Summertime is no time to totally check out of getting things done as a Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) volunteer leader.
In fact, the summer is a great time to prepare for the upcoming school year!
You might be thinking, “It is summertime, Christina. What do you mean I need to do things for PTO?”
Well, the little secret is that when you are carving out just a bit of time to handle tasks as a PTO/PTA volunteer during the summer, it means that you will enter the new school year on the right foot.
And this sets you up for success for the entire school year, especially during the hectic back to school transition.
Investing time now means you won’t have to play catch-up or you feel like you’re behind the eight ball.
And that’s worth using the more relaxed months of summer, free from strict school schedules to get some things planned and handled.
Now let’s get into what those things are!
Hold a Summer Planning Meeting
July is the best month to hold a Summer Planning Meeting.
This is the time to get your board members and committee chairs all together and sketch out a plan for the upcoming year.
It’s also a good time to review what worked really well this last year—what can be repeated, what do you want to do again, and what things were complete duds, or what challenges did you face that you need to kind of make a plan for now and prepare for.
This is a time to discuss investments to make your group better and life more enjoyable for volunteers.
Many groups skip this step and just make do with whatever they have.
But a lot of times, there are simple tweaks to make being a volunteer easier and therefore keep volunteers coming back to help!
So it’s really in the group’s best interest to make smart investments to lay the groundwork for volunteer participation.
For example, does the concession stand get hot during football and soccer games?
A pedestal fan or two could help make the stand more comfortable to work in by proving some relief from hot, stale air, making it more likely that volunteers will sign up to help.
Investments can benefit the entire group as a whole too, just like training for your board members will do so they’re clear on how to run the parent group.
Now’s the time to talk about what you’d like to buy so that the purchases can be accommodated in the annual budget.
You also want to be sketching out a rough calendar of PTO events for the entire school year.
With this sort of working calendar, it’ll be clear to see what is happening and when, and also make any adjustments to clear conflicts with school sponsored event well in advance.
Not having a calendar means you might not know of scheduling overlaps until it’s too late.
Officer Transition Meetings
If you haven’t already, go ahead and meet with the outgoing officer or leader to talk about the role, and get more detailed feel for what’s involved.
Check out this post if you’re not sure what to ask during the outgoing leader during the transition meeting.
Set up a PTO Volunteer Binder
Before we get to the specific to do items for the biggest PTO roles for July, note that all officers and committee chairs should be putting together a binder for their role.
If you’ve inherited one from the previous leader, take time to go through it and learn what resources you have.
Recycle duplicate information, flyers and the like to pare down the binder and make it into a more useful tool for you.
Make a list of contacts of current leaders for your group so you have all the information right at your fingertips.
Print a copy of your group’s bylaws and standing rules and slide it into the binder.
Add file tabs to section off the binder into useful sections so you’ll know exactly where to find the information you need.
This post covers how to set up and organize a PTO volunteer binder, so check it out for detailed help to take care of this task
If you don’t already have a binder or folder for your role, set one up!
Centralizing information about your role is essential for a good volunteer term.
I have binder kits customized for every role available in the PTO Answers shop.
Your September self will thank you very much for taking care of this task now!
What to Do as President
After first learning the responsibilities of the President role, next meet with the Principal.
Some school leaders may have time off during July, so you’ll need to work with their schedule.
Even if they’re not in the building, they may still be checking emails so don’t wait to contact them about setting up a meting.
You might not be able to meet until they return to the office in August, but it’s best to get something scheduled on both of your calendars now so that the meeting happens before school starts.
The next thing on the President’s to do list is to work to recruit volunteers for any open positions, whether a board or committee position.
Having a full executive board and volunteers in all committee chair roles will mean less for the president to do. Because if the role is important to the group enough for it to be specified, someone’s got to do the work!
And the PTO President usually ends up taking on the additional roles to fill the void, making the President role that much harder.
