PTO Today

Love it when districts “get it” when it comes to honoring and valuing volunteer efforts in schools.  Here’s a recent parent-focused release from the Anoka-Hennepin district in Minnesota that captures that well.

Two more cool things about the release: 

1. All that data on volunteer hours was captured because the district uses our PTO Manager “Volunteer Builder” software to help encourage volunteering and to track volunteer efforts.  Neat to see such nice end results.

2. We’re goig to be in Anoka-Hennepin Tuesday for our PTO Expo.  I’ll be presenting a “best habits of successful PTOs and PTAs” keynote in the morning.  If you’re in the area, i hope you’ll come by.

On the heels of the Go Green Night announcement last weekend, we’re equally excited to be working with the folks at Symantec to introduce an annual Internet Safety Week for schools.  For 2009, ISW is next week, April 27 – May 1.

Couple of relevant pieces to this story for you:

1. We’ve created a great set of resources for parents over on SchoolFamily.com.  Check out our Internet Safety Week section for all kinds of insight and tools.  I hope you’ll share the link in your emails (you are using the new, free Parent Express Email service, aren’t you?), your websites and even your print newsletters to home.

2. We created a flyer to help you participate in Internet Safety Week at your school.  It has great tips for helping your parents engage with their kids online, which is the first step to all of this. You can download the photocopy-ready flyer there (from our File Exchange) and share with all of your parents.

3. Symantec just launched its new, free OnlineFamily.Norton service for families.  I’ve been an Advisory Board member for the product’s development, and I must say — pretty darn cool. I think the big switch these days has to be from parents thinking of Internet Safety and Parenting as two different things to parents realizing that — with the ‘Net being such a central part of kids lives — Internet Safety and Parenting are one in the same.  The good news is that the new Norton tool helps make that a reality.  USA Today agrees in a review of the product today.

More to come next week on this exciting devlopment….

Unless you spent this week under a very heavy (and sound-proof) rock, then you’ve heard about Earth Day, and of course the health of our environment has been a big topic for years now.  That’s why we’re so excited about our newest School Family Night — Go Green Night — in partnership with the Energy Star program and the EPA. Very cool.

The kits for the NIght will be ready in the fall, but you can already learn more and sign up to host a Go Green Night at your school.  Learn more about Go Green Night here.

We kicked off the partnership this past Saturday on the National Mall in Washinton, D.C., where we were proud to work with new EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson and her team for the launch announcement.  On a beautiful day in that beautiful spot, it was easy to get jazzed about getting green.  If the initial response to this Night is any indication, this could be the biggest School Family Night yet.

There seem to be more and more sites these days talking about what’s wrong with schools, and I suppose there’s a need for that.  But we also know there’s a lot right about our schools, and we always like when that gets attention too.

It’s why we created our own version of “Find a School” and why we encourage you to click through and add your own comments about your school.  Let the world know what’s going right in your school.  (I’m sure it starts with a great group of parent volunteers, right?).

Hope you’ll also encourage all the parents at your school to chime in.  Our find-a-school tool is referenced by a ton of young parents (choosing where the little one is headed) and moving parents (picking a new house based on the possible new school) – and the more reviews of your school the better.

For encouraging the reviews (and, frankly, for encouraging your parents to take advantage of all the great content on schoolfamily.com), we also have a nice tool you can put right on your PTO or PTA website.

I suppose I should explain that www.schoolfamily.com is a sister site to this one.  Whereas www.ptotoday.com aims to help the leaders of local PTOs and PTAs run their groups most effectively, www.schoolfamily.com aims to help the general population of school parents do their best in the important job of getting their kids through school most successfully.  Sometimes we think of the site as a web assistant to all the work you do (as a parent group leader) in trying to explain why parent involvement is so essential.

Spread the (good) news….

As the son of a 30-year first-grade teacher, I can say with great confidence that teachers don’t need any more ceramic apples. None. Nada. Zippo. I’ll just leave it at that.

While apples got old quick, my mom still does treasure notes she received and loves to remember students of hers, as she reads about their exploits (college, jobs, marriages, babies) in the local paper.

That’s why I really like a new product from Josten’s (yes — the picture and yearbook and ring guys) that I think will make an excellent teacher appreciation gift. It’s a simple-to-make photo memory book that will make a great keepsake for a teacher. I know my mom would have loved it.

The class picture.  Some candids from the field trip or the classroom. Shots from the class play.  Good stuff. Cool idea for the room moms at your school, too.

Former president from outside Denver arrested — after her kids tried to play lookout on her getaway effort  –  for stealing from her group.  Grrrr.

In this case, the method was forging her co-signers signature on dozens of checks.  Our most basic of financial best practices – making sure that a non-signer opens the checking statement each month — would have likely prevented this one.  Also hope they’re insured. 

That seems about dead-on perfect, no?  Love the fact that this Tennessee super honors parents. Love the fact that this PTO leader was the big winner.  And love her very humble and very appropriate – we do it for the kids — reaction.  Cool.

In a perfect world, all of our volunteer efforts would garner this kind of praise.  It’s well-deserved, and it also serves to encourage others to jump in.  That’s also the spirit of our annual Parent Group of the Year campaign. Has your group bragged (It’s OK! It’s Ok!) yet this year?  You should. Nice prizes, too, thanks to our friends at DirectTV.

This recent column of mine on diffusing PTO drama has been garnering a lot of feedback, so I thought I’d highlight here in the blog, as well.  Seems to have struck a chord with many.

You can read it, but the big point is that all the drama in our PTOs – the big tiffs, the hurt feelings, the perceived slights, all of it — gets directly in the way of building broad involvement and growing community.  yes, there are a certain type who live for the drama, but most of us have plenty of stress (especially these days) and shy away from more.  If your PTO is stress-filled, then is it any wonder you struggle to bring in new people or lots of new people?

Give the column a read.  Would love to hear your own strategies for reducing the drama.  Whaddaya got?

Thought I’d take a minute to recommend our newest tool.  It’s called “Parent Express Email” (we’ve been calling it PEX around the office), and I think you’re going to find it very, very helpful.

Basically, it’s a very simple (and free) tool for sending professional-looking emails to your parents.  (If you want to jump ahead to the tool without reading my thoughts… you can check out Parent Express Email here.  I’ll only be a little bit hurt. )

For years now, I’ve been very conservative about PTOs and email.  But I think the time is finally right for nearly all groups to take the plunge in a big way.  I wrote a column on this general topic of PTOs getting greener in our January issue. (more…)

While I’ve never been mistaken for a leading environmentalist, I do love it when going green also ties in with saving money.  I know turning down the thermostat saves trees (somehow), but — I must admit — I’m more motivated by the smaller gas bill.

Which is why I’m glad that the time has finally come when PTOs can go green in communications, remain effective in their work and save bucks.  If I can get my environmentalist badge and grow involvement and help the budget at the same time,  I’m in.

That was the theme of my January magazine column on the Green PTO.  And it’s definitely the theme of this interesting set of case studies from the Chicago Tribune of local school districts going electronic with their backpack expresses. 

It’s also why we’re so excited about our newest (real new — like 2 days old new!) free tool for PTOs and PTAs.  We call it “Parent Express Email”, and it finally makes sending professional looking email announcements and newsletters to your families simple.  Check out the Parent Express Email tool here.

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