Happy March!
It’s a new month and another month closer to the end of the school year and the end of a term year for all Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) leaders!
Just like the school, the PTO runs on a similar schedule, with certain things needing to happen at a certain time of the year to keep your parent volunteer group running on track and smoothly.
Let’s get into exactly what you and your PTO need to be taking care of during the month of March.
What PTO Presidents Should Do in March
If you’re a PTO President, you want to make sure that you’re getting things lined up for the next school year, whether or not you are going to be staying on as President next school year.
The end of the school year is a mad dash to the last day of school, so it’s super smart to start doing things now to prepare for the end of the school year.
Organize and Declutter Your President’s Binder
It’s kind of your job to ensure that there’s some continuity, so you want to start decluttering and reorganizing organizing your President’s binder right about now, especially because it is a good time of the year to kind of reset and get ready for what’s to come.
And if you’re going to be handing things over to a new President, then it’s doubly important to get organized now because you’re going to be handing off your files to somebody who is incoming and new and may or may not have done the job before.
So they’ll definitely appreciate guidance!
Move Digital Files to the PTO Cloud Filing System
You want to also be sure that you’re moving any digital files that you have into your cloud storage system.
If you don’t have a cloud storage system for your PTO, I highly encourage you to set one up now.
It really makes it much easier to kind of do your job as PTO leaders when you can just take an existing file and just update it with new graphics, with the new dates, with the new information, rather than starting from scratch.
So I always advise keeping everything in a very organized manner so that incoming officers, who maybe aren’t as familiar with things as you are can find what they need.
Take the time to name your files so that others will have some clue about what they’re about and can be searched.
Don’t just dump everything into one big file folder and have people go fish for what they need.
Name it accordingly so others can find the right document easily.
Otherwise, it’ll be frustrating for all, easy to have duplications of things and very easy to overlook items that you need, and in the end, volunteers will spend time recreating the wheel rather than updating whatever already exists.
Return PTO Property to the PTO Closet at School
Start looking around your home for all PTO property that may have made its way to your house after programs or events and return it all to the PTO storage unit or PTO closet at school.
This way, you won’t have PTO property hanging around your home all Summer, wishing you’d taken the time to return it to school.
Top Resources for PTO / PTA Presidents
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What Nominating Committees Should Do in March
For the Nominating Committee, your slate of officers for the upcoming school year should now be done.
Many PTOs follow the schedule of nominating in March, presenting the slate in March, electing in April, and installing officers in May.
This schedule holds because they’re finishing up school in either May or June and want to have everything handed off before the school year ends and people scatter for Summer Break.
If you haven’t completely slotted in volunteers for all available positions, then be sure to keep going and continue to recruit willing volunteers for any position you’ve not yet filled.
Work right up until the meeting where you present the slate to fill open positions with leaders ready to take on the position for the next school year.
Even past that time, if you’ve presented the slate and there are still openings, I would still go ahead and work to fill those openings so that when it comes time to the PTO board elections vote in April, you have a full board ready to roll for the new school year.
Otherwise, your group will be working from behind and playing catch up in the new school year, rather than having volunteers in place, ready to put plans made during and preparation for the Summer meeting into action.
What Fundraising and Ways and Means Chairs Should Do in March
For Fundraising Chairs and volunteers heading up the Ways and Means Committee, you want to be having your fundraisers wrap up before Spring Break so that interest doesn’t wane.
After Spring Break, parents and students really start to tune things out since Summer Break is so close.
They’re ready to be done with school already, and not thinking about what your school or your PTO needs this year.
They’re thinking about what they’re going to be doing over the Summer and maybe even next school year.
So, get their attention and participation while it’s hot, before Spring Break.
Also, be sure to fill out the Fundraising Summary Forms so that future Fundraising Chairs will have detailed information about how you did the fundraisers, what worked, what didn’t, all that goodness.
If you’re looking for those forms, those can all be found inside the Fundraising Success Kit.
Get Prepared for the New School Year
Once the fundraising for the current year is complete, it’s time to look to the upcoming school year and start
If your Fundraising Chair is staying on in the same position for the upcoming school year, they should start looking for fundraising opportunities now and get things lined up.
It’s not necessary to start fresh every year with a new fundraiser.
You can definitely have some repetition, depending on circumstances like how much money you need to earn and your available volunteer help to pull it off, among other considerations.
