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In this section, we discuss the elements of a PTO, including:
OFFICERS
PURPOSE
COMMITTEES
CALENDAR
HELPFUL HINTS FOR PTO PRESIDENTS
While school expenditures are being trimmed thinner each year, Parent-Teacher Organizations (PTO) are becoming even more important within each school's community. PTO's are a lifeline when it comes to ensuring that the students have the supplies and enrichment programs that make for a more complete learning experience. To do this, fundraising is essential and PTO's have found themselves working harder to balance such an important budget.
But PTO's do much more than just fundraise to help pay for school supplies and equipment. They raise funds for things that do not fall within the realm of a typical classroom experience. The funds that are raised are returned to the teachers as teacher appreciation gifts and luncheons; they are returned to the students as field trips, enrichment programs, and graduation gifts to help them experience things outside of the classroom curriculum; and they help create a sense of community among school families through family fun events, ice cream socials, and school performances.
A Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO) can be organized in two different ways. It may be set up as a nonprofit organization, in which case it will be required to set up its own bylaws. Or, a PTO may run under the nonprofit status of the school. In this case, it will not be required to write bylaws. It is recommended, in this case, that the PTO write Roles and Responsibilities for its organization.
This section will be written in a general format for Roles and Responsibilities. It will not use specific wording as the wording for every organization will depend on the activities it votes to run. The bylaws will be required to include some of this information, but Roles and Responsibilities will be more comprehensive. So we will put our focus there.
OFFICERS
The officers should be listed and their responsibilities should be described so that new officers from year to year will have a clear understanding of their roles. The officers generally include a President, the past President, a President elect, a Treasurer and a Secretary.
President:
The President is in charge of all volunteers. The President runs the meetings and initiates a vote when needed. The President is the liaison between the PTO and the Head of School and Administrative staff at the school.
Past President:
This is the prior year President. The Past President's responsibilities are to provide guidance and support to the current President as needed. The Past President may wish to take on a role of one of the volunteers.
President Elect:
This is the person voted in to be President for the following year. The President Elect's role is to learn the responsibilities of the President and to provide guidance and support to the current President.
Vice-President:
The Vice President acts in an advisory capacity to the President and, in the absence of the President shall conduct the presidential duties.
Treasurer:
The Treasurer keeps the financial reports and the budget and reviews this information with the membership at the meetings. The Treasurer may also be in charge of any fundraising volunteers..
Secretary
The Secretary prepares the agenda for the meetings for the President and takes the minutes of the meetings. The Secretary keeps a minutes book. The Secretary may be in charge of any mass mailings done by the PTO.
For more information on conducting planned meetings and being a great leader, sign up as a PTO Ideas member and receive immediate access to Fundraising: Success is in the Details, a Free online guide from PTO Ideas featuring 8 essential steps to creating successful fundraisers.
PURPOSE
The PTO should state its purpose or purposes. Generally, most activities of a PTO will fall under any of the following purposes. Note that all of these roles are to provide support to the school. A PTO's responsibilities do not include resolving conflict among, parents, teachers, and administration.
Fundraising
The PTO will run various fundraising activities to provide funding to the school for needs not covered by the school?s budget. Generally, the PTO will have a vote as to where the funds are spent. Fundraising activities could include Auctions, Golf Tournaments, Pancake Breakfasts, etc.
Support
The PTO will organize volunteers for the school. Volunteers may be needed to support the classroom, field trips, administrative offices, sports activities, before or after school care activities, beautification of the property and grounds, mass mailings, library donations, and researching a school photographer.
Community Building
The PTO may sponsor activities that have the sole purpose of building community within its school. These activities would not result in a profit. Any income brought in by the activities would only cover the cost of the activity. The purpose is to provide fun activities for the families and children. Some examples may include a family hiking day, a trip to a theater event, Grandparent's Day events, or a kids' fair. Community building activities may include community service as well.
Community building activities may include community service as well. Contact local nonprofits that you may be able to assist. Encourage groups of students, classes, families, after-school groups and specialty classes (art, music, etc.) to take on projects. Perhaps a music class can sing at a local nursing home, an art class can decorate the walls of a hospital, the school can collect items for a local food pantry, or families can make baskets to support a new mother in need.
Education
The PTO may provide support to the school by providing enrichment program arrangements and funding. Enrichment Programs are educational programs that go beyond the scope of the typical classroom. The PTO may also provide support to the school by sponsoring education to parents about curriculum or policies and procedures of the school.
COMMITTEES
The PTO may work on a committee structure where every activity is supported by a committee with a committee chair or co-chair(s). Every committee would fall under one of the above purposes. If the PTO is large enough to support many volunteers, then there would be a parent coordinator for each of the purposes listed above and every committee that falls under those four categories would have its own committee chair. In this case, the President may only need to work with the four coordinators and each of the coordinators would work with all committee chairs that fall under its purpose.
CALENDAR
It is a good idea to create a calendar of all meetings so that the schedule of events and meetings can be sent out with the school calendar. The calendar should include the following:.
PTO Meetings:
PTO Meetings could be held as little as three times during the school year or as much as monthly. It is a good idea to alternate meetings between mornings, after school and nights to allow for all members to attend according to their schedules.
Events:
All events should be tentatively scheduled on the calendar. This should include all fundraising events (i.e. auctions), community building events (i.e. family bowling day), and volunteer events (i.e. flower planting day).
Committee Meetings:
Meetings should be scheduled ahead of time to plan the events. For example, if the PTO will be having an auction in March, try to get meetings on the schedule starting monthly in November and every two weeks as the event gets closer.
Elections:
The PTO should schedule due dates for nominations of officers and the date for the election of officers. Generally, both of these dates would take place close to the end of the year, but early enough to allow the existing officers to transfer responsibilities to the newly elected officers prior to the school year ending.
HELPFUL HINTS FOR NEW PTO PRESIDENTS
The newly elected PTO President has a tremendous amount to organize and account for. To better prepare for this role and it's upcoming responsibilities, here are some ideas.
Meet with those that can provide insight into past PTO operations. Meet with the head of school, director of development, main receptionist, past PTO president, all committee chairs, long standing parents, new parents of the youngest students in the school but also new parents of students that transferred in from other schools (these parents would be coming from other schools with ideas).
Ask them to complete a questionaire and disuss some specifics. Ask them:
- What events have been done in the past that they like or dislike?
- Do they have any new ideas? Upon requesting the meeting, refer them to this PTO Ideas website. The ideas here will get their creative juices flowing and they'll be able to offer you more valuable feedback on what events and fundraisers are the best fit for your particular school.
- Have they been at other schools or do their children have siblings in other schools from which you can gather ideas?
- Can they chair a committee?
- Are they willing to donate at least 2 hours volunteer time at a single event?
- What are their interests? Where can they help?
- Where do BOTH parents work? In knowing this information, you now know who to approach to ask when seeking specific donations. For instance, if you want to raffle off a Bose Wave Radio, do you have a parent that works for Bose or a company that sells similar equipment?
- Obtain email addresses.
For ideas on increasng parent & teacher involvement in the PTO, visit our page titled Increase Participation.
PTO Ideas has provided you with ideas. This information is the opinion of PTO ideas and may not be all inclusive. We recommend consulting with the head of your school and any other essential professional.
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