PTO Today

One of my favorite features on ptotoday.com is the Ask a Question section. You ask whatever PTO-related question is on your mind, and we send out our crack editorial and customer service teams to find the answer.

Ask your question here.

My tip this week is based on some common advice we give in answering those questions: Read your bylaws. Bylaws are a key organizing document of a PTO, and every PTO should have them. They state, in writing, the most basic rules of the group: what the officer positions are and what the duties of each office are, when elections are held, etc.

Your group should also have a second set of written rules called policies. These are things that are important to the way you do business but aren’t as basic as bylaws. For instance, your bylaws might say you must hold a general meeting once a month. Your policies might say that meetings are held on the first Tuesday of the month at 7 p.m. in the school cafeteria.

There are two important reasons to have written bylaws and policies: to have a ready answer to questions-especially when disputes arise-and to record a basic set of best practices so that future leaders can use them as a guide.

If you haven’t done so recently, take the time to review your group’s bylaws and policies. Make sure they fit the current needs of your group, and if they don’t, revise them. If your group doesn’t have bylaws and policies, this is a good time to get started on putting some in writing. We have lots of resources to help:

• Bylaws and nonprofit topic page on ptotoday.com
• Sample bylaws and other resources on the File Exchange
• “How To Write PTO Bylaws” article

I’ve been studying PTO and PTA communications really closely for the past couple of years, with two conclusions:

1. Email is now the right solution for nearly all of your communications to parents.
2. Our Parent Express Email is the best free email solution for most PTOs and PTAs.

Schools and parent groups always have to be careful when moving to new technologies. We can’t leave families behind, which is why the paper “backpack express” has remained so popular for so long. But at most schools today, at least one parent in virtually every family is now a frequent email user. Facebook and Twitter are certainly growing, but lots of parents still aren’t using those tools regularly. The time is right for email.

Even more important, email works better. It’s faster, cheaper, and easier, and it eliminates the biggest communication roadblock (counting on those darn kids to deliver!).

That’s why we’ve had a whole crew working hard to create our newest version of Parent Express Email — the only free email tool created specifically for PTOs and PTAs. We’ve tried to make it extremely simple to send basic, good-looking, effective parent group emails. That’s it.

Parent Express Email features and benefits

I could write more about what PEX can do for your group and all its features and benefits, but I’ll simply say give it a look and give it a try. Or have your communications chair give it a look. (Seriously — just forward this email!)

With feedback from current users, PEX is getting better (and getting even more customized just for PTO and PTA challenges) every week. I can’t wait to hear how it’s helping your group connect effectively with more of your parents. Feel free to respond to this email with any thoughts or feedback (or even rave reviews). Thanks in advance.

Besides providing great family activities and supporting your school with resources and volunteers, are you helping the parents at your school become better school parents? It’s an often-overlooked role of the best parent groups around the country.

Whether it’s sharing information (or bringing in speakers) on Internet safety or college preparedness or connecting families to academics with a program like Family Reading Night — your group can go far beyond fundraisers and fun nights.

With that in mind, we’ve recently launched a really simple web plug-in for school and PTO and PTA websites that automatically shares great tips on being a good school parent — how and when to help with homework, best ways to communicate with teachers, managing the morning madness, etc. — with all the parents at your school. The “widget” pulls the best content from our sister site, SchoolFamily.com, and displays it and updates it right on your website. Any webmaster can grab the code and add it in just a couple of minutes. You can also feel free to add the same links to your print or email newsletters.

Great teachers teach. Great principals keep effective schools running well. Great parent groups are passionate about helping all of the parents at their school connect and serve. Hopefully, this new web tool will help you do that even better.

PTOs and PTAs build school community in many important ways. And research shows that this alone can help students and teachers succeed. But do you do anything that directly impacts student achievement?

