November 11, 2014 · 9:39 am

The Eternal Struggle of Fundraising

Last month On Parenting in The Washington Post ran a column about those annoying third-party fundraisers by Darlena Cunha: the wrapping paper, the cookie dough, etc. Yes, I agree with her thesis: they are annoying and the fundraising companies take too much of a cut. I don’t like kids asking for money. I’m not in love with third-party fundraising companies myself.

As much as I agree, however, I ran out of patience.

She had to make several phone calls to get to the bottom of her school’s wrapping paper fundraiser before figuring out she should have just contacted the PTA president or fundraising chair to begin with. Or, hey, maybe she could have attended a PTA meeting—she might not have felt so blindsided. Them unsurprisingly, the fundraising vendor didn’t instantly leap to answer her phone call demanding info on the percentage the PTA got to keep. Oh, the horror! Oh, the lack of transparency!
She then goes on to say that it would be so much better if people would just donate money to the school/PTA so we wouldn’t have to have these stupid fundraisers and give the fundraising vendor their cut. I too think that would be awesome.
But for some reason I don’t understand, people just don’t give donations without some kind of…enticement. Not in my experience, anyway.

Full disclosure: I hate fundraising. If someone offered me the role of Fundraising Chair or Vice President for Fundraising, I would rather have a toenail pulled out. (Maybe my baby toe, not the big toe.) Our culture in general has a strange, roundabout approach to charity and raising money for causes in general. You can’t just donate money to cancer research, you have to ride a bike for hundreds of miles and get sponsors. You can’t just donate money to find a cure for ALS, you have to have ice water dumped on your head. You can’t just ask for money for your PTA, you have to sell cookie dough. People need an incentive or a gimmick to donate, and you have to work with that.

That’s where the dreaded third-party fundraisers come in. They offer a solution to a problem to a group of parent volunteers tight on time. For better or worse, they’re filling a gap. Can you blame them?
I don’t understand, but I’ll leave the “why” for a sociologist. I think it has something to do with building relationships, or community, or something. For now, all you need to know is that:

1) The biggest job of your parent volunteer group is fundraising for your school, whether it’s for extras or for basic supplies.

2) People won’t (necessarily) donate money just because you ask nicely, no matter how worthwhile your cause or how serious your needs are.

I’ve heard about a few schools that have had “non-fundraisers.” Sounds a little bit like protection money to me—donate or we’ll make your kids sell desserts! There’s another alternative: Fun Runs and “-athons.”

A fundraiser based on an event brings the community together much more than a gift wrap sale. And unlike the cookie dough sale, it’s based around a healthy activity. That’s sure to get the administration, staff, and families more excited. And it allows families to donate what they can, whether you go by a flat donation or a pledge system.

The downside…there’s a lot of organization involved. Much more than just sending out a catalog. And you have a big choice: use a third party organizer, or take care of the details yourself.

Next post I’ll do a case study of my own experience with a fun run fundraiser. For now, here’s my advice: get informed about your group’s fundraiser. Attend meetings and get involved in the decision-making process, and maybe you won’t feel so blindsided when you get a cookie dough catalog.

Leave a comment

Filed under Fundraising

October 23, 2014 · 9:01 am

Can We Retire This PTA Mom Stereotype, Please?

Just catching up on a a recent post from The New York Times’ Motherlode blog: Not a ‘PTA Mom’ by Jordan Rosenfeld.

I’m glad she’s overcome her irrational prejudices, really I am. But find it amazing that this post had to be written at all. “I envisioned a carefully coifed, cupcake-baking beast of a woman whose pastel capris never bore so much as a smudge of child-effluence, all with a polished smile.” I understand that she exaggerates here for humorous effect, but for heaven’s sake. She also seems a bit unclear on the concept that the PTA is a national organization. I did learn a new term, though: Home and School Association.

