in the PTO Today community lately you may have noticed that some members have been sporting a new look! That’s because we have new “profile avatars” available. To give your PTO Today community persona a makeover, log in and go to your profile page. The easiest way to get to your profile is by clicking on the ‘profile’ link on the upper right hand side of the page, next to your name. Once you are on your page, click ‘change profile picture’ under the status bar.  From here, choose your new look. Of course, you can still upload your own photo — we love putting a face with a name.

So what are you waiting for?  It takes all of one minute to visit your profile page. Choose a new avatar and let your parent group personality shine through! After all, you are so much more than a mundane, faceless green avatar.

How Many PTOers Does It Take To Screw In a Lightbulb?

How many? My answer is 6: One to screw it in, and five to sell tickets to the “screw in a lightbulb” family night.

Yep, a joke about PTOs. It is allowed. And my advice this week is to lighten up. Significantly.

If your biggest challenge is getting more parents connected to your group, and being connected to your group is deadly serious or dreadfully boring — then you’re in trouble. You have to fix that before anything else.

I wrote a column about making your PTO more fun that has some tips for turning your group around.

You also might like these fun ideas from our Idea Bag section:
• Hollywood Squares game
• Newsletter puns contest
• Traveling cookie jar
In the meantime, I’m giving an “Our Parent Group Rocks” T-shirt to whoever adds my favorite answer to the ”How Many PTOers?” question on the message boards. (Deadline = a week from today; judge and jury = me.)

Have fun with it. Can’t wait to see the replies.