1) We started out by listing all of the events that the PTO hosted throughout the school year and asking people to rate how satisfied they were with the event.

2) We asked parents to provide any comments or suggestions regarding any of the above events that you would like to share.

3) We asked if the PTO letters and agendas that go home in the Friday folders help parents to remember the meetings.

4) We asked if parents did not attend NAPTO meetings, was it because of any of the reasons below:
5) We asked parents if they had any thoughts or comments on how we could get more parents to attend?

6) We asked if parents to provide any other comments or concerns that they want to share with the PTO.

Just six questions and we got a lot of great feedback that we are reviewing and incorproating in to how we do things this year.

mdegray-

what information/questions did you include in your survey?

Tracy

I think many PTO's are faced with the challenge of getting more parents involved. I know my PTO has.

Here are some things that we did:

1) Communication:
In August, prior to the start of school, the school hosted a "New Family" dinner for the kindergarten students and anyone else who would be new to the school in September. The PTO attended this event, talked with parents 1 on 1 and made an general announcement about what we were and invited them to our Kickoff meeting in September.
We also announced this during our Family Picnic that was held in September.
2) Listen to Parents: We distributed a survey last year that seeking feedback. Based on that feedback, we formed a sub committee to review all responses and provide recommendations for improvements. We also let parents know that we were listening and making changes.
3) Include Guest Speakers: In September, we had the Director of Transportation for the district come to our meeting and talk about bussing and answered any questions that parents had. Now with the MRSA Virus going around, we are planning on getting our school nurse to attend the meeting to talk with parents about what the school is doing to combat this, and to talk about how to control the spread of this and other diseases. This is good as we are soon to enter the flu season.
4) Make yourself available to the parents:We have distributed the contact info for all of our Executive Committee to all parents in the school. Everytime I run into a parent, I will tell them to contact me with any questions, no matter how minor. When you do get a question, be sure to follow-up on it in a reasonable time. This lets them know that you are listening. Also, prior to meetings, have the executive committee talk to the parents 1 on 1 instead of talking amung themselves.

Based on some of the activites listed above, we had 20 new faces attend our September meeting. For October, we returned to a standard format of reviewing budgets, school news, etc... and our attendance dipped to 5 new faces. We are hoping that by adding a guest speaker to the agenda in November, we will see attendance increase again. Granted, it takes a bit to make a change, but I am happy with the progress that we have been making so far.

Good luck and let me know how things work out.

I Googled magnet companies and found many sites that offered this. I think there may be a couple of ads in the PTOtoday magazine of companies that offer this as well. I went with a standard 6" round using the school logo.

Good luck,
PresidentJim

where can we find these magnets?

DavisX2,

I feel your pain. When I took on President at the beginning of last year I found we had around 15 active members. Mind you, for some, they would be ecstatic to have 15 active members, but I wasn't satisfied. I also found, and I'm sure other Presidents will agree, that attendance drops off as the school year goes on.

Now here's the thing... Tim is correct, to a certain degree. In many ways it is more important to have parents and family members attending events, or feeling more confortable interacting with the school. But, in my humble opinion, to have these family events you need the active membership which is fueled at these meetings. It's a tough line, but truth be told you need these meetings to present the ideas, talk about what works, and get the ball rolling.

Now some things can be done to make Tim's concept more possible. First and foremost, you need a strong Volunteer Coordinator. If you have one that has a good idea of who can be reached out to, who likes to get involved where and who can be counted on; then you won't need as many attending the meetings because you won't need as many to plan and define the family events. Think about it this way... say you only had three people who plan the end of the year Field Day. They get everything defined, type up explanations of all of the events, set the timeline, etc. Then your Volunteer Coordinator finds you twenty volunteers. They all show up and the three committee member now have plenty to make the event successful. These twenty "members" may never join a committee or help plan an event, but their volunteering for those couple of hours enables the truly active members to make it happen... But again, for this to work you really need an amazing Volunteer Coordinator.

So the first thing I would recommend is see what can be done to increase your Volunteer Coordinator's ability to find volunteers. If you presently do not have a Volunteer Coordinator you really need to get one. Also we recently started to use the Volunteer Manager program found here on PTOtoday, and it is amazing.

Now to the serious stuff... The amount of "active" members, in my opinion, is defined in a couple of different ways. These are the members who take on responsibilities, may seek to be an officer, join the committees, help plan and run the events, and yes, show up to meetings. Do they have to show up to meetings in order to be truly active?... No, but it does help. The meetings is often the place where these members will raise their hand to get involved. I find that PTOers are more likely to volunteer to help with an event in a meeting atmosphere than if they read about needing volunteers in an e-mail or newsletter. Of course, a great way to find members to help with committees who do not show up to meetings is to ask them directly, but the truth is that, for the most part, the ones who really want to help are the ones that show up to the meetings.

Personally I feel that you are on the right track. Last year we started a childcare service during meetings and the active membership increased. And not so surprisingly it wasn't so much new members as it was the husbands of already active members. If there wasn't childcare then usually they would have to be home with the kids while their wife is at the meeting. Overall, after instituting the childcare, our active, attending, male membership has increased from just me to 6 (that's a 500% increase). And one of these members took on the role of Treasurer this year, which was very important to this year's success.

I would have to suggest more communication. How are you presently promoting the meetings and the PTO in general? Did you have any sort of kick off event at the beginning of the year, such as at Open House or a Back to School event? What do active members receive that the non-active members do not? For example, our Principal discussed some of the major things going on at the school at the PTO meetings. At the last meeting the MCAS results were discussed and the new reading program. Also, this one may not seem like too much of a big deal, but it actually is. Last year I had some magnets made up with the school logo on them. At the beginning of the school year I printed off some labels and attached them to the magnets, such as "teacher" or "Principal", then handed them out. I did the same thing for the active PTOers. When someone starts showing up to the meetings or helps out at the events, you know, when they become active, I "award" them with one of these car magnets. You would be surprised about how many active members are driving around with these and people notice. I know of at least a couple of now active members who proactively requested their magnet. Overall it's all about promotion.

Hope some of this helps.

PresidentJim