There have been several articles this past year or two about parents and school volunteers. Check out Schools Need to Stop Asking So Much of Parents (And Parents Need to Stop Caving) and Ban School Bake Sales, both at Slate. Great click-bait titles, by the way. Lots of anger and resentment. And if you read the comments, this subject really gets people agitated.

Some insist that the obnoxious stereotype is based in truth, holding up their personal anecdotes as evidence. Well, it’s too bad if you have encountered annoying PTA mom types. Obnoxious people are everywhere and we have to grit our teeth and cope with them for the greater good. If you find yourself becoming an annoying stereotypical PTA mom, a little bit to perfectionist and wrapped up in a clique for her own good…well, knock it off already.

People get frustrated with volunteering, too, and rightfully so. There’s an undercurrent of “Well, in Finland, no one has to volunteer because schools are so well-funded and well-run they don’t need volunteers, we should be like that.” Believe me, there are days I would rather be in Helsinki, seasonal affective disorder aside, and never worry about volunteering ever again in my entire life. But unfortunately that is not the case. As parents, we need to deal with the reality of the situation on the ground, which means that International Night won’t get organized and field trips won’t be paid for unless volunteers pull together to organize events and raise funds.

And volunteering also means advocating for change, if you want to achieve that Finland thing. The benefit of the PTA as a large organization is that you have a structure for doing so at a local, state, and national level. Here in Montgomery County, we have a strong county PTA organization. Of course, some areas don’t have that structure. And some school groups (PTOs and HSAs) understandably prefer to keep their efforts focused on their own school; the PTA requires state and county dues, plus not everyone agrees with the National PTA’s overall political stance.

So anyway I would really like to retire this ‘PTA Mom’ stereotype. It’s making it hard for the rest of us just trying to work for our children’s schools, and honestly, it’s misogynistic. It’s part of the noxious, persistent notion that holds traditional “women’s work” (cooking, child care, housekeeping, and yes, school volunteering) in contempt, and I don’t like it one little bit. Let’s be done with it.

What’s so bad about baking cupcakes, anyway?

 

Leave a comment

Filed under General Stuff on Volunteering, Uncategorized

Tagged as , , ,

September 20, 2014 · 11:43 am

Stuck with the Book Fair

It’s that time of year again, when leaves begin to fall and preparations are underway for the annual Scholastic Book Fair. This is a wonderful way to raise funds for the school, get more books for the classroom, and build literacy.

It’s also perhaps one of the most painful tasks that a PTA or parent volunteer group can manage.

Parent volunteers have to publicize the fair, unload the books out of those enormous Dalek-like metal carts (thus dislodging some poor teacher for a week), manage the cash register, and of course pack it all away at the end of the week. Don’t forget about special orders and restocking shelves!

Of course, the vast majority of book fair sales are not books but trinkets: big funny pencils, novelty erasers. A disturbing amount of volunteer time is spent preventing shoplifting. (An ingenious parent at my own school hit upon the idea of hot-gluing a sample of each gee-gaw to a big stand-up display board along with prices so the kids could see the things without putting their grubby mitts on them. The tiny treasures were kept behind the cash register table.)
Another temptation for children: those stupid books with a piece of jewelry or a toy attached to the cover. Better keep those behind the counter too. If the trinket gets separated from the book, it’s a loss.

Let’s also not forget sales tax drama. How many children’s hearts have been broken because they were missing the last seven cents? How many volunteer parents have dug through their pockets, muttering, for that spare change?

So I’ve painted an exhausting picture here. Why again are we bothering with the old-fashioned Book Fair in this day and age? There are alternatives:

  • Scholastic does offer ebooks through its Storia app – or at least, they used to. The Storia app is closing and is only currently available for teachers. (Too bad, we used it at home…)
  • Scholastic also offers an online Book Fair option at the same time as the standard book fair.
  • Barnes & Noble offers a book fair, and while parents have to publicize, it’s held at the store as well as online. A lot less work for parents.

So there are options. But can they really take the place of the good ol’ in-school book fair? Here are a few things to consider.

