Middle school is different from elementary school for kids—they’re changing classrooms, managing a locker, and meeting new people from other elementary schools. It’s different for parents as well. New activities like band or sports may pull parents who have been involved in PTA at the elementary level away at the middle school level. Here are … Continue reading Top 10 Tips for Middle School PTA Success
News from National Convention: Attracting Today’s Parents
PTAs used to be able to simply set up a table with a “Join PTA” sign and have parents line up. But those days are long gone, and today’s PTA needs to provide parents with reasons for joining that resonate with them. At the 2017 National PTA Convention, two events focused on how PTAs can … Continue reading News from National Convention: Attracting Today’s Parents
Plan Now for PTA Success in the Fall
With the school year coming to a close and summer activities to look forward to, many PTA leaders may be looking to put their feet up for the next few months. But summer provides an excellent time for PTA leaders to make their lives easier once school starts back up. By doing some planning for … Continue reading Plan Now for PTA Success in the Fall
News from the Illinois PTA Convention—Membership Workshops
One of the great opportunities at the Illinois PTA Convention is to attend workshops by state board members that provide you with new ideas and help you to be a better PTA leader. Illinois PTA Membership Marketing Director Julie Holdeman presented two great workshops on growing your PTA’s membership. The first, Planning a Year-Round Membership … Continue reading News from the Illinois PTA Convention—Membership Workshops
News from the Illinois PTA Convention—School of Excellence Program
At first glance, Kreitner Elementary School in Collinsville looks like a school that would be struggling to get families involved. The Pre-K through fourth grade school has just under 400 students, and 91% are from low-income families, 100% receive free lunch, 75% are Hispanic, and 53% are English Language Learners. And a few years ago, … Continue reading News from the Illinois PTA Convention—School of Excellence Program
5 Ways to Fire Up Your Middle School or High School PTA
PTAs and PTSAs at the middle school and high school level often struggle. It’s not that families are no longer involved with the school, it’s that they are now spread out among athletic boosters, band, orchestra, drama, and other groups as well as the PTA. Here are some ideas to fire up families to engage … Continue reading 5 Ways to Fire Up Your Middle School or High School PTA
National PTA Back-to-School Kit Now Available
It's that time of year again! The 2016-2017 National PTA Official Back-To-School Kit launched on Monday, June 27. As always, it's jam-packed with tools, resources and info—all specially designed to help you run your PTA. It's a one-stop click for everything you need to know. For the second year, the kit is completely digital and … Continue reading National PTA Back-to-School Kit Now Available
10 Great Ways to Get More PTA Volunteers
PTA is the largest volunteer organization in the world focused on the welfare of children. From the person sitting at a registration table at open house on up to the National PTA president, almost all of the work done by PTA is done by volunteers. Here are XX ways your PTA can get more volunteers. … Continue reading 10 Great Ways to Get More PTA Volunteers
Create a Welcome Packet to Bring New Families into Your PTA
As the school year comes to a close, many PTA leaders look forward to an opportunity to put their feet up and relax until school starts in the fall. However, there is one thing that PTA leaders should be planning now to make their PTA more successful in the coming year—planning on how to welcome … Continue reading Create a Welcome Packet to Bring New Families into Your PTA
Recognize Your PTA Volunteers to Keep Them Coming Back
One of the most important ways a PTA can get the most from its volunteers is to acknowledge their efforts. Perhaps your school had a volunteer recognition event back in April during National Volunteer Week. As your PTA year wraps up, be sure to thank your volunteers both publicly and privately for their work, and … Continue reading Recognize Your PTA Volunteers to Keep Them Coming Back
News from the Illinois PTA Convention—Membership Recruitment, Retention, and Engagement
Illinois PTA understands there are challenges to PTAs in recruiting and retaining members. We believe we can best address these challenges by communicating with you, the local unit members, in finding out what works for your PTA and what doesn’t. Through online conference events and convention networking workshops, we have discovered some of the challenges … Continue reading News from the Illinois PTA Convention—Membership Recruitment, Retention, and Engagement
Effective PTA Communications
We live in a media-rich environment with smartphones and the internet providing information in an almost constant stream. PTAs used to be able to send home a newsletter with a brightly-colored front page and know that families would see it, but the “Backpack Express” is much less effective these days. So how can your PTA’s … Continue reading Effective PTA Communications
Why PTA? Advocacy!
It is a question that is often heard—why be a PTA? Why not be an independent parent organization rather than paying PTA dues? For many PTAs, the answer is because of the many PTA programs like Reflections, the online training courses and other leadership resources, or even the member benefits. But the one thing that … Continue reading Why PTA? Advocacy!
News from National Convention—New Diversity Toolkit
As our country and school communities become more diverse, our PTAs are working to become more diverse in their membership and leadership as well. Tohelp PTAs with that process, National PTA released the new Diversity and Inclusion Toolkit at the 2015 National PTA Convention at a breakfast honoring this year’s Jan Harp Domene Diversity and … Continue reading News from National Convention—New Diversity Toolkit
How Do You Increase Your PTA’s Membership? Just Ask!
In a PTA survey, 49% of respondents said the reason people don’t join PTA is that no one asked them to. The way we ask people to join needs to be personal, powerful, and meaningful. Yet, even with the passion we have for PTA’s Mission, asking other people to join can seem daunting. Why is … Continue reading How Do You Increase Your PTA’s Membership? Just Ask!
Overcoming Membership Challenges—Ideas from the Illinois PTA Online Membership Chat
Illinois PTA understands there are challenges to PTAs in recruiting and retaining members. We believe we can best address these challenges by communicating with you, the local unit members, in finding out what works for your PTA and what doesn’t. On September 4th, Illinois PTA hosted an online membership chat that discussed why people join … Continue reading Overcoming Membership Challenges—Ideas from the Illinois PTA Online Membership Chat
HELP! MY MEMBERSHIP IS SHRINKING!
submitted by Rhonda Jenkins, Illinois PTA Membership/Marketing Director It will be here before we know it! In the next month or two your PTA will be hosting a back to school event and inviting parents to join PTA. These are just a few ideas to help you: When you are giving your speech, smile – … Continue reading HELP! MY MEMBERSHIP IS SHRINKING!
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