PTO Today

In the April issue of PTO Today magazine we ask:

As the school year draws to a close, parent groups will be electing new officers and existing leaders will be
deciding whether to go another round. How do you decide when it’s time to retire?

Would love to hear what folks think about this. Please add a comment and let us know what you think!

The hits keep coming… and the need for putting common-sense financial controls in place remains as well as the need for the smart investment in parent group insurance.  It’s part of our leadership job to protect these funds.  C’mon folks… you can do this.  Don’t wait. 

Here’s one of our first cases with video.  A Kansas City man (and former PTA president) is confronted by a TV reporter about allegations of a $10,000 theft.  The frustrating fact here? This man was the successor to another leader who stole. Ugh.

And some more embezzle stories:  Maryland PTA treasurer takes $25,000 from her group as part of a larger, $185,000 conviction.  Here, it’s nearly $9,000 missing from an Iowa PTA.

Man, I hope that’s it for the month.

I’m surprised (because the PC police usually win) and happy that this PTA in Kansas is sticking to its guns and allowing alcohol at its off-campus, adults-only fundraising auction.

Let’s see… parents getting together, having a nice time, supporting the school.  Yeah, sounds awful.  Perhaps the lesson to the protesting kids could be that adults can have a nice time out, have a drink or two and be really responsible.  And when those kids get older, hopefully they will be just as responsible (and support our schools), too.

What would your group do in this spot?

We have an interloper in our midst!

Just kidding… but we do have a principal who’s posted a really interesting question and perspective on our message boards.  His question: how can a principal who really supports his parent group also make sure that the parent group really supports him?

Hope you’ll add your two cents…

Here’s a front-pager from the Washington Post that does a nice job of capturing the complexities of email use and web communication for the parent community at schools.

This is a tricky one for me, because I’m all for empowering parents and increasing parent communication, but I’ve seen too many of these one-school or one-district forums or listservs wind up creating real division at schools.  At the end, the division can erode community support and involvment.  Email and anonymous (or faceless) forums have this tendency to encourage folks to say things (and say them in a way) that they never would in-person.  And even for well-intentioned posts, misunderstandings (of tone or intent) are common.

My misgivings are largely about the open two-way/all-way communications like message boards or listservs, which allow any poster to send any and every thought to every other member of the list group.   On the other hand, I think using email — and including many ways for parents to respond privately — is an enormously important tool these days.  Schools and principals should be using it.  And parent groups, too, should absolutely be taking advantage.  (Note: Our PTO Manager tool includes a very cool, simple email functionality that’s making a big difference for lots of groups.)

Interested if you’ve run across any troubles (or great success stories) around this issue in your district or at your school?

Wow, I’ve definitely heard strong opinions on the good and the bad re: fundraising award assemblies, but – man alive – the commenters at the end of this California column seem to think they’re either a) the most horrible thing ever top hit our schools; or b) an extraordinarily important lesson in free enterprise and rewarding hard work.  And here I just thought they were assemblies.

There’s a real baby-with-the-bathwater challenge here. I can see the issues with over-the-top schoolwide assemblies at botht he beginning and end of every fund drive. But I also know that both types of assemblies result in higher fundraiser earnings, which often go to saving or providing essential school services. I would think the prizes, especially (as opposed to the kick-off), could still be played up big even without the assembly.

What’s going on with your group when it comes to kick-off and reward assemblies?

In the January issue of PTO Today magazine we ask how you would handle this situation…

Deciding how to spend group funds can be tough, especially when the PTO and the principal don’t see eye to eye. What if your principal wants to redo the teachers’ lounge, but parents insist that the money directly benefit students?

What would you do? Click on ‘Add a comment’ below and tell us what you think!

(Some of you might have already received the January issue of PTO Today magazine. If not, it’s on its way!)

Last week I wrote a post about the File Exchange tool that we expected to launch this week. Thanks to our technical, marketing, and editorial teams we pulled it all together and the File Exchange went ‘live’ yesterday afternoon.

We’re pretty excited about this tool as we expect it’s going to be a huge time saver when you’re creating flyers, letters, invites, and all the other documents you use over the year. The other nice benefit is all the ideas you’ll get when you take a peak at how other groups are putting together documents.

If you’ve visited our message boards you’ll know how often folks are talking about the documents they use and others are asking to receive them by email. This tool will make it easy for everyone to share files. Plus, unlike the message boards, you can browse for documents by category and see any ratings and/or comments people have shared about that document.

Our resident PTO Today experts will be posting files but this is ultimately a community tool and we’re relying on you to make it great so everyone (including you!) benefits. Please share a couple of your docs and of course browse through the categories and download a few for yourself. The File Exchange is here - http://www.ptotoday.com/filesharing/

If you have any questions or you’re having trouble downloading/uploading documents please let me know. You can email me directly at klagden@ptotoday.com or leave a comment below.

And of course we want to know what you think! Email me or add your comment below.

In a candid post, blogger Denise Gonzalez-Walker talks about the differences between her son’s “volunteer-rich” elementary school and a low-income school she volunteered at where parents were largely absent. The reason, she found, was that many of the parents work multiple jobs with unflexible schedules.

What can parent groups do to reach out to these moms and dads? Has your group found effective ways to involve parents that juggle two or three jobs to keep food on the table?

If you’re a regular on our message boards you’ll know how often folks are looking to share documents with each other. Why design a brand new ‘Donuts with Dad’ flyer or ‘Welcome Letter’ when others have already done the work and are willing to share?

We’re pretty excited about the File Exchange tool because we know how much time it takes to create all those flyers, letters, surveys, etc. you use all year long. By sharing documents everyone can save time…and tap into even more ideas by looking at the documents other groups use. You’ll be able to grab a document whenever you need and hopefully you’ll use the very simple ’submit a document’ feature to share the files your group is currently using.

Our webmaster is working hard to get the last few bugs fixed and have this tool ready to go next week. And now that I’ve made this announcement here on the blog there’s even more pressure for him to finish on time…sneaky of me I know

It’s never fun to go live with an empty stage so we’re hoping you can help! We’ve seeded the File Exchange with the documents we currently have in the bonus tools area. But we’re looking for LOTS more! Do you have any documents to share? Welcome letters, event flyers, donation requests, notices, etc. Please send them to resources@ptotoday.com in the next few days and we’ll make sure they’re in the File Exchange when we launch next week.