How many? My answer is 6: One to screw it in, and five to sell tickets to the "screw in a lightbulb" family night.

Yep, a joke about PTOs. It is allowed. And my advice this week is to lighten up. Significantly.

If your biggest challenge is getting more parents connected to your group, and being connected to your group is deadly serious or dreadfully boring -- then you're in trouble. You have to fix that before anything else.

I wrote a column about making your PTO more fun that has some tips for turning your group around.

You also might like these fun ideas from our Idea Bag section:
• Hollywood Squares game
• Newsletter puns contest
• Traveling cookie jar
In the meantime, I'm giving an "Our Parent Group Rocks" T-shirt to whoever adds my favorite answer to the ''How Many PTOers?'' question on the message boards. (Deadline = a week from today; judge and jury = me.) :)

Have fun with it. Can't wait to see the replies.