  • There’s just something about those real books. Kids are tactile. Kids like to touch stuff, including books. And having a home library contributes toward a literate home environment.
  • It’s affordable. Scholastic offers some cheap stuff – much cheaper for the most part, sadly, than most other book stores. I’m certainly not in love with all the gee-gaws and trinkets – and yet, it’s nice to see that a kid with only a dollar to spend can still participate.
  • It’s there. At our school, all the kids are encouraged to visit, once with their class to fill out a wish list and then on their own. Parents don’t have to haul everyone to the store. We also have had success having the fair open for one evening shift, to coincide with a PTA Ice Cream social.
  • It teaches kids about handling money.
  • It makes your school look good. Book Fairs are disruptive, and school administrators are not in love with disruption. Yet they tolerate the Book Fair. Building literacy is one reason; the other reason is that, frankly, it looks good for your school to host a Book Fair. Not all schools have the volunteer support or organization to pull it off.
  • It’s a nice change of pace for kids. Short recesses, lots of seat work, lots of testing, fewer field trips…isn’t it good to have something to make the kids look forward to at school for a change?
  • Not everyone is online. I can’t stress this enough. Not everyone in every community has regular Internet access. Don’t leave a significant part of your neighbors behind.

So, difficult as it is, I think we’re all stuck with the Book Fair for the foreseeable future. And maybe it’s not a bad thing. Now, where did that flyer go?

Leave a comment

Filed under Fundraising, General Stuff on Volunteering, Volunteer Management

Tagged as , , , , , ,

May 20, 2014 · 1:57 pm

Five Reasons Your PTA or Parent Group Needs Its Own Web Site

Many schools have spaces on their web sites for their local PTA chapters or PTOs. At first glance, that seems like a swell idea. Why should you deal with all of the baggage that comes with running your own web site when it’s enough trouble just to keep it updated? Why pay for hosting or a URL? Why not let the school host it and submit your updates to the school’s web team?

The answer: letting your school host – and control – your group’s web presence may not be such a great bargain in the long run. Here are five reasons why maintaining your own web site is worth the trouble and (not very high) expense.

1. You don’t want to keep asking the school staff to make your updates.

Your school’s admin staff is harried and overworked as it is. They’re putting up links to school policy, teacher contact information, sports schedules, the school calendar, and an endless list of other content – and this is all in addition to their regular duties. Yes, you’re doing things to support the school: fundraising, volunteering, all of that. But it’s easier to maintain a cordial relationship with your school’s administration if you respect their time. Save it for the bigger requests, like asking for time in the schedule for an assembly.

2. You are in control of your own content.

It’s important to be able to make web site updates on your own schedule, not when your school staff can find a minute to squeeze you in (see #1).

There are also fewer chances of misunderstandings or editorial comments. Let’s be honest: there may be times when you and your administration do not see eye to eye on a subject. Also, the school adminsiatrtion may feel uncomfortable posting content that has to do with advocacy. It may represent an uncomfortable conflict for a principal to post information asking parents to, say, show up at a hearing with protest signs. Bottom line: Be in control of your message and avoid problems before they start.

3. Social media is a great way to communicate – but it’s not a substitute for a web page.

You may be wondering why you should bother with a web site if you have a Facebook group or an email distribution group. But your job is to invite people in from your school community as a whole, including neighbors. Your web site should serve as a central point for information on joining, volunteering, and donating. Upload meeting minutes and other important documents and provide transparency to your group. And don’t forget, a lot of people go online and don’t participate in Facebook. Don’t leave those people out.

4. It makes you look better and more organized.

To use marketing parlance, a web site is important to build your brand. Yep, you have a brand, all right. You make a better impression on prospective members and parents, not to mention potential donors. People feel better about joining and giving money to a group that seems to have its act together. And “branding” doesn’t mean a flashy design: it just means that you are presenting a coherent, consistent message.

