For Texas at least, this is a bit of a man-bites-dog story, as this Del Valle district is enforcing a rule specifically banning formally-affiliated PTA groups from its campus.

It’s especially unusual since the Texas state PTA has been aggressive in promoting exactly the opposite policies, trying to get local school boards to make PTA the default choice in their schools. I give the Del Valle super credit for guts, as it’s often so much easier to give in to the organized PTA in a state like Texas than it is to stand up for a concepot that doesn’t have an organizational backing (PTOs are stand-alone). The Del Valle reasoning is same as most of the groups we see going PTO – why should parents have to pay dues to belong to the parent group at their own child’s school?  It’s a good question.

While some PTOs choose to charge dues; all PTAs must charge dues.  It’s a fundamental difference.  In the end, my conclusion is the same:  I’m for parent groups and involvement, no matter the acronym.  Did find this article intriguing, though.

Two quick notes:  1. Our PTO v PTA page sheds even more light on the issue; and 2. Our PTO Expo is actually coming to Texas (among other places) this spring.  I’ll be giving a keynote at the Texas event on best PTO and PTA habits.

There is no shortage of stories about how California Schools are dealing with budget cuts.  Lots of schools are doing fundraisers to fill  the funding gaps. Just came across an article that talks about a school fundraiser, that caught my attention. Amidst the crisis, this CA school did a fundraiser for the Susan G. Komen for the cure organization. Very Impressive!

Top 5 things to love about this fundraiser:

1. It’s for a GREAT cause:  Susan G. Komen for the Cure
2. It ties into Breast Cancer Awareness month: October.
3. It teaches middle school kids to think of someone other than themselves.
4. It shows that this school has incredible school spirit & enthusiasm … love the photo of the principal with pink hair! No doubt Middle schoolers would think this was hysterical… and kind of cool!
5. It’s a great idea for PTOs or PTAs who want to do a fundraiser that gives back!

A story we’ve just added to ptotoday.com, ”Communication Tips for Better Involvement,” has an idea that I really like. One creative group took their volunteer signup sheet and made it into a giant bulletin board in the school lobby. If you want to run a game at the spring carnival or read to kids at the Family Reading Night or cook spaghetti at the annual pasta feed, just put your name down in the appropriate place on the bulletin board. Everybody can see at all times which activities are planned, what volunteers are needed, and who has signed up. If you change your mind, you just erase your name.

The reason I like this so much is that it sends a strong message that PTO is about every parent in the school. Running these events is something that we all do together, not something planned and run by a few officers who you may not even know.

The way you communicate says so much about your group. In fact, many parents may only know you by your communications. You’ll improve your image if you keep things upbeat; emphasize that PTO is about everybody, not just the officers; don’t send so much home that people start to ignore it; and, of course, always check carefully for errors before you send anything out. You’ll also find great tips for improving your newsletter, website, flyers, and more on ptotoday.com.

Sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of why we volunteer for our school’s  PTA or PTO. We’ve all been there at one time or another: maybe it’s a committee chair who doesn’t follow through on what they said they’d do… or the fact the only non-board member who shows up regularly for meetings is a nay-sayer who consistently tries your patience. Whatever form the distraction takes, don’t let it steal your focus away from the reasons you volunteer in the first place. Your kids.

A Connecticut mom recently shared her PTA volunteer journey in a blog titled To PTA or not PTA? Her vote was clearly “to PTA.”  She supports her choice by listing all the reasons why involvement matters, including the fact that  it boosts student achievement.  For me, this benefit meant the most:

I have such a great support system in the school. I know my children’s teachers. I see them on a day to day basis.”

You can debate whether your PTA or PTO is clubby or not, til’ you’re blue in the face, but the only way you realize the aforementioned kind of connection with the school is by volunteering.  Do you agree?

So if you are feeling momentarily discouraged, be sure to read her post for the full list of benefits of volunteering. It’s a good reminder. And if that’s not enough, read our One Last Dance article to remind you just how fast it all goes. Sniff.

Which one did you use this fall?  Which one is the best choice for your group?

This is always a big discussion on our message boards and in our PTO Today community, mainly because the differences are so stark.  I recently received an email about this topic from an expert that brought a fundamental new concern into the debate.  I’ll explain below.

First, to set the table what we’re talking about here,  is whether you should run your fundraiser so that all sales are paid for up-front (pre-pay) or whether you should take orders and then collect money only at delivery time (post-pay).

I can give you three facts in this debate:

1. Almost all group will make more profit with post-pay– usually a lot more.

2. You will likely have a bounced check or two or get beaten in another way in post-pay (though #1 still applies).

3. There’s some extra work involved with post-pay, as sellers need to go back and collect money at delivery time.

This expert I heard from – a long-time salesman in the fundraising business – gave this perspective:

“A postpay sale is going to generate some “no pay” sales.  That’s a given as “the cost of doing business.”  It is also true that a postpay sale generates approximately double the sales volume of a prepay sale.  As an example, (one of my schools) had a total sales of about $4,500 on their prepay fall fundraiser in 2007.  They switched to postpay in 2008 and had a total sales of over $20,000.  They more than quadrupled the fundraiser profit that they could spend on behalf of the children, and did it with the same size of enrollment.  Yes, it takes a little effort to collect all the money, but they liked the additional money so much that they are doing a postpay sale again this fall.

