PTA Membership

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Comment by Cindy Jensen on October 9, 2009 at 10:06pm

if you knew how many "silly" math problems I asked my husband, you would not feel silly.

You could draw your own or maybe a school supply store might have some you could buy. I personally would not want to have to go around to every classroom each week and update each chart. For our school that would be 16 classes. That's time consuming.

In Excel, it would be very easy to create a single chart that shows each classroom and their progress.

Comment by Cindy Jensen on October 9, 2009 at 9:47pm

A thermometer outside each classroom would be a lot of work. For the example below, the number 24 would equal 100%. So 11 members would be 46%. You divide 11 by 24 (total students or goal).

Comment by Maria Campos on October 8, 2009 at 12:54pm

I am the membership chairperson for our PTA. I took some advise from a different school since I'm somewhat new to this. I did a Class Contest for upper grade and for lower grade which will give us two class winners. It was very fun i did it for three weeks and ended on back to school night. The contest was "what class can bring in the MOST memberships". Our membership last year was 147 with over 700 students and this years during the contest it went up to 225 and we have a little over 500 kids this year, we had 100% participation from our Teachers. I made sure to post their progress on a huge handmade poster for everyone to view the class process. It was owesome, we were able to see which teachers and classes were competitive, and let me tell you it was super close. Everyone loved it. I had a balloon theme and the winner will get a "Fall Harvest Party" since we can't halloween parties. We also have incentives for the teachers so keep that in mind.

Comment by Barbara Simmons on October 7, 2009 at 1:35am

I love the tips, advice and information that has been shared here. Keep up the good work!

Comment by Sheryl Longsworth on October 1, 2009 at 3:47pm

I'm the president of a middle school PTSA in the Sacramento, California area. I managed to obtain donations of gift cards from local merchants that are used for a membership drawing. One entry in the drawing for each person that joins. Five entries per person that joins at a PTSA general meeting or PTSA-sponsored event. Two winners per month are drawn. Our membership has increased by almost 15%!

Comment by Carissa Dollar on September 29, 2009 at 9:27am

Our PTA Council does the discount cards for our district. I'm sure that they probably sign a contract of some sort when they agree to be included on the card. You might contact your Region VP and see if they have guidance or if any other units in your area does something like this.

The part about membership not equaling volunteering is not always easy to get across. I try to make sure that any membership info we send out includes that information. At events, we try to have 2 tables - one for membership and one for volunteers. We tell people that we will not call them unless they fill out our yellow volunteer survey. We stress that joining just means that they support our mission and that it increases our voice if we advocate with our legislators.

Yes, if some kids have 2+ parents or family members join, I would consider a class as having 100% membership when you have a member for each child, not necessarily a member from each family.

Comment by Carissa Dollar on September 29, 2009 at 9:01am

Tara -

Make sure that your families understand that membership does NOT have to equal volunteering. Some people would be happy to join but are busy and are afraid that if they join, they will be expected to volunteer.

See if you can get local businesses to give you coupons to give to your members. (Try places like Texas Road House, Steak & Shake & Dairy Queen who often give to schools and don't forget "mom and pop" businesses around you.) Or try to put together a discount card with many local merchants that members receive. If you do an event like a fall carnival at your school, offer some free tickets to members.

Send out a letter appealing to families to join. Be sure you are personally asking people (as well as the other board members asking) because for some people it takes that personal touch.

If your school has a newsletter, see if you can put a membership appeal in it.

Sponsor a contest between classes. The first class with a member for every child gets a popcorn party or a popsicle or some extra recess.

Comment by Anissa Rajala on September 15, 2009 at 10:41pm

Hello everyone!

I hope your school years are coming along. We had our first membership meeting tonight and saw more people there than we had almost the entire year before. I was so jazzed. Furthermore, our regional director (who is absolutely wonderful) came down to talk about how the different levels of the PTA work and what they do. That jazzed me even more. I even got 3 people to sign up "during" the meeting.

Whoot, whoot!

Comment by Carissa Dollar on September 15, 2009 at 8:45pm

Kim - We are bulldogs at our school. Does your school have a "die cut" kind of device in the workroom that the teachers use to cut shapes out of colored paper? We have at least 2 or 3 different paw prints that we use with that "machine" for similar purposes.

Comment by Kim Philips on September 15, 2009 at 8:36pm

Ronda - do you have a template of the paw print you used for the teacher's doors? We have the same team logo for our school. If so, would you be willing to share it with me?

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