5. You maintain yourself as a separate entity from the school.

Your group is a distinct entity from your school, your district, and your local board of education. You are there to work with your school and advocate for your school…but at the end of the day, you are not employees of the school and you are not run by the school. Sometimes families are confused about the role of the PTA (or PTO) in the school; it confuses the issue even more if you appear to be a branch of the school and not an independent organization.

Now you’re thinking: Okay, smarty pants. I’m convinced. Now what? Well, getting your own URL and hosting does not really have to be that painful. In a future posts I can talk about my own experience using WordPress. You’ll find that being in control of your message and content is worth the trouble – and hey, it doesn’t have to break the budget either!

Leave a comment

Filed under Web Sites

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

April 1, 2014 · 1:59 pm

Musings from a Volunteer Coordinator

As I recover from producing a flurry of emails asking for volunteers, a few things have reminded me to step back from the keyboard and think about the best way to really recruit people to help. Keep some important things in mind going forward as a potential volunteer and someone who needs volunteers.

1. People are busy. For real.

Our school has been hosting an educational evening activity that requires both kids and parents to participate. It’s been very useful, but it’s been a real time commitment as well. When I volunteered in a classroom one day, I asked a kid I knew if he and his mom would make it to the evening activity that night.

The kid said mom got home and went right to sleep, too tired from work.

When I feel impatient about not getting enough volunteer responses, I have to remind myself to back up and look at the big picture. Volunteering is hard, especially after a long day of work. Appreciate the volunteers you do get, and remember that you’re helping to make your school a better place for everybody – especially for that tired mom. No guilt trips allowed.

2. Something that’s easy for me is a huge burden for someone else. And the other way around.

I know a parent who is tireless in her pursuit of donations for our PTA from local businesses. She has the amazing ability to walk up to a business owner and them to sponsor our fun run, or donate a prize for a raffle. I do not seem to have this ability—and I feel guilty sometimes that I don’t.

This parent also does not use email except under extreme duress. She doesn’t always read her email. And I’m okay with that.

That’s the beauty of getting a broad team of volunteers together. We all have strengths and things we like to do or that we’re good at doing. It’s okay to admit that you hate doing something and that you need help.

3. Connecting one-to-one is still important.

Recently I became discouraged when I sent out a request for volunteers to translate flyers, only to be greeted by chirping crickets. But when I took the time to get in touch individually, a magical thing happened: people replied!

Email lists, social media, and online signup sheets are my friends, and will always be my friends. Yet I have received the best response by approaching potential volunteers on a one-to-one basis, whether by phone, in person, or by individual emails. Yes, it takes extra time, but it’s worth it if you can fit it in.

Some reminders to myself that I felt like sharing. No matter what technology or method you use to recruit people, don’t let yourself become so preoccupied with filling slots that lose sight of the big picture. We’re all parents – and we’re all here to help each other make our lives a little easier, right?

1 Comment

Filed under General Stuff on Volunteering, Volunteer Management

Tagged as , , , ,

February 3, 2014 · 1:20 pm

Google Docs for the Overwhelmed Volunteer Part 2: Fun With Forms

Two posts ago, I went over some Google spreadsheet basics for parent volunteer groups. If you can use Excel, you can use a Google spreadsheet. Entering that information directly into the spreadsheet can be tedious, especially if you are one lone overworked volunteer. That’s where forms can help. Check out this link to my sample Google form for PTAs and PTOs. You can post a direct link on your site and let people fill in the form themselves and skip the paper altogether. But even if you don’t plan on letting your members directly enter their information themselves, the form will help your membership people enter info a little less painfully.

Starting your form.

The relationship between forms and the spreadsheets they populate gets  a little tricky when you try to link a form to an existing spreadsheet. I’ve found this out the hard way. If you are starting from scratch, the easiest, cleanest thing is to start your Google form first and then let it determine the structure of your spreadsheet.

