Recruiting New Board Members

It's April and typically this is the month where nominations are accepted for new school PTO board members.  If you're having trouble finding individuals to fill those executive slots, here's just one of many things you can implement in your school PTO to get more people involved and on the path to serving on the board...

ASSIGN 3rd GRADE A THEME

Ask the 3rd grade parents to plan a program. It may be a fundraiser or a nonprofit enrichment program.

By 3rd grade parents have been at the school for a few years and have learned the ropes. You'll find that those parents that have volunteerd up to this point, will help those along who haven't. It's like on-the-job training. 

As an example, let's say each year the 3rd Grade parents are responsible for planning Earth Day events in April or Health & Wellness events in January. Maybe they choose to plan a Walk-a-thon or distribute seeds to the students and have them plant a garden. 

By assigning a particular grade to carry out the same theme every year, parents will expect to have to volunteer when they reach these grades. Everyone will look forward to seeing what creative ideas each new class brings to the table. It may even become a bit competitive to make it better than the year before. 

The end result... you just got parents volunteering and learning how to organize an event – the first step in getting them into a Board position. You also now have trained volunteers for another year or two.