There are lots of ways to do it. You might organize a monthlong reading challenge, create a series of math enrichment programs, or set up a tutoring program. There are other possibilities, too, and that’s my tip for this week: When you’re planning your calendar for the new year, think about ways you can directly affect student achievement. Here are some links to get you started:

• Make It an A+ Year
• One school’s awesome reading challenge
• Family Reading Night planning kit
• Back-to-school resources page on ptotoday.com

Share your ideas with the principal, and ask him for the subjects or topics where he thinks you can make the most difference. A project like this can be exciting for your group and the school alike, and you’re likely to find that it builds parent involvement, as well.

Starting to think about getting more volunteers next year? One important first step is how you ask parents to express their interest. A well-done “volunteer interest form” (here’s a sample) is an important part of that process.

The best form combines practicality with a bit of cheerleading and is very careful not to intimidate. Remember, parents are a bit afraid of volunteering (like if they volunteer once, they’ll be sucked in to a major commitment), so you need to make it clear that flexible opportunities are available and limited help is still very much appreciated.

While including specific opportunities is great, I also highly recommend including at least one check box that says something like: “I’d love to find some way to help this year, but my schedule is crazy and I’m not sure what can work.” You can then reach out to those who check that box and see whether there’s something you can work out together.

If you’re in volunteer-getting mode, I also recommend this feature story on connecting with more volunteers. Good luck!

Fairly soon, your group will be welcoming a whole new crop of parents to your school. Some small percentage of those parents will be excited to get involved with your group. How will you react to those parents?

Will you make it clear that their questions are tiresome? Will you hastily dismiss their “new” ideas (that you’ve had in the past) and discourage them?

I hope not, but that’s what a lot of us PTO and PTA old-timers tend to do (often unknowingly) when we first deal with these new parents. It’s a great way to turn off the fresh, enthusiastic volunteers you most need.

I tried to capture this dynamic — and also some of the mistakes that new parents make in jumping in too aggressively — in a column I wrote last year called “A Tale of Two Volunteers“. I think this is a great time of year to bring it back out. I hope you’ll share it with your fellow leaders as a reminder of the mistakes we should try to avoid this summer and next fall.

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!

My tip this week is to steal and steal again. Have you checked out the File Exchange on ptotoday.com lately? We have a lot of web visitors who swear it’s their favorite part of our site, or at least the most practical.

There are now almost 900 docs on the Exchange — all just sitting there ready for you to swipe. You need a welcome letter to parents? Someone’s already written it. You need an involvement flyer? That’s there, too.

Here are three of our most stolen (downloaded) docs:

• Volunteer Interest Survey
• 112 Suggested Auction Items
• Room Parent Resource Binder

Now for a request: With the year coming to a close, did you or one of your fellow leaders create a doc or letter or flyer that worked especially well? If so, would you please upload it to the Exchange to share with others? It’s really easy to do. That kind of sharing (so that others may steal) is what makes the File Exchange so helpful. Thanks in advance.

Lots of chatter about school auctions this time of year! Did your school just have an auction? How did it go? Have you done a debrief on your event?

Here’s a question: Did some of your auction items create bidding wars? I bet they did. For tips on how to create bidding wars and other ideas on how to make your next auction a big success, watch Tim’s video blog. Also be sure to visit our new Auction Group page — your spot to access great auction tools and information, collaborate with other leaders,  share your event photos and tell other about your most lucrative and unique auction items!  Hope to see you over there soon.

Are your meetings the worst part of your PTO job? Have you been doing them the same way for years? Do folks dread the second Tuesday of the month (or the first Wednesday, or whenever)?

Making meetings work is a frequent challenge for all parent groups, and my advice this week is to think differently. There’s no global law that says you have to read last month’s minutes at every meeting. Use your website and email to distribute them beforehand.

There are all kinds of sacred cows (the budget report, having the meeting every month in the first place) that you can choose to change. I loved this post on our message boards last week — read how this group is approaching meetings in a new way. Can you borrow some of these ideas? Their approach may or may not be right for your group, but it’s a great example of thinking differently.

I bet you’ll also like these resources from ptotoday.com on making meetings better:

• Successful Meetings: 14 Tips
• Meetings File Exchange
• Meetings/Robert’s Rules topic page

If something isn’t working, don’t be afraid to change it up. Often that kind of spirit can spread throughout your group and lead to surprisingly great results.