  1. From your Google drive, click the big red Create button, then choose Form.
  2. Choose your title and theme – have a little fun. I like the dorky binder paper look myself because it seems to fit in with the whole school thing, , but go nuts with the cherry blossoms if you want.
  3. Start adding the fields for the information you want to collect. A spreadsheet will automatically be created with fields based on what you put on your form, with the same name as the form.
  4. You can change the destination for the form responses: ie, the spreadsheet. Go to Responses > Change Response Destination.

Change Reponse Destination Google Forms prompt

Tips on editing your form

1. Go to the Insert form to add an item. Most of the information you collect (names, addresses, phone numbers) should simply be Text.

2. Once you create an item and want to make a copy of it, just click on it and then click on the Duplicate button in the top right corner.

3. You can grab items and move them around your form to change the order. Click above the question title, then drag.

4. What items are required? In my sample, I’ve only selected Adult 1 Last and First Name fields plus home phone as the bare requirement.

5. Use Checkboxes for simple questions with one answer: for example, a Yes or No question. (You can also add an “Other” option for Checkboxes.)

6. Multiple Choice is good for questions with more than one answer. For example, if you collect volunteer data, you can ask if the potential volunteer wants to work bake sales, International Night,and/or  the book fair. Again, you can add an “Other.”

7. The “Choose from a list” option is a real time saver. I’ve used it in my form to have a list of grades and teachers for each child already there for the user to select. This saves typing time and errors. Once you set up one question with a lot of names, you can make a duplicate and create a new label.

8. Go to Insert > Section Header if you want to break up your form into smaller sections.

Finishing, Sending, and Sharing Your Form

You can always take a break and come back to edit your form later! You don’t have to complete it all at once.

Sending the form will make sure users can see it, fill it out and respond, but can’t make changes.

Sharing lets others (for example, other volunteer leaders, board members, or committee members) make changes and view responses. Remember, only users with a Google account can edit the form, but anyone can fill it out.

1. When you’re done with your from, click on Send Form in the upper right corner.

2. If you want to put your form out there publicly on your group’s web site, click on Embed to get the code. Copy and paste as needed.

3. Use the social media sharing buttons if your group has a Facebook page and/or Twitter feed.

4. Invite specific users by entering their email addresses in the email box – this option is good for a mailing list.

5. Click on the “Add Collaborators” option for sharing your form. Remember, the form can only be edited by users with a Google account.

Google sharing settings

I recommend you change the Access to Private – you may not want want to give anyone with the link the ability to edit the form.

6. You can also share your form or spreadsheet from the main Google Drive screen. Check the form you want to share, then click on the Share button (the little person with the plus sign) above.

Google forms have many more advanced options if you want to get more complicated, but this will get you started with the basics for collecting member information. Next time, I’ll look at other info you can collect with forms and how to get a simple directory started.

Thanks for reading! I’ve love to hear feedback about how helpful this info was.

Leave a comment

Filed under Directories, Google Docs, Membership Management, Tips and Tricks

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

January 20, 2014 · 7:21 pm

The top six reasons you shouldn’t volunteer, and why you should anyway

Happy MLK Day! Since many people are talking about community service today, I thought it would be a good time to step back and remember why volunteering at school is such a pain…and why it’s still worth doing.

1. You’re way too busy.

You see the same faces everywhere, running events and meetings. These parents don’t seem to have a life, and you don’t have their time or energy. You have a job, your own kids to care for, hundreds of chores and errands to do, plus a vague hope of having a life. Join the club.

But here’s the flip side: more volunteers would mean different faces. Many hands equal light work: it’s a tired old phrase, yet it has a kernel of truth. 

The good news is that any tiny bit you can do helps. Pick up an extra batch of juice boxes to sell at a function. Go to an after-work meeting. Help from home by performing annoying computer tasks such as managing the email group or entering member info. Maybe once you see what’s involved, taking on a leadership role won’t feel so intimidating – especially if you have help.

2. Someone else will do it.

It would be nice if every school had an army of bonbon-eating, soap-opera-watching, martini-drinking stay-at-home parents with limitless time to run things. Unfortunately, we are no longer in 1959. And remember that the at-home parents are dealing with their own lives and problems and babies too.

