Welcome to September!
Are you ready for the new school year as a Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) leader?
Are you feeling totally prepared and knowing exactly what you’re gonna do?
After reading this post, you’ll be able to answer an unqualified “yes!” to the last question.
I’m laying out the exact to do list items that should be on your radar in your respective role for your PTO.
Reminder for all PTO Volunteers and Leaders
I mentioned this first to do in last month in the August task round up, but it’s no less true for the month of September, either.
The back to school season is one to be bringing a lunch of energy to!
One of the secrets to starting off the new school year on a good foot is putting the positive attitude up front.
Many times you attract the energy that you put out.
So, if you are exuding ho-hum energy, that is what you are going to get back.
But that’s is not what you want or need right now because now is prime time to get others involved in your PTO.
And you’ll need the positive energy to help attract them!
Presidents
As a school parent group President in September, you should primarily be doing two things, the first of which is prepping for the first PTO meeting of the year.
This means getting your meeting agenda together so that you can have a well-run and organized first meeting.
This will set an excellent tone for the rest of the year and help dispel the pervasive myth that PTOs are dysfunctional.
To create the agenda, think about what you want to talk through with other PTO members, including the budget and any outstanding issues from last year or the summer planning meeting.
Plan to have a PTO calendar of events available to meeting attendees at this first meeting of the year so others know what to expect and can plan to attend or volunteer for the events.
Need a calendar template?
Check out this one:
The second task that’s most important during the start of the school year is to work on filling any open positions for your executive board and heads of committees.
Maybe you have a few spots to fill from volunteers who’ve moved out of the district or for PTO roles that weren’t filled during the nominating and elections process last spring.
The beginning of the year is a really good time to recruit new parent volunteers because people are excited about the new school year.
And getting volunteers into those roles takes work off of your plate, so the earlier you can fill the positions, the better for both you and the entire PTO.
Get Organized
Presidents should also have their President’s binder all organized and ready to go.
It is super helpful to have resources right at your fingertips, so that you can act proactively and that you’re not left just to be acting reactively when things happen.
If you don’t have a binder yet or the one you do have isa collection of outdated information that provides no guidance, check out this done for you resource:
Picture this: you, the PTO/PTA President, taking charge like a boss, armed with a treasure trove of resources that will make everyone else wondering exactly how you manage it.
Your secret weapon? The President’s Success Kit!
This isn’t a bunch of busywork templates that look really pretty, but don’t actually amount to anything.
This kit is a collection of game-changing, mind-blowing arsenal of systems, tools, and templates designed to make your life easier and turn your dreams of doing fantastic things for your school community into reality.
The President’s Success Kit is jam-packed with bite-sized nuggets of guidance that will empower you to lead with confidence.
Get your copy today!
Membership Chairs
If you are a Membership Chair, then now’s the time to be rolling out the red carpet to greet all of your new families and recruit parents and guardians as new PTO members.
This is a very crucial time for your PTO because the excitement and the interest level in getting involved is usually highest at the beginning of the school year.
You don’t want to pass up this opportunity!
Make sure that you have a well-thought-out membership drive.
Be sure to ask parents and guardians to get involved first as members, and then get involved as volunteers.
This eases them into the idea of getting involved without being overwhelmed by instant responsibilities that may be too much paired with the crush of new school year obligations.
Don’t forget to ask teachers and staff to join your PTO!
They may not be able to come to every PTO meeting, but ask for their support in this way.
If you need help crafting a membership drive, check out the Parent Involvement Success Kit!
It can help solve your strategy and marketing needs to attract parents to join and then motivate them to get involved.
Stop struggling to recruit PTO members.
Get results with the Parent Involvement Success Kit.
This comprehensive toolkit provides everything you need to attract, recruit, and engage families effectively.
Forget generic flyers; we’re talking customizable action plans, proven engagement strategies, and ready-to-use templates for welcome packets, back-to-school information, and new member orientation.
Streamline your membership drive, build a strong parent community, and make a real difference in your school.
Get organized, get results.
Fundraising Chairs
For Fundraising Chairs, now is the time to be finalizing your plans for your fall fundraiser or starting to put things into action.
Draft social media posts and announcements to promote the fundraiser.
Design flyers to showcase not only the products themselves, but also explain the process for ordering.
This is an especially good practice if you are hosting an online fundraiser where parents aren’t getting a catalog or anything similar.
You really have to put the information directly in front of parents so that they can see how to support your group, order easily, as well as share with family and friends.
Reduce the legwork they have to do to buy and you’ll find that you boost participation.
If the specific steps you should be taking for any of these suggestions is new to you and you’d like guidance, definitely check out the Fundraising Success Kit:
Ready to dive more into the work of PTO and school fundraising, but wish you could have a plan of action ready at your fingertips?
Time to learn more about the Fundraising Success Kit!
It’s never been easier to hold highly profitable school fundraisers using these customizable strategies and step by step plans that work for every type of parent group, and any type of fundraiser, from a traditional catalog to A-thon Fundraisers and everything in between.
This resource is guidance plus a complete plan walking through the entire process of fundraising for your school, including a publicity plan, templates, forms and a planner kit to help you get outrageously organized in a snap!
Family Events Chairs
For Family Event Chairs, I really hope you have a good amount of your programs planned out for the year.
Advance planning makes staying at or under budget possible and makes its that this volunteer role doesn’t consume your life!
You can’t really go over budget when your PTO only has so much money.
Plan accordingly, mapping out as much in advance as possible.
Do the research to figure out what everything you’d like to do will cost.
For example, find out how much the DJ is going to be for the dance, how much the food truck is going to be for the movie night.
There are a lot of ways to go big on one event and only have one event for the year, but I really don’t think that’s what your aim is for the year because that is not a good way to get families involved.
I’ve talked about this before, but one of the secrets of getting more parent involvement is to demonstrate what the PTO is doing for the students, school, and families.
This means having events, hosting events, and paying for different programs for students and families.
All of these things are the very best ways to demonstrate what the PTO is doing and give parents a reason to get involved.
Staff Appreciation Chair
As the Staff Appreciation Chair, you’re probably going to want to welcome your staff back with some sort of event or small token of appreciation to start the new school year.
It doesn’t have to be a big thing; it could be a small grab-and-go breakfast, which are pretty easy to pull off.
After this first event, plan out what you’ll do for the rest of the year and choose a theme for Teacher Appreciation Week, observed the first full week of May each year.
All Committee Chairs
Just like any other committee or position in the PTO, none of the roles shouldn be a solo affair.
The chair or the officer acts as the head coordinator, and then they should be recruiting other people to help them make the plans come to life.
Because not everyone has all the skills needed to do a particular PTO role.
For example, you may be a very good planner, but not a very creative thinker.
So in the case of a Staff Appreciation Chair, this may look like recruiting a volunteer who can design a fabulous invitation for the staff appreciation luncheon.
By getting other people involved, you spread the workload and help balance your plate.
And the others may be very happy to contribute what time they have, which may be in a support role, with one off tasks versus taking on a committee chair or executive board position.
It’s a win-win for everyone when the work is not falling on too few and more parents have an opportunity to give of their time and talents at the levels they can manage.
Watch this!
Over to You
The key for PTO leaders and volunteers during the month of September is to bring a position energy and polish plans for the school year, while looking for opportunities to bring in other helpers.
More volunteers makes for a stronger PTO.
I’ll be back next month with another list of month specific tasks for October, and of course don’t forget to check out the officer tasks and volunteer to do lists for the other months too!