What to Do as Treasurer
The Treasurer is an essential role for your school parent group, so the new Treasurer should get familiar with their volunteer position.
Schedule a meeting with the President and Fundraising Chairs to talk about the creating a budget for the new school year.
The three leaders will collaborate on the proposed budget, and present it first to the PTO’s executive board before presenting it to the general PTO membership at the first meeting of the year.
The Principal may also want to be involved in the budget discussions, especially if they have new initiatives they need funding help with that the PTO would like to support.
Be sure to check with them before finalizing the proposed budget.
July is also the time to finalize annual audit preparations, assuming your group’s end of fiscal year is June 30.
Work to get everything to the auditor by mid month so that the audit will be ready for review at the first meting of the school year.
You’ll then be able to discuss suggested adjustments to financial tracking or money handling flagged by the auditor with the Executive Board (and then train PTO members on any new procedures that come as a result).
What to Do as a Fundraising Chair
Fundraising Chairs (aka Ways and Means Chairs) should work to develop a plan for the year and review their fundraising volunteer responsibilities.
Decide and commit to the fall fundraising concept if that’s not happened already and choose a few options for the second semester of school too.
If your fall campaign is really successful, you can scale back plans.
But having these additional fundraisers in your back pocket is great in case the fall campaign brings in less than anticipated.
What to Do as a Family Fun Event Chair
After first getting clear on role duties and responsibilities as the family fun events chair, it’s time to create a calendar of events planned out (check below for a gorgeous rainbow calendar template or snag the freebie here).
Part of the planning process is to consult with the PTO Treasurer to get an idea of what money is being budgeted for events.
This way, you’ll be able to figure out how to plan accordingly to stay within budget and can even start to get some estimates for event costs.
Note that events don’t have to be expensive!
Here are some ideas for inexpensive events that are family favorites.
And many of the family fun events on this list can be scaled up or down to fit your group’s budget, no matter how big or small it may be!
What to Do as a Secretary
For PTO Secretaries, you’re going to first, get an understanding of what’s involved in your role.
Next, get your officer binder in order, and develop a system to maintain past meeting minutes.
Whether you’re keeping a physical copy or if you’re doing a digital copy, just make sure everything is good to go and in order.
There’s no rule against scanning or taking a picture with your phone and converting the paper minutes into a PDF to save digitally.
It’s a matter of whether you have time to do it.
One reason to spend the time is to lighten the physical load of the binders and the documents that have to be passed on from one Secretary to the next.
After all, it’s much easier to hand off a password than it is a bunch of binders.
And the summer months are actually a really good time to convert paper to digital, if that’s your game plan.
What to Do as a Staff Appreciation Chair
Loving on teachers and staff will make them feel not only appreciated, but seen and valued by the PTO and parents more generally.
So Staff Appreciation Chairs should start thinking about what you want to do to welcome them back to school in the fall right now.
While you’re at it, lay out a plan for the entire year so you can make sure you have money for all you’d like to do for the teachers and staff.
Get some initial pricing on things you have planned to make sure everything falls within your anticipated budget.
If you’re not sure about what your budget may be for the new year, shoot off an email or text message to the Treasurer so you’re not planning in an information void.
Watch this!
This video covers what to tackle during the month of July as a PTO/PTA volunteer.
Give it a watch!
Over to you!
July is the best time for PTO leaders to get organized and map out a plan for the upcoming school year so that they can hit the ground running when school starts.
If you haven’t already, go ahead and check out this post for the other monthly PTO volunteer to do list overviews!
Not everything has to be taken care of in a particular month, especially during the summer!
So look back to see May and June’s recommendations to make sure you’ve also addressed those tasks.
There are some things that if you don’t get to them one month, you can certainly take care of the next.
And it’s also good to look forward too to know what’s on the horizon so you won’t be surprised.
Your efforts here in July will only better prepare you for the upcoming school year and this will improve your overall volunteer experience!
