Have just joined the committee and would love to know how other people's PTAs work. How do you decide things - do you have a vote?
Is there any info for new members?

We have quite a lot of new interest this year, and it would be great if we can retain some of them - it's easy to get put off by internal politics and disorganisation I think.

It would be great to find out how other people do it.

Bump????

I have spent many years on pta,both as a normal member and in a role. I think the key is in delegation and sub commitees,a lot of trouble seems to come from the situation where one or two people do the same jobs year in year out,and although they moan some can get umpy if someone new arrives,
also we are very welcoming to new members, ideas get stale if repeated too often and new people bring new energy and enthusiasm.

We ask everyone for ideas -go round the table discuss the pros & cons a bit (but the chair has to rein it in or its an endless discusssion on the colour of chuffing serviettes for a do type of thing)

then take a vote & the majority vote is carried although most people go with the consensus!!

Thank you. At the risk of sounding completely dim, what kind of subcommittees does your PTA have. (Know what you mean about getting umpy - saw it this morning )

Heronsfly is SO right-delegation & sub-committees. Give a small group of 2/3 of the PTA responsibility for one project or part of one.

For instance a few years ago we had our first car boot sale. Did quite well & we've had one annually ever since -I LOVE them & they are (I think) easy money. Others can't stand them, so it's "my baby" & I ask for specific helpers for specific things,organise it & report back to the chair/committee.

We also do a family bingo night- can't abide bingo myself so I leave it to others & help where needed or opt out on the night.

I think if you have new people it needs to be said that you have to agree to disagree on ocassion & that if an idea is rejected it is not personal. God the ruffled feathers I have had to smooth over the years !!!

Ok.. More questions... How do you arrange access to school facities - ie, the hall? Ours is always in demand for other stuff.

Also, if you are on a sub-committee how much authority do you have to decide everything? Do you have to keep bringing it back to the main committee for approval?

Thanks.

Hi, we only need the hall for two events a year, summer and christmas fairs, these dates are decided about 6 months in advance cleared with the head teacher and the dance school that hires the hall are told it is not available on those dates,
Our sub committees are in complete control over there own event,the only time the whole committee would become involved would be in the event of a problem,or if they were asking for large amounts of cash for outlays.
bossy britches is right, a lot of tact can be needed .
I think another point is,listen to your parents [and mn] a few years ago we decided to stop fund raising by the method of sponsorship forms,after hearing the moans and groans from parents [me included] we replaced this lost income with things like the blue bags for schools scheme,this still raises cash for the school without actually asking parents for a never ending stream of money.

I was a PTA chair for a while and I agree about delegation - we had someone in charge of each of the following areas:

Cake sales
Quiz Night
Disco
BBQ
Summer Fair
Bar
Poster design

And people sort of roped their own teams in for each event. It does always end up with the same core set of faces and loads of people who wouldn't dream of getting involved will complain at the slightest thing, but it's still a good thing to do, imo. The best reason for doing it was that my dds were always pleased to see me doing something 'in their world'.