A resource for PTA and parent involvement project ideas
Engaging Parent Volunteers: Planning for BTS 2010
Wondering what kinds of planning you're doing now to get ready for engaging (more) parent volunteers next school year. Are you making changes to where parents can help, how you ask them, what kinds of roles are available, etc?
This article on our VolunteerSpot blog has a list of starter quesitons for PTA leadership teams.
This article on our VolunteerSpot blog has a list of starter quesitons for PTA leadership teams.
Tags: Volunteer, action, coordination, recuriting, volunteer, volunteers
Views: 190
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Walkathon Guide on -
Our current board is getting all committee chairs in place - almost done - so that the new board isn't under extreme pressure to fill those jobs.
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Permalink Reply by Carissa Dollar on -
We are planning to start a new program that lets parents volunteer from the car rider line in the afternoon!
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Permalink Reply by Karen Bantuveris on -
Ooh - tell us more about it - what are you planning? Sounds like genius multi-tasking!
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Permalink Reply by Carissa Dollar on
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This is a brand new idea for us, so we are still kinda working out the details. We will probably start the program about 2-3 weeks after school starts.
We will start out by sending home a flyer with all kids who are car riders asking for parents to help. It will have a spot to put their car make/model/color on it to help us recognize who is there to help in the line.
It'll be a one day a week thing, probably on Wednesday afternoons. Parents who participate will arrive and park in the car rider lane about 15-20 minutes before the car riders dismiss. Those who are going to be participating will get a laminated piece of bright cardstock that says VOLUNTEER in big letters to put in their window or on their visor when they get in line to help us recognize them.
There will be a PTA officer or a chairperson or someone who has collected tasks from the teachers, the PTA, the office, whoever, that can be done in a 15 minute time span sitting in the car. (Cutting out Box Tops, I think the soup labels need glued onto something before they are sent in?, cutting out items for teachers, preparing book order forms to go home, counting flyers into stacks for classrooms, proof-reading the newsletter, etc.) We'll have some school supply boxes with items like scissors, glue sticks, etc. to use if needed. The person in charge that week will take this stuff out on a cart and pass it out down the line and then pick it back up as the kids come out.
We're hoping that this will help eliminate some of the fairly meanial tasks that our teachers have to spend time doing. It should also help us engage a different group of parents who may have never felt like they have the time or ability to help before. We also think it will be a hit with any parents who have little babies or younger siblings so they can't normally come into the school to help, but could certainly do something simple like this while sitting in their car with the kids in carseats waiting on their older child.
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Permalink Reply by Karen Bantuveris on
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Brilliant!! I love that you've found a way to break volunteering down into 15 meaningful minutes!! Please let us all know how it works for your school!
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Permalink Reply by Lynetta Hughes on -
I love this idea and I think I will bring to our board to see if we can tweek it and do something similar. thanks.
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Permalink Reply by Lynetta Hughes on
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We had a Council meeting last night and a Board member brought a photo/invitation she had gotten when her son was in kinder. It was a pboto of him on the front with the caption "My First Day of School" inside was a nice note and a persona invite from the PTA to join and the date and time for the first meeting. IT was a really cool thing.
Sacramento Council of PTAs
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Permalink Reply by Carissa Dollar on
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Oh.....I like that!
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Permalink Reply by Michelle Jesse on -
I like that idea. We are looking for ways to get more new parents involved at our school. They built a new elementary up the road (why I dont know) so we are losing 140 kids and gaining 120 new kids so we wanted to find a way to get to those new parents and I think that might be it!
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Permalink Reply by Lori L Fiddmont on
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I always like to explain to people what PTA is and what we are about. Many parents do not know what PTA is and they think that we are begging for money and such. I always throw in how important volunteering is to their child's future and education.
We have a preschool with parenting classes in our building so we make it a point to talk to those parents and let them know what PTA is all about, the ways it helps their child(ren), and why it is important to volunteer. This year our Principal is doing our open house the night before school starts so we are going to try and target our kindergarten parents and any new student parents this night.
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Permalink Reply by Delia Troy on -
Our school has implemented a "big family" program. New families that are entering the school with a kindergartner or that have just moved to the area our assigned a family to welcome them. One of the items that the "big family" talks to the new family about his how to get involved and volunteer.
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Permalink Reply by Karen Bantuveris on
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We have a new video - Boosting Parent Participation at Back to School - please check it out.
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