A resource for PTA and parent involvement project ideas
Newly Elected President...
I am a newly elected President for a school that has not had a PTA in over ten years. I have been trying to get this started since about July, but we have just gotten this PTA really off the ground. During Parent-Teacher Conference Day, We had a membership table set up, and m newly elected board was introducing themselves to parents, and trying to get members, and a feel on what the school needed. The issue here is that during this process, many parents actually ran from us, or treated us as though we were carrying rats on our shoulders. One actually said, "Oh NO!!!!" when asked if she wanted information about our new PTA. Do you have any suggestions for ice breakers for this type of parents, or suggestions for an event to help us break the ice. I want this to be a successful school year.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Melody Krupnik on -
Wow -- don't get discouraged! Most parents just don't know what's expected of them. They don't understand that any help that they can give is appreciated, and they just assume that the committment is just too large.
It sounds like there is some sort of weird history. But, if you can get them to understand that this is a fresh beginning and how this helps out their children, you would probably get more takers. Try to make it personal. Telling a person that you need their help face to face goes over better than anything else. Perhaps a get together with coffee one evening to have an open discussion about what is important for their children and their school would make them feel that they can be involved and have their voice heard.
Good Luck! I think it's wonderful that you are taking it on instead of just accepting things as they are!
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Permalink Reply by PTA Administrator on -
It's not really an icebreaker, but there is a resource on PTA.org that might help correct some of the misinformation that likely is causing people to react the way you describe. The brochure titled "PTA: A Parent Group Unlike Any Other" is available for download in the PTA Marketing Tools section of the website under Running a PTA: www.pta.org/logos_and_usage.asp
This brochure outlines what sets PTA apart from other parent groups.
You might also consider planning a Take Your Family To School Week event to generate interest and get parents involved. Get ideas at PTA.org/familytoschool.
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Permalink Reply by Marie Chusid on
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Hi,
I am a newly elected president in a high school that has NEVER had a p.t.s.a. I have a very small but dedicated board of 5. I have a few suggestions of things that are working for us. At the start of the school year we filmed a p.s.a that the school ran on back to school night introducing us to the school at large. We then did a brief speech at a faculty meeting. We also attended meetings for the key student groups in our school (Key Club,honor society and SGA) We also introduced ourselves at SAF & SAC meetings. It is a a long slow process but don't get discouraged. Our membership increases a little after every appearance. We hosted a teacher breakfast on a teacher planning day & it was a lovely more intimate way to speak to teachers directly. We passed out teacher wish lists... We are planning our first fundraiser & another large event in the spring. Another key relationship is your relationship with your principal.
Marie
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Permalink Reply by Alicia De Chalus-Hayes on
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Thank you to everyone for all input. Unfortunately, the school just had a Take your family to school week, but we can do a spin off idea for the new year. An idea to share, the principal is a dallas cowboys fan, and we live in a neighborhood were redskins and cowboys are both popular. So she held a cowboys-redskins night, where the school had things from both teams, and many parents came out, little beknownest to them, it was to cover up a math night!
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Permalink Reply by Kirk Corless on -
I would suggest a PTA night at a local resturaunt and invite parents for a get-together, even better get the kids involved.
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Permalink Reply by Jenean Witherspoon on -
I heavily suggest doing things like Family Movie Nights and Family Reading Nights. The other thing you can do is make sure that you make it known that your events are PTA sponsored. I make sure that all our flyers that go out say PTA. Banners around the school for events that we sponsor say PTA. I created a letter head that I used for meetings - agendas, treasurers report, minutes, and other flyers. Today we had a Parent Breakfast and had left over goodies. We left them in the Teacher's Lounge and I made sure that the goodies were courtesy of PTA.
