PTO Today

This week’s video blog is dedicated to new parent group presidents.  Tim has some practical and actionable advice for new leaders about how to start the school year off on the right foot and make it a successful year.

Summer is waning and for some PTO or PTA leaders one task is weighing heavy on their mind–  the big back-to-school speech.  So here’s our advice: maintain a summer attitude and don’t make a bigger deal out of this speech than it needs to be. You probably have two major goals, right?

1). Make a good first impression.
2).  Inspire more people to volunteer this school year.

We’ve got you covered. Watch Tim’s video blog for some simple advice on how to approach the speech to help you accomplish both goals. Look below the video for some helpful links.  Last piece of advice is take deep breaths, smile and try to relax. You are going to do great!

Helpful links:

http://www.ptotoday.com/2hourpower/

http://www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/article/137-7-steps-to-grow-involvement

http://www.ptotoday.com/filesharing/document/325-volunteer-form-for-start-of-year-detailed-two-parent

http://www.ptotoday.com/filesharing/document/389-five-reasons-to-get-involved-a-great-handout-for-parents

Middle school involvement is different. How is that for stating the obvious? The million dollar question is how do you adapt your parent group approach to parent involvement, when the kids don’t want you there in the first place? In this week’s video blog Tim talks about how to get past the resistance of kids,  how to build strong parent involvement, and offers examples of successful middle school events.

Is it a good idea to use incentives to get more parents to come to meetings or volunteer their time? We get this question a lot! Listen to Tim’s take on this question.

So how do you encourage more people to volunteer? Here are some links to get you started:

http://www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/article/137-7-steps-to-grow-involvement
http://www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/article/389-put-meetings-in-perspective
http://www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/article/8-25-ways-to-catch-and-keep-volunteers
http://www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/article/343-basic-marketing-that-builds-involvement

What has worked best for your group? Please share with other parent group leaders!

No one likes to talk about embezzlement from PTOs or PTAs, but the reality is that no group is immune to theft. The good news is,  it is easily preventable.  Watch Tim’s video blog this week to learn how to protect your group.

Related links:

http://www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/article/391-handling-cash-6-simple-steps

http://www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/article/395-5-smart-financial-controls

http://www.ptotoday.com/insurance/index.php

Wow, the end of school came quickly, didn’t it? This time of year is cause for celebration. We hope you do make a point of celebrating all your group accomplished this past year. You deserve it!

We know, however, that parent group leaders can’t get together to celebrate a job well done with out doing a bit of a re-hash. How did your group do attracting new volunteers? What was the attendance like at family events? How did your fundraisers fare? As much as you need a break from it all, you can’t help but thinking about what you will do differently next school year. In this video blog Tim offers a suggestion on how to improve your group’s reputation and to get more volunteers.

Does your group have a signature event? We’d love to hear about it.

Phew! Teacher appreciation week is behind you! We really enjoyed hearing, over on our Facebook page, about what your groups did to thank your teachers.  The question often comes up, though, what role should teachers play in a PTO? This week Tim answers this question and offers advice on how to effectively work with teachers.

Lots of chatter about school auctions this time of year! Did your school just have an auction? How did it go? Have you done a debrief on your event?

Here’s a question: Did some of your auction items create bidding wars? I bet they did. For tips on how to create bidding wars and other ideas on how to make your next auction a big success, watch Tim’s video blog. Also be sure to visit our new Auction Group page — your spot to access great auction tools and information, collaborate with other leaders,  share your event photos and tell other about your most lucrative and unique auction items!  Hope to see you over there soon.

It’s a question we get a lot: “Why do even good principals make life difficult for PTOs and PTAs?” In this video Tim offers some things to consider before you go to present an idea to your principal.

Here’s another way to ask that question: are you bragging enough about your PTO or PTA? In this week’s video blog Tim says that groups may not realize it, but not boasting enough can have a negative affect on your ability to recruit more members/volunteers and fundraise successfully.

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.