If your answer is no to any of those, then you have a major involvement challenge. Light and fun work. Heavy and too serious do not. (Chime in on our message boards to add your best fun PTO ideas and read what other groups are doing to keep things more light.)

In many ways, you’re selling involvement — you’re hoping parents will choose your group and your school as the place to give their time. If that involvement is boring, or worse yet, painful or stress-inducing, most parents will choose a different option. You’re not only competing with other volunteer options; you’re also competing with American Idol, Survivor, and Dancing With the Stars.

I’m looking forward to hearing about all the ways you’re making volunteering more fun. Your efforts on that front may be your best investment for increasing involvement at your school.

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.

“The principal … noted that the event would not have been possible without a supportive school community. Besides RVCC’s contribution of the Star Labs, the event was partially paid for by a mini grant from Readington’s Home and School Association (HSA).”

Way to go, Readington HSA!

What do you think is the right amount of screen time, each day, for your kids over the summer?
Join the “How much time to let your kids play on computer, xbox, etc.” group.

Do you have some suggestions on how to keep your children learning over the summer?

Would you like share some ideas on how to keep your middle school kids busy this summer?

These are just a few highlights to get you started. You’ll find LOTS more groups, discussions, and Questions and Answers once you jump in. Most importantly, you’ll connect with parents with similar situations. Once you’re in our community be sure to look for me, Lisa Gundlach, and add me as your “friend”. Look forward to seeing you online at the SchoolFamily.com community!

Kudos to this school community for not letting one person’s indiscretion get in the way of working together for the benefit of their children.

Just came across this article about a school in Dallas, Texas whose PTG formed a subcommittee charged with marketing their school. With several successful programs under their belt and a great attitude, the Gate of Heaven Roman Catholic School has increased enrollment. The group has more great ideas about to keep their school thriving. It just goes to show that hard work and a positive attitude can make all the difference in the world.

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.

The tenacity of the elementary school PTA featured in this recent article is admirable. To date they have raised 37K and secured matching grant funding.But what makes it even better is that they are holding a barbecue and silent auction to raise even more money. Why? To replace the gravel on the playground with compressed wood chips — a wheelchair-friendly product that will let their special-needs preschoolers enjoy the playground. That’s going to be one awesome playground.