You have to spread your good name everywhere, so that the parents see how much you give back to the school. I also suggest passing out a survey. That way you can find out what parents really think about the PTA and why they don't want to join or volunteer their time. I've attached a copy of our survey and a copy of the results. - Attachments:
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LarkEllenSurvey09-10.pdf, 31 KB -
LarkEllenPTA09-10SurveyResults.pdf, 38 KB
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Permalink Reply by Terri Hodges on -
I also just became the new PTA President of an elementary school this year. Like you, I am starting from scratch. Although we had a PTA in the past - they were more focused on fundraising as opposed to building relationships with families and in the community. I took over because all the prior officers had left. I started with a new secretary and a new treasurer. The community perception of the PTA was not very good to say the least. The organization was seen as money hungry people always asking for volunteers! I had to change that perception. What I did was start by building a PTA website (something we didn’t previously have) the website features updates on school events/activities; help tips & hints, a forum for communicating directly with the school staff, links to helpful resources. I used the website to promote a brief online survey to gauge the level of effective communication between parents and teachers and identify obstacles for effective communication. Once I got this information, I was able to focus on the areas of concern for the parents. I found out that the majority of the parents had no idea what the PTA does or how instrumental the PTA can be for them. Bottom line - if you want to get people on board you have to be able to demonstrate how it benefits them!! Holding a PTA informational night is a great way to do this. Show the parents what your organization does for the school and the children and what the children and school would lose in the absence of the PTA. Also people are looking for fresh new ideas - not the status quo. Tell them what your plans are, and why you are raising money. For example, we are implementing a literacy program and a tutoring/mentoring program. We need community support and financial support. WE just held a Winter Extravaganza to raise money towards these initiatives. The event included vendors from the community, a Chinese auction, bake sale, basket raffles and activities for the kids. It was a huge success. We raised over $1000.00 in 1 ½ hours with minimal start up expense (we solicited donations for the raffles and Chinese auction as well as the bake sale). All the proceeds go towards our new program and people were really responsive to that!! We had more people sign up to join the PTA once they realized that we are doing something for the kids.
Persistence is the key. As new officers in a poorly performing PTA, the burden of proof is on us to demonstrate that we can make a difference and deliver on our promises. The first step is to get your local community and families involved. The support and participation of the school staff is also essential. – Good luck
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Permalink Reply by Alicia De Chalus-Hayes on
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How much did it cost for you to start a pta website, and if you could possibly send me link to yours so I could look at what is on it, that would be beneficial. Thank you so much for the great advice.
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Permalink Reply by Jenean Witherspoon on
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Alicia, you can very easily set up a free website by using Google Sites - http://sites.google.com/
It's a free service.
We have our website set up through them - http://sites.google.com/site/larkellenpta/
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Permalink Reply by Terri Hodges on
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The website is free. We used http://www.webptn.com/ (Parent teacher network)
our school address is www.allenfrearpta.webptn.com
It has been extremely beneficial - I use the site for mass communications to replace those newsletters that always seem to get lost in the kid's bookbags. We still give parents the option to receive the newsletter via paper if they don't have access to the internet.
We are also holding a Mega Membership Drive from now until the end of February. We have offered a full catered lunch to the school staff if they can acheive 100% paid membership and we will provide a pizza part for the first classroom to acheive 100% paid membership from the families. You would be surprised how excited the kids get with a little friendly competition and they really stay on their parents to join.
I found that establishing a goal -with visual aids to track the progress has been helpful. We asked for 100% staff membership and a 15% increase in parent membership.
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Permalink Reply by Lisa Tilton on
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I think you need to sponsor some type of event that will allow the parents to see PTA in a positive light. Maybe some type of family event -- maybe movie night, a family fun night, etc. Many parents don't have any understanding of what PTA does. They seem to think that if they commit to join, they are committing to working events. Sometimes that is not possible due to other committments. Also, our PTA produces a monthly newsletter which is sent home with the kids after our PTA meeting. It recaps some of the PTA business from the meeting and also informs the parents what our PTA is accomplishing.
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Permalink Reply by Alicia De Chalus-Hayes on
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A newsletter is an awesome idea. The only glitch that I would have is that we have teachers that say the children's bookbags are filled with papers that the parents do not look at, how would I get THIS newsletter to them. DO you think that it would be a good idea to pass it out physically? Maybe another way for the parents to meet the Board Members?
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