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.

That pressure from the kids not to attend events is very real, and if you want to have success with parents of older kids, you really need to address it. My best advice: Bring those older kids into the process. What kind of events would they find cool? What do they want you to do? Can they help you plan it? Can you even make it seem like it’s their event?

One of our Parent Group of the Year winners from a few years back was a middle school group that created several great student events with lots of different activities, including separate overnight parties for the 6th grade girls and boys. The fact is that parents participated and volunteered, parents attended, and connections were made.

If parents are connecting and getting involved at school and meeting teachers, that’s the result we’re looking for. If you have to have a Survivor contest or American Idol night or an all-night Xbox party to make those things happen, then go for it. Involvement does change at the middle school level — but if you’re creative and flexible, it doesn’t have to go away.

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.

One of my favorite sections of the website is the Idea Bag. It’s a large collection of ideas on a wealth of different topics, from parent involvement to teacher appreciation to great events to meetings to fundraising. Some of the ideas were compiled by our staff, like the list of six ideas for spring family events. But most of them were submitted by individual parent group leaders. One of my favorites is the dads’ reading night, shared by Lora Lakin of the Rockford (Minn.) Area Schools. Fathers came with their kids to hear books read by prominent community dads, like the fire chief. They also spent some time learning what the school library had to offer and how to use the online card catalog. What a terrific involvement event!

If you haven’t done so already, check out the Idea Bag and don’t forget to share some of your own ideas. Things that seem old hat to you may be new to a lot of other parent group leaders.

That’s my tip for this week-share with other leaders. Whether it’s on ptotoday.com or at a meeting over coffee with PTO folks from other schools in your district, sharing ideas helps everyone involved.

I bet sometime last fall you formally (using an interest survey form) or informally (like at Open House) asked parents whether they’d like to help. And I bet that lots of parents said yes. They checked off some boxes on your form or told you to call if you needed someone to help out.

My question for you: Have you reached out to them personally and purposefully since then? Have you used those forms to recruit your new volunteers? Or have you fallen into the easy habit of counting on your regulars and your friends because you’re so busy and it’s just so much easier to rely on those familiar faces?

That’s how clique reputations are earned. You don’t mean to seem closed, but that’s the impression you can give off. What you don’t want to happen is to get to May or June and have parents saying “I told them I’d help, but they never asked or called.” Ouch.

This is the time of year to take those forms back out and dust off the email lists and reach out to every parent who has expressed interest. Find them a job — hopefully a fun, energizing job — and make this an involvement-growing year. It’s worth it.

I’m always impressed by the creative efforts of schools and parent groups when it comes to serving others. Would you mind sharing a quick snippet of what you do on our message boards? I bet you can get some new ideas for your own group from this thread, too.

You might also like this article we ran a while back on a knitting project for patients at a children’s hospital.

We hope to have some great new tools for you in 2010 on this front, and this early research will be a big help. Thanks in advance.

courtesy of stockx.chng

Usually I save my annual “candy bar poem” tip for Teacher Appreciation Week, but I actually think it may be even better as a Valentine’s Day gift for the teacher’s lounge. With the candy and all, y’know?

So here is my very favorite teacher gift idea from PTOs and PTAs — the Candy Poem. Click through to take a look, but basically it’s a creative thank-you where key words are replaced by their candy equivalents. (We think you should be paid “100 grand.” You help make our kids “Smarties” instead of “Dum Dums.” You get the picture, right?)

It’s fun to make, fun to receive, fun to eat…and the message is dead-on. Hope you can make great use of it at your school. And, of course, if you think of your own new verses, please share them on our Message Boards. We also have a few ideas for your school Valentine’s Day celebration.

Reminds me of a key point when it comes to choosing your fundraiser.  Profit matters – sure.  As does service — definitely.  But the third key is the product you choose.  Is it interesting?  Is it of high quality?  Is it something your supporters use  (not *can* use but *do* use).  If it’s a food item, have you tasted it?  Was it great?  The Spirit Cups guys gave us some cups back in the fall. My family of four kids have been using and abusing ever since, and they’re still in great shape  (the cups, that is; the kids are another story ). Had I purchased them in a fundraiser, I’d be a happy customer right now.

Many supporters will buy from you the first time because they trust you and support your cause, but for long-term success you want to treat your supporters right with good quality products at a fair price and with great service.  There are lots of options out there that satisfy on all counts.  Are you making sure that your fundraising choices measure up on all three?

Good luck in your spring efforts.

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.

And while the traditional nights — like Family Reading Night and Family Movie Night — are great and deservedly popular, this tip is about even more diverse events. I’m always so impressed by the creativity of PTOs and PTAs in developing their own unique events. At our school, we had an awesome mother-son mini-golf event in the school gym.

What have you done? We’ve started a dedicated thread on our message boards for compiling a whole list of new family event ideas for you to think about in your planning. Add your own or just be inspired. Many times, these twists on the old reliable can be just what’s needed to rekindle interest in your events. Good luck!