As your school year comes to a close, it’s time to make sure your PTA board provides a smooth transition to next year’s board. Your board has worked hard all year for your PTA’s success, and now is not the time to damage that legacy by having your PTA fall apart over the summer or early next school year. Here are six things you can do as a current officer or board member to help provide for a smooth leadership transition.

  1. Meet with your successor. Provide them with the materials you inherited in your position and what you’ve added. Be sure to include a procedure book. Discuss what worked, what didn’t, and what you’d do differently if you had the job for another year.Team Meeting In Creative Office
  2. Meet with the incoming leadership as a board. The new board will need to build their abilities as a team, even if only a few new board members are joining. The outgoing board can share their experiences of working as a group.
  3. Arrange meetings with contacts. Outgoing officers and committee chairs should take the time to introduce their replacements to key contacts such as teachers, administrators, community partners, and community leaders.
  4. Introduce the new board to your membership. Make sure your members see a smooth succession and know that their PTA and their children are in good hands. Be sure to share the abilities of the new team that led to their nomination.
  5. Update your PTA’s contact information. Make sure that they will get the Illinois PTA Local Unit Packet later this summer by filling out the local unit registration form (or the council registration form for PTA councils).
  6. Plan to step back. You may be moving to another position on the board, not taking a new PTA leadership position, or moving on to another school. In any case, you should plan on stepping back from the position you are turning over. Let your successor know that you are handing them the keys and letting them drive off without you sitting in the back seat (and, yes, this can be as tough as letting your teenager do the same with your car). Make sure they know that you are still there as a resource for them, but that you realize that they will do some things differently and that you will give them the space and support to do so.