Next Wednesday, March 24 from 9:00pm – 10:00pm EST we are hosting a Twitter chat on this very topic. Here’s your chance to chat with Tim, founder of PTO Today, dad, and president of his kids’ parent group about the challenges, strategies and rewards of growing parent involvement.

If you are new to Twitter, check out a post I did a few weeks ago titled How to Use Twitter to Grow Parent Involvement. That post will familiarize you the basics of Twitter.

The next question is how do you participate in a Twitter chat? It’s really pretty simple.  Here are the basics of a Twitter chat:

What is a Twitter chat? A Twitter chat (sometimes called a Twitter party) is an event where a group of people decide to get on Twitter at a pre-determined time period to discuss a given topic.

How do you join a Twitter chat? To be part of the the conversation, you must first have a Twitter account. If you are just signing up now, again I recommend that you watch the Twitter basics video.  All Twitter chats use a # (hashtag) in their tweets to designate that they are part of a specific chat. Our hashtag is #PTOchat. Once you have an account, you then choose how you want to follow the conversation. You can just follow it in Twitter but there are many other unrelated conversations going on and it’s somewhat difficult to follow.

To make the conversation easy to follow there are online applications that organize the tweets: tweetgrid and tweetchat. Tweetgrid has a nice, little how-to tutorial on how to use Tweetgrid to set up and participate in a Twitter party.

Don’t let all these videos give you the wrong impression though – it really is simple to participate. You are basically IMing with other people on one topic and participating in and following the conversation using the #PTOchat hashtag. Easy Peasy.  It’s a very forgiving form of communication — can’t really make a mistake.

That said, if you are not ready to jump into a conversation but would like to get a gist of a Twitter chat, we’ll let you off the hook this time. To eavesdrop on our parent involvement convo,  go to one of the sites mentioned above and search on the #PTOchat hashtag during our chat (don’t need to use your Twitter login this way).  The downside of sitting on the sidelines? You are not eligible to receive our #PTOchat give-away, that folks will receive for tweeting with us during the March 24th chat, using the #PTOchat in their tweets.  This month we are going to give away a free Parent Involvement Kit to every person who tweets during our chat. At the end of our #PTOchat, we’ll also be giving away a t-shirt.

Hope you’ll join Tim and I to talk about effective ways to increase parent involvement. Bring your questions and ideas. Lots to talk about!

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.

First the fun. At PTO Today we talk a lot about how important it is to infuse some fun into your parent group. Well, these groups certainly seem to have the fun factor figured out.

• Nothing like some good-natured competition to liven up a school community:  Iron Chef competition.
• This PTO is giving families a chance to get creative with an all-day scrapbooking event.
• Families at this school love their Spaghetti dinner family night tradition. Sometimes it’s the old fashioned favorite that is the most fun.
• Getting high schoolers on board with a fundraiser can be a bit tough. This NJ PTO figured out a fun event to do the trick: a fashion show fundraiser. Loved that they involved the students by sponsoring a contest for the invitation. Neat idea.
• This school combined a  school carnival with a silent auction and had over 1000 attendees. Wow, that says a lot about the community!

Ok, now for the not-so-fun. Speaking to the need of solid financial controls in your parent group, there were several stories in the news this week about embezzlement:

Woman pleads guilty to $35,000 PTA theft.

PTA treasurer sentenced to three years of probation for stealing nearly $75,000 over a six-year period.

Ex-PTA president sentenced for stealing funds.

Some of the ways that Tim suggests to promote your group are:

• newsletters
• local newspaper articles (write a press release)
• brass plaques

We also hear of many groups using Twitter and Facebook to toot their horn a bit and grow involvement.

How does your group get the word out to your school about your hard work? We’d love to hear from you.

We talk a lot about making our groups more welcoming and trying to bring more parents into the volunteering fold. But are your messages home supporting those goals?

Funny thing is, I’m talking about little things: Do you start with a welcome? Do you always close with a sincere thank-you? Are you preachy or do you use guilt tactics (”It’s hard to believe that in a school with 400 children, we can’t get 10 volunteers”)? (I wrote a column a while back about avoiding guilt recruiting.) Or do you remain positive even when the frustrations of a long year are getting to you? Do you take the time to be careful with your editing and to try to write well?

These are the simple things that play a role in how you’re perceived by parents at your school. Tone tells a story about your group. Careful editing says your group believes its work is important.

I know you’re busy. And I know it’s hard to stay positive when you’re working so hard and facing obstacles and complaints along the way. But these little things do matter.

Here’s a quick overview of articles from this week. Perhaps these stories about creative PTOs & PTAs will inspire some new ideas for your parent group:

PTO reaches out community members in need. Very nice.
Like how this Nebraska school puts the fun in  fundraisers.

Always enjoy reading about school auctions with fun, upbeat themes.

PTO sponsors afterschool program prepares kids for the business world.

There has been an alarming amount of news about bullying in schools recently. Nice to hear that this PTO is doing it’s part to take on bullying issues.

Also, it’s sad to read so much about school closings. Threats of school closings has sent some parent groups into fundraising overdrive.

Came across several contests that I thought parent group leaders may be interested in:

http://www.meetingtomorrow.com/audio-visual-giveaway.html
http://www.gardenabcs.com/
http://www.parenting.com/momcongress/

Enjoy!

Loved reading these stories about what schools and parent groups are doing to help Haiti:

Dimes for Haiti teaches kids math skills and more importantly, about helping others in need.

PTO organizes “dress down day” to raise funds for Haiti.

Some nice work done by PTOs & PTAs (maybe their events will spark some ideas for your group):

PTO sets up “Study Island” for parents.

PTA runs Healthy Family Fun Night.

PTO surprises staff with break room make-over.

PTO helps turn Principal into a human cake!

Theft and controversy in PTAs & PTOs:

Middle school in Texas wonders what’s going on with their PTA funds.

Former PTO President accused of theft.

Parents protest alternate school zoning plan.

Has your parent group been in the news and you’d like to share your story with other leaders? Email me and I’ll include it our round-up. lgundlach@ptotoday.com

Complete details on Back2School 2010 are here on the website. The program does fill up, and we have to turn away groups every year.

As a summary, the centerpiece of the Back2Schoool offering is Jump In! magazine, which is written to help parents make it a great school year. How and why to get involved. Tips for communicating with teachers and helping the kids succeed in school. Lots of stuff. You get one copy for each parent in your school to hand out from your parent group. (Check out some sample Jump In! articles and other content.)

We also provide custom materials to help you make the most of back-to-school night and ideas on kicking off a great involvement year for your PTO or PTA. There are usually extra giveaways from our sponsors and supporters, as well, which are always nice. And all of it is completely free for K-8 PTOs and PTAs.

Again, here’s the link for learning more and signing up. Hope we can help you take advantage.

What does your PTO do to help dads be more connected to your school? We would love to hear about your programs and ideas.

Tim mentions Watch D.O.G.S. and Safeteam — two organized initiatives that are doing their part to engage dads in their kid’s education — in this video. Thought you might like to check out their websites.