At some point the current set of parents in charge of your PTA are going to get burned out (see Number 1), get new jobs, move away, or move on as their kids grow up. If you think an event or activity is important, speak up. If you don’t, there’s a good chance no one else will either.

Plus, if you get involved and go to meetings, you have earned the legitimate right to grouse and complain. And that, my friends, is priceless.

3. The PTA/PTO leadership is annoying.

Yeah, I hear you. They’re a bunch of mean girls or control freaks. They’re a clique. Sadly, any company or organization run by human beings is going to be full of annoying people. But if the reasonable people (like you and me, of course) don’t get involved, you’re letting the annoying people win. You’ve worked with irritating people before and lived to tell the tale – you can do it again for the sake of your kids’ school.

Also, there may be a slight chance they’re not as annoying as you think.

They may just feel beleaguered and burned out. They may not know how to ask for help. Don’t let it be a self-perpetuating cycle – grit your teeth and shove your way in. You may be in for a pleasant surprise.

4. I feel uncomfortable/intimidated/unwelcome.

Well, see Number 4 about difficult parents. Just remember that PTA parents are just like you: confused, overworked, but mostly well-meaning parents trying to make your school a better place. Shoulder your way in.

Sometimes meetings and events are scheduled during the day, making working parents feel unwelcome. Sometimes that’s a limitation imposed by space availability or cost – in Montgomery County, PTAs have to rent space in their own schools for most events and meetings. If it’s just a matter of “Well, this is how we’ve always done it,” then push back. If you can’t go to meetings, send emails.

You don’t need special skills or education, either. There’s no such thing as a professional volunteer. Everyone has something to contribute, and the most important thing is your time or energy. Your county or state PTAs often provide free training.

In my kids’ diverse school, language and culture issues come up, and they can be tough. It’s intimidating to volunteer if you’re not comfortable with your English. At one meeting, one immigrant parent told our board that the whole concept of volunteering in your child’s school is unfamiliar to many newcomers to our country. We try to address this at our PTA by recruiting Spanish-speaking parents as members and volunteers, having flyers translated into Spanish, and making sure meetings have someone who can translate. When more Spanish-speaking parents (or parents from other backgrounds) join and get involved, there’s more incentive for your group and school to work with you and accommodate you.

In short: This is your child’s school. You’re welcome, and don’t let anyone make you feel otherwise.

5. This takes time away from my own kids.

It looks that way at first. However, your kids spend a lot of their waking hours at school. If something benefits the school as a whole, it will benefit your kid.

Everyone hates fundraising,  but the hard truth is that schools rely on PTO and PTA fundraising efforts for extras (field trips, indoor recess games) and necessary items. And if you just want to volunteer in your child’s classroom, often the parent volunteer groups partner with schools and provide the structure for that to happen.

On a larger scale, PTOs and PTAs advocate for your school and your kids. That’s their mission. They help parents have a voice at their school and their communities. The administration might not realize something is an issue until it’s delicately brought up at a PTA meeting. And then there are the big issues of budgets and policies. At our school, for example,  the PTA provided a forum for parents to advocate for a renovated building before county officials.

By volunteering you will also have a better grasp of what’s going on in your children’s school: events, special opportunities, politics, and, of course, gossip. Now, your kid is not entitled to special white-glove treatment, but you as a parent will be better informed and better prepared.

6. I hate this doing all this volunteer junk. I can’t bake, I hate organizing events, and I’m an introvert.

I understand completely. But again, we’re no longer in the year 1959 and parent volunteers are not expected to be Mrs. Cleaver. The nice part is that you can volunteer in in a way that’s comfortable for you and that plays to your strengths. I don’t like making phone calls, but I like sending emails. I don’t like planning event but I like working on the web site. I’ve learned some skills and made some friends. And I feel much more connected with my community and my kids’ education.

No, volunteering is not always easy or fun. But it is worthwhile.