Sometimes it can be nice to repeat a fundraiser year over year because parents are familiar with it and you’re not starting from square one.
Once, my Elementary School PTO ran one particular fundraiser for three years every Spring.
The first year, we were wowed by the interest, participation and income from the fundraiser.
In fact, we’d never had a Spring fundraiser perform so well!
So the next year, it wasn’t a hard decision to repeat the fundraiser, especially since parents were raving about the product and wanted to buy more.
Which they did, but we earned about half as much as the year before.
Come year three, we ran the same fundraiser yet again, but by then the fundraiser had lost its appeal and we earned only about 25% as what we’d earned that first block buster year.
It was clear we needed to switch things up for the next Spring and offer a fresh fundraiser!
The bottom line: Look to what you want to repeat, look to what you need to replace, and start lining things up for the new year, especially if you’re going to be staying in the fundraising position.
If you’re going to be stepping out of the position, I would just collect the information about potential fundraisers and have it ready to hand over to the incoming Fundraiser Chair after they are elected in the coming weeks.
Top Resources for PTA / PTO Fundraising Chairs
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What Family Fun or Programs Chair Should Do in March
For the Family Fun Chair, like you’ve been doing all semester long so far, continue having those fantastic events for the students and families.
Make sure to fill out those Event Summary Forms (available in the President’s Success Kit and also in the Family Programs kit that’s part of the Success Kit for PTO / PTA groups).
So you can remember what you did to make the event so successful or remember what needs to be changed for the next time you do it.
Next, similar to the Fundraising Chair, the Family Fun Chair needs to be looking at what they want to repeat for the next school year so that your PTO as a whole can kind of start to get an idea of what you want to do coming up.
It’s important to get things hashed out starting now so you can put together a planning calendar for the upcoming school year.
The school, if they haven’t already, is probably asking you to fill out the building permit so that they kind of have a use plan for the school, and they’re looking to avoid overlaps and conflicts for spaces.
So, be sure to get those permits filled out unless that falls under the role of your PTO Secretary.
What Staff Appreciation Chairs Should Do in March
Teacher Appreciation Week, the time of the year when your PTO is going to be showering your staff and teachers with much love and appreciation for all they do is coming up soon.
Staff Appreciation Chairs should be getting their plans together for the annual Teacher Appreciation Week celebration, the first full week in May every year.
It doesn’t matter whether you have the time, budget and volunteer roster to plan something for a day or the entire week.
Know that whatever you do will be much appreciated!
Looking for donations from families, either in the form of financial donations or preparing food or other treats for the staff is a great way to stretch your appreciation budget.
Local businesses are another source for donations or discounts if an outright donation of items isn’t possible.
Work a little each week to get everything lined up so that you’re ready to roll in May and any other year end celebrations and surprises you want to do for your school’s teachers and staff.
If you’re looking for inspiration and ideas for a themed celebration for Teacher Appreciation Week, this post has a ton of fantastic ideas.
What All Other PTO Officers and Committee Chairs Should Do in March
If I haven’t specifically touched on your specific office or PTO role, then this next part is for you!
For all other PTO officer or committee chairs, you want to be getting all of your ducks in a row to finish up the rest of the school year.
It doesn’t matter if you are staying on in the position again next year or handing things off to a new volunteer, but you want to get everything organized.
Anything that you have created digitally on your computer, make sure to upload it to your PTO’s cloud storage system, and get a physical copy into your binder.
Take the time to three-hole punch papers and put them in your binder, and organize your binder, get rid of things that are duplicates or unnecessary.
Begin to return PTO property back to the PTO office and begin buttoning everything up now.
You’ll love yourself for starting to take action and not leaving everything for the hectic end of the year dash to the last day of school.
This way when school is done, you’ll know you’ve taken care of everything and can enjoy the more relaxed days of Summer Break.
Watch This!
Prefer to watch what to do as a PTO leader in March?
This video has the compilation of tips and advice for what you and your PTO should be taking care of during the month.
Over to you!
Now you know what you as a PTO leader can and should be doing in March to stay on track for the rest of the school year.
Hope this has given you the confidence to know that you’re right where you should be or helped to fill in the gaps for you!
Related Reading
Want to know what’s coming up next month? Read all about the tasks to handle each month as a PTO volunteer right here!
