PTO Today

There really is no way to effectively run your parent group without collaborating well with your school principal.

If yours is a relationship filled with strife and stress and ill will, then you’ll spend a great deal of time managing that relationship rather than managing your PTO toward success. Not only does that hurt your group results; it also makes your leadership job fairly miserable. Nobody volunteers for PTO leadership out of a desire to fight with the principal.

If you have a great PTO-principal relationship, appreciate it and work to keep it strong. If you don’t, then now is the right time of year to start making it better. Have you sat down for a discussion with your principal about what she would like your PTO to accomplish this year? Another great question is “What has our PTO or former PTO leadership done in the past that we can do better this year?” Here you’re looking for how the principal prefers to communicate, what kind of advance notice and approval she likes to have on things, etc.

Finally, my best tip is to do what you can to make your principal look good. Even if your principal doesn’t lift a finger to help with the fall fair, it does you no harm (and potentially a lot of good) to publicly thank her for her support of your efforts. As much as we’d all love our principals to be superheroes — great at all parts of their job — some don’t excel at the involvement/public relations aspects of the position. We can either get really frustrated about that or unselfishly take steps to help the principal fill that gap.

Whether you have a great relationship or you’re struggling, we have some excellent resources on proper care and feeding of your principal. Check out ‘‘Make the Principal Your Partner” and ”Negotiating With the Principal’‘ for starters.

“Clique” is the most difficult word in the PTO dictionary. It’s thrown around like a weapon by school parents, and it truly hurts (and often angers) when a parent group leader hears it about her own group. There’s a real divide between parents who think the PTO isn’t open to outsiders and leaders who are dying for more help.

I was reminded of this while reading the passionate comments on this article about Iowa PTA membership being down. So many of the commenters express frustration that they didn’t feel welcome in the PTO or PTA at their child’s school. It’s eye-opening.

As much as I know that the commenters are wrong, the solution has to come from us PTO leaders. If we want more involvement and more engaged parents, we have to proactively combat that clique image. You may not think you’re a clique, but the folks you’re trying to recruit do. And that’s what matters.

As I said in a column I wrote about PTO cliques, “If even one parent thinks of your group as a clique, then you are a clique.” Perception matters.

There are several tips in the column, but the best one is to address the clique issue head-on. It’s OK (even refreshing, frankly) for you to stand up later this month at back-to-school night and say “We know that lots of folks think of the PTO as a clique, but it’s not that way at all. We know it’s hard to feel comfortable with a new group, but we’d love to help you get involved.” That kind of welcome and acknowledgment can make a big difference.

Of course, you then actually have to be welcoming to new volunteers. We have some great content to help make your group more welcoming and increase parent involvement. Good luck bringing ‘em in!

Living here in the Northeast, our schools go back fairly late, usually right around Labor Day.  So I consider August 15th the kick-off to back-to-school for our family.  (Already told the kids that this was the last weekend before “operation re-adjust bedtimes” gradually begins.  That went over very well.)

For me, back-to-school time also brings thoughts of how we’re going to introduce the PTO to parents this year.  That first Open House or back-to-school night can be so important for setting the stage correctly.  This article from Denver  gives parents advice for making the most of back-to-school night, but what about advice for us PTO and PTA leaders.

My 3 best tips:

1. Think welcoming and serving. Do not – I repeat do not – make it all about fundraising.  Parents will support you with their pocketbooks and wallets *after* they connect with your group and your good work.  Have a column on this concept of The Welcoming PTO here.

2. Address parent fears.  Nearly every parent in the room is thinking either: 1) “they’re a clique”; or 2) if I volunteer once (like a Black Hole) I’ll never get out.  You can’t ignore those thoughts.  Address them head-on. My column on PTOs and Cliques is here. And the best solution to the Black Hole problem, is our 2 Hour Power program.

3. Be fairly quick and light-hearted. You’re trying to draw people in.  Don’t use guilt.  And don’t drone.  You won’t completely convince all your future volunteers with one speech, but you could completely lose a whole bunch of them with one overly-long, too-heavy or guilt-giving speech.

Our editors and writers have covered best back-to-school advice for PTO and PTA leaders in loads of ways.  Take some time to review, and I know you’ll do great.

Ran across this article about membership in Iowa’s PTA groups and  the interesting discussion that follows. Good look at trends in Iowa state PTA membership (down to 13,000 members from 24,000 15 years ago).

