Do any of you ever attend any of the meetings? We have a pretty large school and last night I went to my first meeting (Ds is in Kindergarten) there were maybe 25 moms there! I think that is terrible. How do you get more to attend???? Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated!

Leighann

Magically get their moms/dads out of work earlier?

When I was working you couldn't pay me to get out of the house during the week. I was so busy snowballing through homework while making dinner, eating dinner, finishing homework, bathing, spending some one-on-one time and everything else, that the PTA wasn't a concern of mine. In this day and age, when the job is requiring more hours and communting, it's almost impossible to get the average parent to rush right back out of the house after just getting home from work.

I think 25 moms is a lot. And I'm sure the parents who couldn't make it rely on and appreciate the ones who can.

25 is more than we get for our entire district! I went a few times, but I just don't have the time.

__________________
~Happiness is a large family~

Wow I guess I always thought lots and lots of moms went! Just surprised! Our meeting was 7:30 in the evening once a month. Thanks for the input

Leighann

A lot of it depends on the perception of the particular PTA. The PTA at my dd's school is just an extension of a ritzy subdivision in my dd's school district, therefore I refer to the PTA as "The <insert name of ritzy subdivision> Social Club". If the PTA wasn't a clique full of snobs, I'd join. However, I've been treated very shabbily by many of the current PTA members, so I don't want to have anything to do with the PTA. In fact, two of the PTA members are the reasons why I no longer have my volunteer library job. With that crowd, I can guarantee that my voice would not be heard, so it would be a waste of time for me to fool with joining.

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"Everything happens for a reason, but there may not be a point." ~ Kinsey Millhone

Our school is small (less than 500 students grades K thru 8), and we only get about 20 people at our PTO Meetings. It's really the same suspects every year that do everything...LOL. So we're all pretty close! It's fun to get new Moms for some new ideas and new faces and make new friends. I have made some really good friends over the years working PTO events, heading up committees etc

Our PTO is strictly fun and educational events for the kids. That is our focus. Our PTO emails the meeting minutes to everyone and also produces a monthly newsletter that the kids bring home.

I think a lot of people just don't want to be involved for whatever reason, or can't make it to the meetings or whatever. We ask for a small donation ($10) to 'join' our PTO and also ask that folks look at the list of events and things PTO provides each year for the kids at the school and asks for people's time. What I always find funny are the folks that never join PTO, but they're at all the events and always the first to complain if they don't like something but never darken the door to help out.

Our PTO had an open house this year, everyone was invited. All of the committees had members there and told about what they did. THey also had refreshments and door prizes.

Our PTO has provided supper occassionally and always has free child care and even gives away a school mascot shirt at every meeting. I'm dedicated to my son's education and would like to be more involved but have only made it to a few meetings. I work all day and some evenings and between Scouts and faith committments, evenings are precious times.

Make sure all parents know about the meetings well ahead of time. 2 days notice is not enough and for me, 2 weeks notice is usually not enough either. I wish our PTO would distribute minutes of the meetings to all parents so that we could know what is happening even if we can't make it to the meetings. Then if I felt strongly about something going on, I could contact someone to let them know my opinon or try extra hard to make it to the meeting. Also, make sure the meetings are well organized - start on time and end at a reasonable time so I can go home and practice spelling words before bed with DS. Keeping me there 2 hours just makes me not want to come back! Parents of older kids - 4-6 graders are rarely there so need to find a way to reach out to them.

__________________
Better to give your kids the values you have
than the valuables you can't afford.

This is a little of a burr for me.. Of course, our schools want us to participate. However, ours is VERY cliqueish. Nothing really gets changed, challenged or done because they're in tight with the school administration and don't really want to rock the boat. Worse, and the biggest challenge, is their meetings are at 9:30 in the morning!!! We live in a suburb away from the city where many commute to, so it's not easy to go back and forth. Even though I'm SAHM, I have a baby whom I wouldn't take to a meeting. If the meetings were in the evening, I could have dh watch her.

In my district the meetings are always the first Tuesday of the month and they also have babysitting our meeting went for about an hour. Since I am new at all this not really sure if the minutes are passed out in the monthly school newsletter or not. From reading all your posts I guess small attendence is normal. I suppose I will have to wait and see how it all goes maybe will have more of an opinion after a few months!