hi metzy mom,
i too would love a copy of your survey. i am a kindergarten mom and new to our pto this year and was elected president two months ago. we usually only have 6 people or so attend our meetings and i would love to find out why and how we could get more people involved. this survey of yours sounds like just the ticket. most parents i talk to are afraid to come because they will be asked/forced into doing something they don't want to take on the responsibility for. ie: four of the six who attend our meetings are kindergarten moms and three of us were elected to the three open officer spots...talk about the blind leading the blind...oh well enough from the soap box, you i'm sure get the drift. i do find that most people i ask will usually help but i'm running out of new people to ask and don't want my friends to avoid me for fear of being asked to do yet something else. thanks for your help. our school fax # is 530-257-6398. please send attn: lisa liband, rca president
lisa [img]smile.gif[/img]

Becca, I would be happy to fax it to you. Send your fax number (or the school fax number) and I will send it to you.

Elizabeth

TheMetzyMom where can I get a copy of this survey??? I want to begin sending one out next fall (if I'm re-elected) but yours sounds so much more detailed... mind if I copy yours???

TheMetzyMom, that's exactly what we do. It does work great! I do two surveys, one in the fall for fall/winter activites and one in Feb. or March for the rest of the school year. For the school wide functions, it works real well.

Our teachers are very self-sufficient and require very little help. But after the survey I sent to the staff, they said they wanted help in the younger grades in areas like small reading groups, flash cards, etc. Problem is that the parents don't always show up. They also wanted help laminating things, putting together packets, etc. So they do want help, but some of them aren't sure how to 'plan' for them. That's where I'm looking for some techniques to put together and give to the staff.

After the new surveys all come back, they get coppied and sent to the appropriate room mom's and they are the ones who work with the teachers to call volunteers. At that point, I'm out of it. [img]smile.gif[/img]

But, we don't have a PTO or PTA. Been there, done that and it wasn't a good thing. It could have been great if there had been different leadership at the time - maybe in a few years after the memories fade.

Thanx for all the replies. [img]smile.gif[/img] appreciate it.

OKAY. Words from my Dear Old Mother keep coming back to me every time I look at this discussion. "DON'T OVER ANALYZE"
When I sent home the Talent Survey forms at the beginning of the year (you know, the form that you want everyone to fill out telling you what they are willing to help out with during the year aka The Volunteer Form), I had the teachers keep them until they had them all back. Then I put them in manilla envelopes to keep them together as classes. From there, with the help of two volunteers, we compiled a classroom by classroom list of teacher resources, as well as PTVO resources. Teachers were given a breakdown of what the parents in THEIR classroom would/could do. From there, a room-parent volunteer was chosen, given a copy of the list. When the teacher needs something, he/she can call a volunteer themselves (usually upper grades do it this way) or the teacher can call the room-parent who will A)do it themselves -or- B)call someone on the list whom they know can do it. I designed the survey to include what days and times were best for volunteering, whether or not a volunteer would be able to work at home, at the school, away from both, whether they were bakers or purchasers (I really wanted to utilize parents who had never been given an opportunity to help by providing stuff they could do at home, before or after school, whatever their schedule would allow them to do), etc. I implemented this program for the first time this school year and I will say that it has turned out to be an amazing success.

It may or may not be the answer you are looking for. I will say this,
IT WORKED FOR US

I'm only speaking from experience at our school but...our teachers set up there own volunteers from their classroom. My middle son is in first grade and his teacher has parent volunteers coming out of her ears. She has set tasks like Friday Folders, Party Mom, Story Moms etc. The other first grade teachers do not want that much parent participation. I cannot see how the PTO should be involved in the teachers classroom per say, we only organize volunteers for PTO activites. I have posed this question to a few of my teacher buddies and they said they would not want our PTO to set up any volunteers for their classroom, they said if they needed help with something they would send a note to their classroom parents and go from there. The distractions are to great as it is for the kids.