PTO Today

Wow — $65k is definitely one of the biggest embezzles we’ve seen. This one from a middle school PTA treasurer in California.

Of course, our embezzle blog posts wouldn’t be complete without our plea: please use common sense, basic financial controls.

Had to figure this would happen. School Committee in Massachusetts in hot water after using the PTO-funded emergency phone system to blast a pro-budget override message to all school families.

Several issues: 1) non-profits not allowed to advocate for a certain vote; and 2) Massachusetts election laws may also have been violated.

Technology — these phone trees and email solutions like our PTO Manager tool — is going to make this kind of thing even more tempting. Important that we use it well.

Excited to introduce all of our ptotoday.com readers and users to a new site we launched just this morning — schoolfamily.com.

It’s from the same team of involvement experts who bring you ptotoday.com, but you’ll see that the focus is subtly but importantly different. Where ptotoday.com is all about the challenges of being a great school PTO or PTA leader, schoolfamily.com is all about the challenges of being a great school parent. Example: ptotoday.com might talk about how to put on a spaghetti supper for 400, while schoolfamily would talk about why attending a spaghetti supper actually matters.

We’re excited about how this kind of new content can help you (as a leader) accomplish even more. Hope you’ll share the new site with all your parents, as helping parents “get it” when it comes to getting involved is what you’re all about and what schoolfamily.com is all about.

(We’d also love your ideas on how we can make schoolfamily.com even better.) Enjoy!

We can’t let our schools become factories. I’m all for accountability, but one of the first questions with accountability is: “what are you counting?” And for me, when it comes to school, SAT scores are not all that we should be counting. It’s why I love playgrounds at schools and schools that realize that extra-curriculars matter and schools that realize the atmosphere and discipline and caring matter, too. These are many of the things that PTOs and PTAs are so good about bringing into and keeping at school.

And it’s why this LA Times story on significant declines in school field trips is so disconcerting. Thank God for the parent groups doing what they can to stem this tide. Also worthwhile to give credit (as the story does) to the good work of one of our favorite partners, Target, on this issue. Their field trip grant program is a step in the right direction.

Love to see good results from a program we played a (small) role in.  Here’s a great result ($10,000 grant) from this past year’s Love Your Veggies school grant program, sponsored by Hidden Valley.  PTO Today — through our connection with so many schools — helped manage the back-end of this program for Hidden Valley.

Check out the Love Your Veggies program for your school next year.  Nice dollars and nice, healthy cause. 

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.

Just a little link to a calendar item about a school hosting a Get Movin’ Night this weekend. I’ve been to a couple of these, and they’re a great mix of fun and physical activity (even if your school doesn’t have its own pool!). You can check out our Get Movin’ Night here and all of our School Family Nights here .

Thought I’d give a quick heads-up that my favorite new tool on the site — our File Exchange — has been redesigned and upgraded. Better than ever.

You can check out the File Exchange here.

What’s the File Exchange? Think of it as a treasure box for PTOs and PTAs. If you’ve written a great letter on getting involved or created a great flyer for teacher appreciation — load it to the File Exchange so others can use it, too.  And next time you’re sitting down to create a brochure or flyer or letter for this project or that — get a head start with a visit to the File Exchange first.

Have anything to share???

So we’re 2-for-2 on weather issues this year for our Expos. Hopefully, that means New Jersey, Chicago and Denver are due for bright skies and warm temps, right? Even with some slick roads (those darn weathermen were predicting way worse, which kept some folks away), more than 400 leaders joined us for a great day.

A couple of quick snapshots with a note or two:

That’s Doug Willett from Cherrydale Farms fundraising presenting our Early Bird raffle winners with their award. Funny note: Dimitria Sullivan of Dedham, MA is in the middle accepting the award from Doug. She told me her “biggest dream is to get into PTO Today magazine.” 1. She needs to work on her dreams a bit 2. Hope the PTO Today Blog counts.

A fun photo that captures the energy and excitement that’s so palpable at the Expos. It’s tons of vendors, yes. But it’s entertainers and demos and tons of prizes and PTO Today expert presentations and more. Basically, if you put several hundred PTO and PTA leader types into one big room and … well.. let’s just say Exxon and Mobil are currently researching ways to tap into the energy!

Not too late to join us in Jersey, Chicago or Denver for our next expos.

400 or so of our (new!) close friends are having a great day today in Columbus, Ohio.  It’s our first event of the 2008 Expo season. Dozens and dozens of exhibitors, talented entertainers and fun, and PTO Today experts offering insight and answering questions on all of your most vexing PTO challenges…. Great combo.

Next 10 weeks or so include Expos in Marlborough (MA), North Jersey, suburban Chicago and Denver.  Hope you can make it.