Last year I could have pretty much written your post myself; this year I am on the PTA board at my son's school. There were misunderstandings galore with the last board, although the meetings ran smoothly- I know because I went to every one of them. I made suggestions, offered my help ( and practically had to twist arms to get them to take it), and was very frustrated.
Luckily, one of the people on the board also works at the school and she noticed that she kept seeing me, whether it was at meetings or helping students read or in the principal's office having my say about the teacher my son had; when nomination time came around, she suggested I be contacted. Contact consisted of the outgoing President telling me to go see this woman in her classroom, where she told me of the 2 openings she thought I might be interested in, and she was right about one of them.
I now know a lot of the "whys" about what went on last year, as well as the problems we are having this year with some members of the board, so I am not as angry as I was. While we still are in need of much more help than we have, we did send out surveys at the beginning of the year, and if you put your name down for an event we HAVE contacted you about it. Unfortunately, out of about 600 students we only have maybe 25 names of people willing to help overall, and many of those only for one event, so we're still working on it.
One thing-the president and I are becoming known as a "clique" because between she and I we are getting things done. Other board members are agreeing to do work, and then a few days before it's due we find out it isn't done and we figure out how to get it done; we don't like it, the others don't like it, but it has to be done. Why should the kids lose out on something because some adults didn't do what they agreed to?
We must be doing something right because we are being asked to be involved in more and more at the school, much more than the last board, but we are exhausted. We worked at the city Halloween festival last night, have a board meeting tomorrow night-our 3rd this month- to firm up Nov. events, are working a table and refreshment stand at the City Yard Sale Nov.3, the Penny Social is Nov. 16, we have to shop for the Xmas Shop and hold it,we're having our own Yard/Bake/Craft Sale Dec. 8, plus get out the newsletter, solicit donations...I'd better get to sleep!

Thank you for your response. As I have read through the forums, I am truly astonished by the lack of parent involvemoent in their childrens schools. I have read more than once that many schools are actually begging parents to be involved. I realize that we all lead busy lives, but it is ultimately our children that suffer from the lack of communication between parents & schools. I spend one day a week volunteering at my childs school, basically so that I know whats going on & how things work there. I will certainly go to any & all PTO meetings (I suppose the 2 that they offer) I have not been asked, much less begged to be involved in the PTO. I have not seen or heard the word PTO since registration day, when they asked for a donation. It has been a week & a half since I went to the office to inquire about PTO, gave my name & number for the president to call me, & I have heard nothing. I will be involved & I will change things for other parents. Since parents did not attend meetings in prior years, they are apparently assuming that no one will attend now. I am not interested in being in a clique, nor do I care if there is one presently. I am not involved because I simply have not been asked. I am the one begging to be involved, although to no avail. Yes, maybe they need a little shaking up & I suppose I will be the one to do it! Again, thanks for the venting.

I hope this doesn't sound bad, but I just had to respond. The school my child goes to is made up of grades 1-3, and we have about 450 kids enrolled in our school. I have been involved in PTO since my son was in 1st grade. The first year I was there, there were 3 other people who came to help out. I did not know ANY of them before that year. I constantly heard of people not wanting to join PTO because it was too clique-y. We begged parents to come help us do things, we pleaded, we sent home notes, but got no response. Last year, we had a different president, and a few more people decided to at least give it a try. Once again, these are people who did not know each other before joining PTO. Once again, people who were not involved and never volunteered decided that PTO moms were made up of their own little "in" crowd that no one could penetrate. This year, I became the PTO president. I had letters with the PTO packet given out at enrollment saying that I understood that some people had gotten a bad image of PTO, and that we wanted to change that. I included a questionnaire on ways to improve PTO, what can we change about our organization to get you involved, and basically begging people to come and be a part of us. I told them that I could absolutely guarantee that if they wanted to help out, I could find a place for them. We had several committees needing chairpersons, and we would love to get to know them. Do you know how many responses I got out of 450 parents? ZERO. NONE. NADA. Some of our committees just never happened because we didn't have enough volunteers or people willing to be a chairperson. And once again, I'm starting to hear people complain that the PTO is too clique-y. If you want to be involved with your parent group, make the effort to go to the meetings, meet the officers, volunteer for a committee. If that doesn't help, run for a PTO office at your next election and try to make improvements. I understand that it may very well be different at your school, but I have to say I personally am getting frustrated at hearing how clique-y we are when I do everything but get on my knees and beg for help. I hope everything works out for you at your school. Thanks for letting ME vent, ha ha ha.

So here's my story.....

I enrolled my child in school this year. At registration I was asked if I would like to support the PTO program with a $10.00 donation. Of course, I was more than happy to do so. I am a mother who really wants to be involved & was excited about PTO. I waited & waited & never heard anything about PTO. Last week I went into the school office & inquired why. I was told that they only had meetings twice a year. I asked her to give the director my name & number & to have him call me. I have since talked to a couple of parents that are in the PTO & told me that they used to have meetings more often, but nobody came! Well....maybe if they would invite us!! So apparently it's the chosen few who get to be involved...the PTO click as it may be. I do volunteer every Monday & relly enjoy doing so, and I know I'm a big help to the teacher. The school is rated the #1 school in our county & we are thrilled with the teacher. I am very dissapointed with the PTO, or the lack thereof. Thanks for letting me vent!!