Leave a comment

Filed under General Stuff on Volunteering

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

January 16, 2014 · 2:58 pm

Google Docs for the Overwhelmed Volunteer Part 1: Starting a Spreadsheet

How do you keep track of your members and publish their info in a student directory?

There are complete software systems out there can can help you track your member data for parent groups as well as create your directory. Just Between Friends is a biggie, the free online membership software solution endorsed by the National PTA. Other software solutions for PTAs and PTOs are out there as well. As this blog progresses, I’ll talk more about them. For now, let’s focus on free DYI solutions using Google Docs.

Keeping your records in a simple Excel spreadsheet is pretty easy. Just don’t let all your data entry tasks build up, or you’ll have dozens of forms to enter at a time – a tiresome chore. Plus, if your member data is in one spreadsheet on one PC controlled by one membership VP, it makes it difficult to share information or make updates.  It also opens you up to data loss. One virus on one PC, and boom – it’s gone.

Google spreadsheets are the easiest way to store and share membership information, plus their Forms make it easy to perform data entry – or for members to enter their own information. It’s pretty powerful stuff available for the price of a free Google/Gmail account. Free is good.

Tip: Make sure everyone who needs to share your document has a Gmail/Google account as well. Theoretically, non-Google users can view documents, but only Google accounts can edit them.

Start by create one or moure Google accounts for your PTA or PTO if you don’t already have one. You can, of course, let multiple people use the same account, but that can make things messy. One idea: create multiple Gmail accounts for your group leadership  and keep them impersonal, so they could be passed down to the next person who takes over your position. Example, for the Pretend Valley ES PTA: pretendpta@gmail.com, pretendpta2@gmail.com, pretendpta_president@gmail.com…you get the idea.  (In later posts, I’ll talk about Google Apps for Nonprofits and how you can take things up to the next level with your own domain.)

Once you’ve logged into Google, go to Drive to start creating a document. (Use the Apps button to reach it:

 The Google Apps thingy

(Hey, it’s not obvious.)

Then click on the big red Create button to start a new spreadsheet. Once it opens, you’ll find a pretty straightforward spreadsheet setup a lot like Excel. Customize as needed. Here’s a suggested list of fields:

  • Adult 1 Last Name
  • Adult 1 First Name (tip: break up last and first names into separate fields for easier searching and sorting)
  • Adult 2 Last and First Name
  • Adult 1 and 2 Phone (Home? Mobile? Work?)
  • Adult 1 and 2 Email
  • Child 1 Last and First Name (…and 2, 3, 4. Maybe stop at five!)
  • Child 1 Grade
  • Child  1 Teacher Name  (It’s a good idea to have the teacher name for each kid – makes it easier to send messages and, of course, makes your directory more useful.)
  • Address (Again, consider breaking up the address fields into address, city, state, and zip. Plus, consider that each adult/parent might have a different address. Think about your community and if that might be useful.)
  • Membership Y/N
  • Paid $
  • Want to be in a directory? Y/N (You’ll need a way for families to opt out.)

I’ve created a sample Google docs spreadsheet for PTAs and PTOs that’s pretty similar to what I’ve set up for my PTA. (Make sure you’re logged into a Google account.) Feel free to download and save and adapt as needed. Enjoy!

Next time: the benefits of Google forms and how to put them to work for your group.

Leave a comment

Filed under Directories, Google Docs, Membership Management, Tips and Tricks

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

December 20, 2013 · 3:48 pm

Student Directory Solutions

It’s back to normal  and back to the old grindstone after Winter Break! Let’s start the New Year by discussing one of the most annoying yet most tasks for a parent group: creating a student directory.

When my children attended a small co-op nursery school, everybody knew each other. Everyone received a tidy list with names, phone numbers, and email addresses. Each family even had its own mailbox at school. Every family used email every day. Communication was easy.

