I know from my e-mails it sounds like what you have suggested. I do take matters very seriously, but I'm a cut up if the cirmcumstances are such that I can be. Right now, I'm a week out from an event, need PTO "Active" Members help and don't have it. Otherwise, we do have a fun time. We laugh. We talk. We get silly. During set up Friday night, we had music cranked and picked on each other. We had a great time!
I do have it set up so every one who has a child in the school is considered a PTO Member. I do however make a distinction between PTO Member and "Active" PTO Member. I even have gone so far in our newsletters to state if you have a niece, nephew, or grandchild at our school (due to differing family structures nowadays) you are a PTO Member. I have invited them all to our meetings. Remember I have absorbed a lot through PTO Today and implemented most of what I have read on how to draw involvement. And try to stay away from common mistakes that detract involvement.
But a week before an event and I'm all business. That's how I am made. I asked for help on this post due to a problem. I kept my comments focused totally on the issue. Otherwise, we are a welcoming group. We obviously have great outreach, or we would not be where we are with active membership today. We wouldn't exist. I go out of my way to keep meetings and all our newsletters and correspondence upbeat. The event will be fun and a good time will be had by all - if we don't all have to work due to lack of volunteers. By volunteers, I am talking about the parents who are technically "PTO Members" because they have a child or children in our school - my volunteer base - the parents who for one reason or another cannot come to the meetings. When I talk about PTO Active Members, I am speaking of the parents who do come to the meetings and are part of the core group that manages and coordinates events. I don't care if the people who volunteer at the events come to meetings or not. That's why we send home a letter asking for volunteers to help at the book fair or serve the meal. I didn't mean that ONLY solely active members could help. Everyone with a child or any relation at the school can help. I wouldn't care if the hair dresser down the street came in just because she's a member of the community. I'm not that picky! LOL
To be honest, I'm unsure how you drew your conclusion of my PTO not sounding "fun" from a post asking for help on how to manage to pull off an event with lack of volunteers. I'm not a slave driver and I'm sorry that it sounded that way. My posts were simply focusing on our problem of pulling off an event with very few volunteers.
When your parental involvement in your school is in the toilet (per se) and you need all the help you can get, I wonder why everyone is surprised that I would look to my active members to help us pull through. I can't believe other small PTOs don't run into the same issues. If I were part of a school that had hundreds of parents to draw off of, the volunteer base would be endless. I don't have this option, so our PTO needs all the help we can get - wherever we can get it! LOL
Anyway, I've got it covered now. YAY! I put out an e-mail to all my friends that have moved on to other schools, called on previous PTO Members and have gotten a slew of support. I even went so far as to ask people from a community committee I'm on, for support. All my friends will probably start ducking my calls after this! LOL So, everyone hopefully will be happy. No one has to work more than they want to and hopefully the event will go off without a hitch.
I just wanted to take the time to respond to your e-mail and correct what you have inferred from my posts. I'm sorry if I came off sounding like a drill instructor, when in reality the reason we do have a growing PTO is because I am well-liked and people who know me have gotten on board because I HAVE made what we do sound like a lot fun. Maybe that's the problem. I made it sound more like a party when really what it takes, at times, is a lot of hard work and selfless effort.
I appreciate your advice and after this event is over, maybe I can pull something together to thank everyone for the time and help the put into helping make the event a success. I refuse to "think negative" at this point. LOL
This is the first "big" event that our crew has ever had to pull off working together. We've got tons of differing personalities and what a way to break everyone in! Next year, I've already booked this event for a later date, so we have time to breath after the start of school. Because everyone but me is new to PTO, I don't think they really understand what it is that we do to coordinate school events - although I did try to explain it in our newsletter and at our first meeting. What a wonderful way to get broken in - NOT! LOL I wish I could have eased everyone in slowly, but the event was scheduled long before we became a group. We'll just have to make the best of it and then we can laugh when its all over!
Thank you for all your support. I'm glad that I have this website to turn to for ideas and help when I'm in a crunch! Thanks to you all!