Author, though, makes the classic mistake of equating lower PTA membership with less parent involvement in Iowa, when lower PTA membership really just means lower PTA membership. Odds are that a huge chunk of that decline is groups leaving the PTA to form independent PTOs. When that happens, involvement isn’t less; it just has a different name.

Also worth taking a read of the comments section. Good insight there as to what you’re up against (and how groups are often perceived) in trying to engage more parents. Is your group viewed as a clique? The answer to that question I actually wrote a column on this clique topic a couple of years back.

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.

Your First Impression

What will be the first communication parents receive from your PTO this fall? What impression will it give? What spirit will it convey?

That’s my question for you this week, as I think it’s one of those things that can make or break a whole year of PTOing. Will parents get the sense that your group has its act together and is serious about doing really good work (in a fun, organized manner)? Will they get the sense that you’re all about serving the school and serving parents and creating community? Will the tone be upbeat and optimistic and appreciative?

Or will the first impression be you asking for money? Or you asking for anything? Will you come across as somewhat disorganized or even pessimistic?

If it’s the latter, trust me, you won’t be the only group — and yes, I know how busy you are and how little help you may have. But that’s a recipe for a whole year of struggle. Folks won’t say it right to you, but people are attracted to fun and put-together and welcoming groups. And they generally stay away from those people or groups that make them feel put-upon or that come across as scolding or needy. Is it right? No — parents should get more involved because it’s the right thing to do. But the reality is that more parents get involved when you as a parent group make that involvement more attractive.

Your first impression can go a long way to making it so. We have a ton of good content on communications and first impressions. And check out this list of 38 ways to start the year right.

I figured I’d take this opportunity in early July to speak to you as a parent, as opposed to as a PTO or PTA leader. Funny, isn’t it, how sometimes (often) our work being good PTO leaders makes it even harder to find the time to be good school parents?

Tackling that particular parenting challenge is the whole point of our sister site over at SchoolFamily.com. I hope you’ll take some time to check it out. I find helpful new stuff on there nearly every day.

Perhaps most interestingly, we’ve just added a brand-new “community” section on SchoolFamily.com. It’s a great place to connect with other parents and find solutions to the kind of school challenges (and joys!) you may be having with your family. I really like the interactive Q&A section, too.

As an added bonus, if you’re a PTO Today fan, the new SchoolFamily.com community functions provide a nice sneak preview of what’s coming soon for ptotoday.com. Expect even more cool functionality in the ptotoday.com version.

If you’ve been reading these tips for a while, you know how much we value parent involvement. The research makes it so clear that increasing parent involvement is perhaps the most important thing your group can achieve.

As your group gets better at involvement, you should think some about how you can increase your impact even more. Some of the most effective first steps to bringing parents in and making a connection are fun, welcoming events like a movie night or a carnival or a spaghetti supper. I’m a big fan of the value of community around a school.

As parents do start getting engaged, though, the research makes a strong case for integrating your family events with academic goals of the school. Now, that doesn’t mean you have to have the language arts teacher droning on to parents about the reading curriculum. But what about a Family Reading Night ? How can you merge other academic goals and your family events? That’s a second-level involvement step that can have an even greater impact at your school.

The whole thing is kind of a ladder. Like getting your kids into swimming — first you get them to the pool, then they dip their toes in the water, then they splash around some, then they can maybe swim a few strokes in the lanes. Creatively connecting the classroom with your family events can be another step on the ladder for your school next year.

When it comes to managing your PTO’s reputation, you can either proactively set the tone yourself or have your parents choose the default description, thinking of your group as “that fundraising group that’s always hitting us up for money.” I obviously prefer the first option.

Being known as just a fundraising group is far from warm and fuzzy. And it’s really hard to get new volunteers to excitedly sign up to be fundraisers. The opposite is true if you can become known for all your good work and for parent involvement and for your welcoming, fun, supportive atmosphere.

The key to changing that reputation is, first, actually earning the change. You’re doing lots of good work beyond fundraising and you’re welcoming, fun and supportive, right? If so, the rest is just marketing. Are you letting parents know about your good work? All the time? When you donate something to the school, do you publicize that? You could even put a small “proudly donated by the parents of the XYZ PTO” plaque on the item. That’s not bragging — that’s good marketing, and it’s part of your leadership challenge.

We have a great article on effectively marketing your parent group with more tips such as these. Like the companies that put their names on sports arenas, you want your PTO or PTA’s name associated with good work and fun events and results. And you want that association to last all year long.