You don't have to "purchase" anything to get started. It's just much easier to put everything in place correctly and understand the "why" of everything if you purchase the "Start Up Kit'. We chose to Incorporate and in Mississippi it was a one time fee of $50 (each state will be different) and of course it's pretty expensive to obtain the IRS 50lc3 approval. I know it's just gone up or fixing to and it was around $600/700 or so for us as we were definitely under the $10,000 total revenue two falls ago.
But again, don't get overwhelmed....just start small....if you're an elementary perhaps other than having fundraisers to help you get off the ground just start w/ two goals.....getting organized and getting volunteers connected to the teachers. If you can do that in one school year....that's accomplishing a lot.
One thing our Volunteer coordinator decided was to keep an email list of all the volunteers. Whenever a teacher needed help the volunteer coordinator would send out a request to everyone on her email list. Her reasoning was - she didn't want anyone to feel they hadn't been asked to volunteer during the school year. This way everyone was asked every time without playing phone tag and trying to remember each time who she had called and who she had not.
And now that PTO Today has the "Parent Express" free email system it makes it even easier to do. Once you're organized and hopefully by the end of the school can obtain you're 501c3 status...the next year's board can expand its services depending on what you're budget looks like. I know some of the things we did other than fundraise at our elementary were sponsor an AR Store and a Teacher Supply closet. Those are just examples; you can opt to work toward a larger goal than the principal says your school really needs. I know we always tried to come up with a catchy slogan to go w/ our fundraisers so parents knew what the money was for. One of our better ones was “Candy of Computers"....we sold $1 candy bars and the profit was to go to purchasing more computers for the classrooms. Our goal was to have 3 computers in each classroom. Anyway.....just remember to start small and try and organize completely to begin with. It's much easier to organize everything in the beginning. And invite, invite, invite those parents. I hope some of this helps.

Hi Supermom-
The $40 kit is optional - not a requirement of being a PTO. And no there are no fees associated with being a PTO. Here are some articles that help clarify things:

www.ptotoday.com/pto-vs-pta-differences-at-a-glance

www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/arti...7-how-to-start-a-pto


Let us know if you have any other questions,

~Lisa


follow me on twitter:
twitter.com/ptotoday

So besides the $40 start up kit ( we can handle that), are there any other fees involved of the organization to officially call ourselves a PTO? Do we have to pay fees as group?

I am a PTO "mom" and I wanted to offer you a few ideas as well. We hold product fundraisers each year and this year we are holding one for our new school to be opened in fall 2010. We are raising money for the playground at that new school, anyway we are working with MC Fundraisers and they are WONDERFUL! They offer several types of fundraiser programs and work with all size groups. You could get a group together and have a fundraiser to get your accounts started. Also check with local businesses and they may match your funds.

Good Luck and fell free to email me if you'd like to view our PTO website for ideas.
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That's the beauty of being a PTO, you don't HAVE to have membership dues unless you want to. It's not mandatory and if you do choose to have membership dues your group doesn't have to give most of it away, you can set your dues amount and keep all the revenue. My only suggestion on creating your bylaws for a PTO is not wording it so you are "Required one way or another" to have dues. State dues as optional and implemented if board approved or something similar. This way you’re not blocked into doing dues one way or the other.

One thing I've learned through the years - especially if you're struggling to get parent involvement is to go out of your way to ask parents to come to board meetings. As I said previously - invite, invite, invite. I can't tell you how many times I've seen parents at a school function and they'll tell me to call them if I need help. My response is..."our next board meeting is ....... can u come???" Once parents know they can attend even if their not a "member" or "board member" I've actually had several parents come to board meetings. And we all know this is when we're doing all the planning and passing around the sign up sheets. Often times most of these parents will come back and many even sign up for a board position the next year. So I've always had an open door policy and went out of my way to make parents feel welcome to come as it's their child's school and they will always welcome. And if we are a PTA, I've found by welcoming them whether their a PTA member or not....if they start coming regularly ...then they soon always pay to become a member without having to ask. I hope some of this helps.

Our elementary school broke out of PTA b/c of the big membership dues. They said they didn't raise enough money to pay them. Now they still meet with only about 5-10 members (this usually includes 2 teachers) each month, but not much involvement from a school of about 500. How much are the PTO 's membership dues? I've been reading a lot on this site and I think there's a wealth of resources that would be so helpful to increasing involvement at our school. Thanks for such great sharing of ideas and resources!