PTO Today

Hello All –

Would you mind taking 5 minutes to help us help you and other parent group leaders?

There’s a link to a quick survey here: Parent Group Leader Survey

We haven’t done this in a while, but it’s always helpful to get an update on the latest with parent groups and parent group leaders. What you’re doing. How you’re using the web and technology. What we can do for you? All that good stuff.

Really appreciate your taking the time to help us out. Confident that you’ll see the results in the next few months as we plan our next advancements here on the site and beyond.

It’s that time of year. New Year’s resolutions abound. One of my resolutions is two-fold:  1) to figure out how to be more efficient with my volunteer gigs so I can 2)lead a more balanced life and enjoy my kids.

That’s why I love the My PTO Today feature of our website (in the top navigation bar).  It lets me chose what content is most relevant to my role in our PTO and delivers articles, message board threads, Q & As, and customizable documents related to my chosen topics — all to My PTO Today page and to my email inbox.  Such a great way to keep me focused on the task at hand. Gotta love that.

So have you taken advantage of this way to streamline and personalize content yet?  Here’s how to get the most out of the My PTO Today.  You designate what’s most important to you during the registration process.  When you get to the second screen and the section that says “Customize My PTO Today for you”, pay careful attention to categories across from the “Topics I am interested in” header. It is here where you define what topics you want pulled into your My PTO Today Page.  Once you have checked off the boxes you can redefine the topics you want to watch as often as you like. Just go into your profile and select “edit profile”.  Use this feature as a tool to help you manage your time and focus. Are you knee deep in planning an auction this month? Maybe you want to go back and just check Auction and Planning and Organization categories. Spend less time searching and more time reading and doing, so you can get the task done more quickly.

Hope you take advantage of this neat tool. It’s always nice to make good on at least one New Year’s resolution!

Our online community is expanding! We are excited to let you know that we are adding “groups” to our community. What are groups? Think of this new area on our site as a virtual coffee shop, where you can collaborate with leaders around one topic or theme. Our goal is to help you share and discover targeted information more effectively in a supportive environment.

Our first group is the Family Movie Night Group. Why Family Movie Night? We hear from schools all the time that Family Movie Nights are their favorite way to build community. And if you’ve spent any time on our site, you know that we’re all about building community.

So visit our first group today. Lots to do on the Family Movie Night Group page:

• Share photos in the photo gallery – help other leaders with your great set-up and theme ideas.
• Chat with other leaders about ways to run a successful Family Movie Night.
• See which movies worked and didn’t work for other schools. Jump in with your two cents.
• Find helpful articles, tools and resources relating to Family Movie Night.

As always, we love to hear your feedback. What do you think about our first group? What other groups would you like us to add? Please jump in with your feedback and suggestions here.

Building school pride and connecting kids with nature are just two of the remarkable ways that Lowe’s Tool Box for Education Grants help schools. To date, they have provided more than $17 million to almost 4,000 schools across the country. What the numbers don’t tell you, is how these grants promote parent involvement in schools and bring communities together. Pretty awesome.

Their fall grant cycle is now open. So, if your PTO or PTA  has a beautification project that you are not sure how you are going to fund, be sure to check out their website.  Also, if you want to see what some other schools are doing with their grant money, visit the Lowe’s Toolobox for Education Facebook page.

Summer is a great time for thinking about what you want to accomplish this year. It’s important not to get stuck in the brainstorming process, though. If you want your vision to become reality, it’s important to plan. Here are a few tips to help you get started.

Plan out your entire year. Write down all the activities, programs, fundraisers, etc. that you hope to run. Include when they’ll start and when they’ll end. Think about how much each one will cost (or raise), and think about how many volunteers you’ll need for each. You want to make sure that you have a balanced year, that you aren’t caught off guard, and that you have the resources you need at the time you need them. And by the way, it’s OK to change your plan along the way. Starting with a road map makes picking a new route a lot easier.

Plan to build involvement. How will you attract the volunteers you need and the participation you’re hoping for? Getting people connected to the school and to your group through family events and low-key activities is an important first step. Make sure a big part of your plan for the year focuses on building involvement. The better you do that, the easier everything else will become.

Use our tools. We have lots of free planning tools on ptotoday.com. Finances are not a sexy topic, but we have two terrific articles
that walk you through the basics of creating a budget for the year and figuring a budget for a specific event, even if it’s one you’ve
never run before. Our 2 Hour Power volunteer pledge program has proved to be a successful way to build involvement all year long. And ”9-Stress Busting Organization Tips” offers a nice list of objectives to make your year a success.

Our blog readers always get this scoop first….

So it looks like our 2010 Expo schedule is firming up.  The cool news — several more Expos in 2010 than in years past.  There will be 8 or 9 in the 2nd semester of this coming school year.

Old stalwarts Boston, Philly and Chicago?  Check.

Coming back to Columbus and Minneapolis? Check.

Bringing the band to Houston, St. Louis and Tennessee?  Hmmmmm.

Watch for complete details and dates in August. Want to make sure you don’t miss an update?  Subscribe to our e-newsletter, the Leader Lowdown.

On the business side of the PTO world, a couple of us from PTO Today had a great meeting last week with the folks from Rhode Island Novelty and Fun Services.   Nice guys, and very interesting company.  We got a tour of a ha-uge (very huge) warehouse filled with every kind of carnival prize and plastic snake and stuffed animal you can imagine.  My kids = very jealous.

The key point is that Fun Services is very much still going strong.  There had been some questions about what would happen, because Fun Services was technically a part of a big behind-the-scenes fundraising company called “Giftco”, which went into bankruptcy.   But the various Fun Services franchisees have been working throughout the transition, and now are on even stronger ground with the Rhode Island Novelty folks.

Will keep you informed of any other developments.

The annual national PTA convention, which ends today in Florida, is always a good marker for tracking financial performance of the well-known national non-profit for past year.

From my reading of various public documents, a few key items:

Membership – 5.16 million in 23,094 units.  Membership year earlier = approx. 5.4 million.

Revenue of national PTA = $12.5 million.  Revenue year earlier = $13.2 million. 

Expenses of national PTA = 13.2 million. Expenses year earlier = $13.1 million.

Net realized and unrealized loss on PTA investments (fancy term for stock market losses) in past year = $3.6 million.   (I think everyone who has a 401k knows that pain this past year. Ouch.)  Still a good chunk of assets ($14 million) as safety net even after that loss.

National PTA Employee Count 2009 = 81.  2008 = 73. 

My reading:  Expenses and employee count going up is going to be a tough mix with membership still going down.  It’s been several years now since last national dues increase.  Next increase has to at least be under consideration.  Was surprised that there seemed to be little if any questions re: these financials at the national meeting.

Grrrrr….. this goes in the same category as the recent discussion on restricting PTO fliers and categorizing them the same as fliers from outside community groups.  This Pennsylvania district is considering charging outside groups for use of school facilities.  I understands the budget pressures that lead to that conclusion.

But, ummmm, PTOs are not outside groups.  Are they going to charge English teachers for use of the classrooms, too?  The local sports league, the Girl Scouts — yup, those are outside groups.  But an active, effective parent group focused on building parent involvement and community and supporting the school is a key part of a great school.  It’s foundational, not extra… and certainly not “outside”.  Double grrr.

Always love it when a PTO project gets completed successfully.   In this case — thanks to the PTO — this school backyard no longer looks directly into an active cemetary.

Love it even more when a Lowe’s Toolbox for Education grant is a big part of the reason why the project worked.. 

Nice.