The transition to our local public elementary came as a bit of shock. Birthday parties were the first casualty. If my son wanted to invite friends from his kindergarten class, I sent him to school with paper invitations with our email and phone numbers, then hoped for the best. It felt like sending mail into a black hole. It was not easy to get to know his new friends and their families, and it took a long time to feel a sense of community in our new school. The simple fact of not having contact information or names felt like a real barrier.

To me, one of our jobs as a parent organization is building community…and that starts with information. I have been on a personal quest for our PTA to create a school-wide student directory for several years, with only limited success. For many schools, a student directory is something to take for granted. Obstacles that I’ve faced:

School privacy and family concerns.

Clearly, no one wants a child’s information published without their parents’ permission. Privacy policy varies from school to school, school system to school system. Some schools will release information to parent groups, after giving parents a chance to opt-out. (For an example, see the Montgomery County page on Student Privacy Policy.) On top of that, individual schools (especially Title One) schools have additional privacy concerns and are reluctant to release information. Your administration may simply not be comfortable releasing info to you.

For our school, that meant that our directory had to be completely opt-in: parents actively had to sign up and fill in a form (either paper or online). That eliminated the privacy concern, but meant less participation. That’s just human nature. If you present people with a form with their name and information already printed and give them a chance to sign off, they will be much more likely to check it off and send it in than if you ask them to entirely enter information from scratch.

Add to that the privacy concerns of parents. I don’t blame parents who don’t want to put their family’s info out there. And yet it’s frustrating. To address this, we’ve made the directory only available to those who decided to put their information in it. When an advertiser wanted a copy, we had to turn them down – the last thing we need is somebody using our directory as a marketing tool. We also put a big disclaimer in our directory making it explicitly clear that the information the student directory is NOT to be used for solicitation purposes. Sample wording:

The information in this directory is for the sole use of [your school here] families and may not be used for solicitation purposes of any kind.

You may have to convince families (and administration) about the benefits of a directory if you’ve never had one. Talking points:

  • Get to know your neighbors.
  • Get to know your child’s friends. Set up play dates and have better luck sending out those stupid birthday invitations!
  • Get help! Was your kid sick and needs to make up an assignment? Do you want to discuss something with other parents? Do you want to set up a car pool? Can’t do any of that without phone numbers and email.

Printing costs.

Whether you produce a bound directory or put together a stapled photocopy, paper and printing is shockingly expensive. Even if your school policy lets your volunteer group use the school photocopier, they may balk at 500 directories. What are some other solutions?

  • Ads. We’ve tried to sell ads to sponsor printing costs and had luck with local small business and businesses owned or run by student families. Real estate agents, accountants, doctors, and your local franchise restaurants and stores are good choices. Again, though, keep privacy in mind. Don’t give out copies of the directory to advertisers, and make that policy clear from the beginning to avoid any confusion or bad feeling.
  • Some schools sell “personals” to families and students, sort of like the old-fashioned school yearbook used to.
  • Charge for paper copies.
  • And of course, the obvious solution:  limit the number of paper copies and go electronic. This can be as simple as creating a PDF and emailing it to families, or using an online method. More on that below.

It’s a lot of work.

Yep. It’s a big task for parent volunteers to accomplish in their spare time. But there are way to make it less painful.

Our current approach to creating a student directory is limiting it to PTA members, making it an incentive to join, and sending out paper copies for a small charge. That reduces the number of paper copies and addresses privacy concerns. The downside: it’s not a comprehensive directory of all students. But as the proverb says, don’t let the perfect become the enemy of the good. When making a student directory, you need to choose the best, most practical option for your school community, even if it’s not ideal.

A variety of companies and out there offer products and services aimed at PTAs and PTOs, many specifically for creating directories and managing member and volunteer information. Over the next few weeks I’ll be discussing the options I’ve found out there, plus I’ll talk about the nitty-gritty of creating a directory on your own using Word and Excel.

Happy New Year!

Leave a comment

Filed under Directories, Uncategorized, Volunteer Management

Tagged as , , , ,