School Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) parent groups run on volunteers that give their time and talents to benefit the entire school community. PTOs struggling to attract parent volunteers isn’t new issue facing most PTOs. It’s the perennial challenge every PTO leader faces. But just because it’s a common issue pretty much every PTO will face...Continue reading
One of the biggest challenges of running a Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) is getting and retaining volunteers. Most school parent groups don’t have enough volunteers and are constantly on the lookout to get answers and the solutions to keep their group afloat with enough helpers. That’s just what we’ll focus on in this blog post....Continue reading
All too often, I’m hearing from parent group leaders, whether they’re in a Parent Teacher Association (PTA), or Parent Teacher Organization (PTO), that parents are simply not stepping up to fill the critical leadership positions needed to keep their groups running. What usually happens is a very small, dedicated core of parents ends up doing...Continue reading
One of the beautiful things about a school and a PTO (Parent-Teacher Organization) partnership is the ability to collaborate to get things done—to make your school community a better place. Let’s talk all about seven different ways that schools and PTOs can collaborate, and really work to expand family engagement, and improve your school community...Continue reading
Let’s talk about what Principals can do to both support and attract parents to the PTO (Parent Teacher Organization). Now, this is especially helpful if you don’t have a PTO or if your PTO is very small and you want to grow it so that you can grow family engagement. But actually any Principal who...Continue reading
Does your Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) have trouble getting volunteers for events and programs? Do you find that it’s the same 5 or 10 parents pitching in each time and it’s a struggle to get new volunteers? Unfortunately, this is a really common issue facing all volunteer organizations, not just PTA/PTO school parent...Continue reading
Today, I’m going to talk to you a little bit about parent engagement and involvement and why you’re not quite getting enough parents involved in your PTO (Parent Teacher Organization) and what you can do to solve that pesky problem. This is a super common topic in the Super Star PTO Leaders Facebook Group and...Continue reading
Are you looking for ways to get more parents involved in your school parent group, whether it’s a PTO, PTA or another name? That’s a rhetorical question of course because every group benefits from having more volunteers at the ready, willing to pitch in as necessary. The truth is that your PTO will be able...Continue reading
Need some help thinking of some out of the box places to promote your PTO events to boost involvement from school families, community members, or both? Just think how fantastic it would be to have a well attended event, whether it be a school dance, PTO meeting, Color Run fundraiser, or Reflections Art Show! Quick...Continue reading
So many groups unfortunately struggle to boost membership and involvement, so know it’s not just your group that has this issue. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be like pulling teeth to get parents involved! We have a ton of blog posts and resources to both help inspire and motivate parents to...Continue reading
Social media is a great place for PTOs to spread the word about volunteer and donation needs, fundraisers, and events. But many groups have noticed that they get virtually no engagement on Facebook and are wondering what gives? This post is going to shine the light on how you can get more people to see...Continue reading
Looking for program and event ideas that parents and families will love to attend? I have seven of them right here for you that are guaranteed crowd pleasers that’ll inspire parents to get involved in your PTO! Kindergarten playdates / playdates in the park During the Summer, and especially in the weeks right before...Continue reading
Times are not normal and the fallout can be felt on all different levels of life right now. What 15 months ago seemed like a certainty is now up in the air. So it makes sense to wonder how to address some of the uncertainty of the upcoming school year. This post will cover ideas...Continue reading
A PTO welcome packet, meaning information about your school and PTO to be given to either families new to the school or new PTO members (or both!) can be not only time consuming, but also intimidating to put together. Just figuring out everything that should be included in a Welcome Packet is a project in...Continue reading
The easiest way to get new members for your PTA or PTO is to set up a Membership Table. But knowing what is best to have on the table in order to attract new parents to first come over and second, actually join isn’t always clear. This post will walk you through what’s involved with...Continue reading
Success doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when you’ve planned out what needs to happen and then made all of it happen. Here are the steps to becoming the very best Membership Chair for your PTA / PTO! Know your Membership Chair Job Responsibility As implied by your title, the main job of the Membership...Continue reading
The one question that I hear all the time is how in the heck to get parents involved? Now to you, being the fearless PTO leader you are, this is an honest question. You really want to know what to do to bring more parents in to be actively involved. Because for you,...Continue reading
One of the biggest concerns about putting on a big PTO event is being able to recruit enough volunteers to run the event successfully. Here are some things to take into consideration before you start planning your event! Have a Plan First, make sure you know exactly what you need to put on the...Continue reading
Getting people to first come to your PTO meetings or events, takes one set of strategies. But getting these same parents to come back to volunteers and be part of the PTO time and again, well, that takes an entirely different set of strategies altogether. This post is going to walk you through some of...Continue reading
There are so many different ways to get parents to sign up to help as volunteer for PTO events: All of these methods for getting parents to sign up to volunteer are great options, except for the last one mentioned. If you’re using a program like Sign Up Genius to track volunteers, then you probably...Continue reading
Look, I know I’m being a little cheeky with the title of this blog post, but in all seriousness, you’re working too hard as a PTO volunteer to have parents ignore PTO events. You’re putting in a ton of time to put together wonderful programs and events and it’d be a real shame if...Continue reading
You’re grateful for all the help that parents devote to all things PTO, but what happen when the volunteer doesn’t do their job? And what if the person not doing their job is in charge of something rather important, say managing the finances of your PTO? What do you do then? You can’t fire volunteers...Continue reading
Have you ever planned an awesome PTO event and thought you’d have a ton of families show up for the event, but in reality, no one comes? So frustrating! One of the biggest reasons why parents don’t show up to PTO events is that they’re simply not finding out about they event! It’s not like...Continue reading
There’s something we need to talk about. Something troubling that keeps happening in PTO land. It’s bad. Worse that most realize, or else they’d quit doing it. Before I tell you what it is, story time… Not so long ago, I was at my child’s school and was chatting with a fellow PTA volunteer...Continue reading