The nominations have been made, the ballots have been cast, and it’s now time to get your 2015-2016 PTO and PTA board into shape!
While your board probably has a few returning members, especially those who were elected or appointed to officer positions, there’s probably a few newcomers as well, and it’s important that everyone is on the same page in order to get the school year kicked off to a great start.
Start By Reviewing The Past Year.
The only way to ensure success is to know what has – and hasn’t – worked in the past, and go from there. If there were some great events or initiatives that worked previously, you’ll probably want to stick with those and make minor adjustments as needed; after all, there’s no need to go reinventing the wheel! Conversely, if there were some events that were duds, you’ll probably want to nix them from the calendar and test out another event that might better suit your audience.
Take Comments/Questions/Concerns on Last Year’s Initiatives.
Even if you were involved last year, you may not know exactly what the rest of the members – new or existing – thought of how things went. Be open and honest with your new board, and consider each point. There may be an event that worked incredibly well last year, but perhaps last year’s treasurer knows that it was incredibly expensive to pull off, or maybe the planning chair knows that it was a logistical nightmare.
Don’t discount anything that anyone has to say – a parent who is new, perhaps their child is in kindergarten and they’ve never had any involvement before, is coming in with a fresh set of eyes and no expectations or pre-conceived notions. That may be where some of your board’s best ideas come from!
Ask For Volunteers.
Once you’ve got the board together, you’ll need to begin the process of getting to work. Although members on the board may already hold positions (President, Treasurer, etc.), you should also ask them to head up sub-committees, or for each person to recruit at least one new member to the organization. One of the best ways to motivate your board is to jump right in and have everyone feel like they’re an active, integral part right out of the gate.
You can use Pay4SchoolStuff.com to make this a cinch! From using it to manage the sign-ups from board members to accepting dues payments from the new recruits we make it incredibly easy to manage your entire organization all in one place. And you can also provide separate logins and reporting access to various committee chairs for different activities your PTA/PTO coordinates!
Start A Newsletter.
It may seem like a silly thing to do right now, before summer vacation has even started, nevermind before the kids are back to school, but starting a newsletter is a great way to keep your board informed of developments over the summer, and keep the rest of the members and the parents of the entire student body informed as to what they can expect in the next school year. You’ll probably find that parents will be more willing to participate in events when expectations are clearly set forth and they’ve got plenty of advance notice, and this is a great way to accomplish that.
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