Membership is one of the basic parts of PTA, but there are a lot of myths and misunderstandings about it. Here are five common PTA membership myths busted.

Myth #1: Membership campaigns are only at the start of the school year.

Busted: Sure, most of your members will join PTA at the start of the year, but how many times have you heard, “I can’t write another check right now” while sitting at the PTA table during school registration. In fact, anyone can join PTA at any time. You can use various holidays or events to get more people to join your PTA. For example, “Love our PTA events? Show us some love by joining our PTA! Your membership helps to support our events.” around Valentine’s Day.

Myth #2: You have to have a kid at the school or work there to join.

Busted: Anyone can join any PTA by paying their membership dues. While most of your PTA members will be parents, teachers, or staff associated with your school, there are many people out there who could join your PTA. Make a “community membership” available to your PTA (it’s easy to enable it in Givebacks) and encourage grandparents, school board members, school district central office members, local politicians, Chamber of Commerce members, realtors, and more to join your PTA. Everyone in your community has a stake in good local public schools, and strong PTAs support strong public schools.

Myth #3: “Family memberships” are the same as regular memberships.

Busted: Some PTAs offer a “family membership,” and that’s okay, but it needs to be well-defined. Remember that a PTA membership entitles the member to vote on motions and elect officers of your PTA. How many votes does your “family membership” provide to a family? Two? Everyone in the family (and how does that work at one price)? Keep in mind that you also need to pay Illinois PTA and National PTA dues for every member in your PTA.

Myth #4: “Everyone is automatically a member of our PTA.”

Busted: No one wants to feel like they’re excluding people from PTA membership, so the appeal of this idea is understandable, but practically, it just doesn’t work. Remember, PTA membership provides the right to vote on PTA officers, and anyone can join a PTA. If everyone is automatically a member, can a group walk into your PTA election meeting off the street, nominate one of them to be PTA president or treasurer from the floor, and then elect them if they come in sufficient numbers to do so? Also, how does your PTA then pay state and national dues for everyone?

Myth #5: We can’t do “gift” memberships.

Busted: This myth partially feeds into myth #4 above. There may be people who would like to join your PTA, but can’t manage the dues in their family budget. While “gift” memberships are possible, they can be challenging to administer. If your PTA wants to limit them to families eligible for free and reduced-price lunch, you’ll need to work with your school administration to handle who gets memberships, as that information cannot be shared with the PTA. You can also have people purchase additional PTA memberships when they join to create a pool of gift memberships, but extreme sensitivity and confidentiality is needed in how they are administered. 

One way that some PTAs get around these difficulties is to provide a benefit with the PTA membership that offsets the cost of the membership itself. For example, if your PTA has a fun fair and has a meal of a hot dog, potato chips, a cookie, and a drink for sale that costs as much as or more than a PTA membership, you can have a PTA membership entitle someone to one free meal at the fair (provide a free meal voucher when they join).