A second reason relates to the issue of trust.  When parents are told they must have the money up front, they are reluctant to ask their co- workers to buy, lest the co-worker be insulted, thinking that the parent doesn’t trust them.  An even worse situation is one where a school will not accept checks at all. This indicates a severe lack of trust and is pretty much guaranteed to make parents decide not to participate at all.   If you have less than half the parents participating on a fundraiser, you have a lack of trust on the part of the parents in the school administration, simply because the parents feel that they are not trusted.”

The new factor for me was a discussion of how our credit card and debit card and online banking society has made prepay so difficult. Years ago in a prepay sale, the neighbor or co-worker or aunt or uncle pulled out a check and paid for their order on the spot.  Today, I haven’t carried a check in my wallet in several years, and I rarely have more than $20 or $30 in cash in my pocket. Many days, I couldn’t help the prepay seller, even if I wanted to.  The stats show that I’m far from alone in using plastic and online banking (and few paper checks) in my daily routine. This is a huge factor making prepay so difficult.

Hadn’t thought of that.

I’m interested in your take and your experiences on this. Did you prepay or postpay this year? Seeing any trends at your school? Love to hear ‘em.

PS – Are you following us on twitter yet?  @TimPTO and @ptotoday.

How great is it when your group has that one mom or dad who’s a pro at writing PTO letters or designing PTO flyers? It’s like your own little marketing department, and it makes a big difference in how your group is perceived at school.

The trouble is, though, that most groups don’t have that design pro or, when you do, her darn kids grow up and she moves on. It’s so frustrating trying to find just the right words for the letter or searching through bad clip art for the flyer when you’re just not that good at it. Worse yet, your group is sometimes judged by the quality of those amateur productions.

So the question is, does your group have some sort of storing or sharing system for last year’s and this year’s forms and flyers so that next year’s volunteers (possibly you again) will start out ahead? It’s an important concept. And it’s the spirit behind one of the most practical, most popular parts of ptotoday.com. Called the PTO Today File Exchange, there are already more than 700 various forms and flyers up there for you to borrow from. Here are three great examples of really practical files for you:

• Committee Chair Success Tips
• 112 Suggested Auction Items
• ”10 Reasons To Get Involved” Flyer

Take them, make them your own, and make your work that much easier. And if you like your own results, upload them back to the File Exchange for another leader to use. Kind of cool.

Man, it’s been fun watching our community functionality explode these past few weeks.  Reminds me of when we first launched our message boards back in 2000.

Then, our boards were really the first web home for PTO and PTA leaders to share ideas and solutions  (and sometimes commiserate).  There was nothing else like it on the web.  Those first few months it was like we’d invented the wheel or provided oxygen to a drowning man.  The enthusiasm was palpable, and there was this “where has this been?” reaction.  Well more than 100,000 posts proved that our boards were helping tens of thousands of leaders.

In the ensuing 9+ years, all kinds of sharing came around.  From facebook to myspace to sub-groups on the big parenting sites – over time our message boards became less cutting edge.  More importantly, they became less essential. Still great and uniquely active – but there were other places to get similar feedback, many of them with all of the bells and whistles of Web 2.0.

That’s why I’m so excited about our new PTO Today Community.  It has all that stuff – the profiles and the private messaging and the ratings and the friending – plus several other “only at PTO Today” tools that make life easier for PTO and PTA leaders.  And all of it is integrated in our community. There’s our Ask a Question feature for quick responses (from many)  to your most perplexing questions.  There’s our File Exchange for sharing the best flyers and letters and posters from other groups.

And the action is back!  That’s the cool thing.  It’s like that first launch in 2000 – new leaders finding out that ptotoday.com is the most practical site on the ‘Net  for helping them do their jobs. Love that.

Just check-out our PTO Today Community homepage for a snapshot of just how much is happening every day.  Dozens and dozens of new members; new files in the Exchange; new questions; new answers; new threads in the still-great message boards.  It’s the place to be.  Hope you’ll make it work for you.  More activity, more leaders getting help and helping others, and more great groups helping kids.

Now, a request:  Here’s my community profile.  (Yes, I’m “Rockne”) I need some PTOtoday.com friends.  Seriously.  We can’t have Lisa Gundlach, our Community Host, out-friending me so badly. ☺ Send me a friend request, and we’ll be connected.

Look forward to seeing you on (and all over) the site.

We keep learning more about how parent involvement (and the role of PTOs) can and should go beyond just volunteering at school. Reaching out to parents, serving families, addressing key school-parent challenges — those are the types of habits that make your group even more effective for your school.

So did you know that today was International Walk to School Day?  I did a quick scan on the net to see if there were any articles or blogs about schools participating. There were tons! Great to see.

Loved reading about what one PTO is doing to celebrate Walk-to-School Day.  Not only do they do some fun things to promote this day but they also have a  PTO walk-to-school coordinator for the whole school year.

Is your PTO involved in any programs that encourage healthy habits in the students at your school? We’d love to hear what you’re doing!

Neat that some folks in Minnesota think that parent involvement in education is so important, that they set aside an entire month to celebrate it!   According to this recent article, October is Minnesota Parent Involvement Month —  a time to celebrate the powerful role parents play in their children’s education.  Wouldn’t it be nice if every state did this?

But I guess I am preaching to the choir! We know if you are on this site you care a tremendous amount about being involved in your child’s education. Bet you wish there were more parents at your school that shared your passion! If you’re nodding your head, check out our Parent Involvement Toolkit! And remember, it doesn’t hurt to remind parents – again- why involvement matters.