Being in the PTA - How was it for you?

[EstoyRobandoSuCasa]

There's going to be (another) extraordinary meeting of the PTA soon, as the Vice Chair and Secretary are standing down after less than a year. Apparently, if they can't be replaced, the PTA will fold.

I'm kind of friends with the Secretary as we have children in the same class and she said it took up far more of her time than she'd expected, that it was all very disorganised with much duplication of effort, and that a few long-standing members were very entrenched in their ways and opposed to any new ideas. Is this usual?

I plan to go along to the meeting as I don't want the PTA to fold and I have some time to help out with events, but at the same time, I don't want to stand for a committee role after what my friend said!

I was a PTA role holder the full 7 years while DD2 moved through primary.

Know your limits. Don't promise things you haven't got people to help with. Discos and cake sales brought in more ££ for effort than summer fairs.

Old hands can be helpful (they know what works) or unhelpful (they don't like change).

If lots of people are leaving it opens it up to run it the way you want to.

a friend and I took over a PTA that was about to fold. She was chair and I was sec. We completely revitalised it, improved processes, brought in loads of new families who had avoided it before.

it was hard work, and took a lot of time. But was fun and worthwhile.

it’s totally what you make it.

I'm surprised to hear that the summer fete isn't necessarily the biggest earner!

One of the issues my friend had is that the "old" committee members stood down last summer as their kids were all going into Year 5 or Year 6 and they wanted to wind down. But apparently, they are still very much part of the PTA and expect to do the tasks they fancy and for the "new" committee to do things their way.

I suppose a long handover from the experienced folk could have worked well, but clearly it hasn't if two of their replacements have already decided "f* that!"

Summer fair is big earner but BIG effort.
If you are short on effort then a summer fair is maybe not the thing to do.

I was quite keen to be helpful to PTA when my child started school. However, never actually joined and just helped on occasions and liaised on certain things and tried to coordinate for things. And I have to say i fully agree with what people said above, I feel people in PTA do donate a lot of time to raise money and often I feel they think they have a right to do and say whatever. Anyone who questions them would get a fair “tell off” in your face or behind. PTA seems to be a quite tight circle as well, you either be aligned or not.
however if there is a mass changed especially the chair / secretary, and you have the time, it would be a great opportunity to revamp and make it yours. However if the old hands are still around and you aren’t prepared to “take them on” then I feel you will not feel valued and probably suffocated.
I don’t think it should be like that but that’s what i observed. I’m still grateful to PTA as they do raise money for school and they do give up their time to do so but at the same time, I always think doing charity work should be from your heart rather than whatever else it is filling them

I enjoyed being part of the pta and we had a lot of fun. It can be time consuming and thankless at times, but also rewarding. Our school pta ran the school disco, Christmas fair, weekly cake raffle etc.

Thank you all. I will go along, but won't take on either of the vacant committee roles.

I was part of the PTA until my youngest was in Year 6. It's very rewarding to see the difference it makes with fund raising and well received events. However, it's a lot of work. I stopped all the committee work since I stood down for exactly the reason a PP pointed out with old committee members. I want the new people to be able to run the PTA as they see fit. I think it won't be as entrenched as you might anticipate if there's a lot of turnover. You should definitely go and keep an open mind about how much you want to volunteer.

I find the same experience with summer and winter fairs. It's a lot more work than disco and raise not that much more money. The problem is our fairs are all volunteer run, while disco, we hire an external DJ and use the school hall.

@EstoyRobandoSuCasa Always offer help within your own limits. Christmas fairs are a lot of work. Each stall needs a parent running it. Other events are much easier! Open evening - coffee and teas. We did that for parent assemblies too. Raffles are not that hard to do. Sometimes small events can work well but won’t raise huge amounts. I’d also get a 200 club going and we liked a project identified by the school to promote. Just lend a hand when you can. Has the school got a pta liaison? Works well if they have.

As others have said only offer what you have time to do. I used to have a position but had to step back due to ill health.

It can be hard work but it's rewarding when the money raised directly benefits the kids. We have paid for things such as playing ground equipment, panto at Christmas and even had reindeers visit the school.

Also at meetings we get updates from the school so good way to find out what is going on.

I think your description:

"it took up far more of her time than she'd expected, that it was all very disorganised with much duplication of effort, and that a few long-standing members were very entrenched in their ways and opposed to any new ideas"

Should go on the PTA association website as a true description of what PTAs are like! Perhaps any voluntary committee in fact!

That said, I did it for a while and it was fun and a good way to meet people. You just have to have very very good boundaries for your time and a thick skin for people moaning at you about the service you provide a)for free and b) usually single-handed. In no other arena would you and two other people be expected to whip up a dinner dance for 150 including flowers, balloons, dinner, a full unpaid staff to serve it and a live band while also wrangling 7 or 8 small children, various jobs, and only being able to meet once a week for half an hour before school. As an employer if I see the PTA on someone's CV I know their skills of extemporisation will be second to none, but as it's often viewed as women's work of low value people rarely put it on there.

Ours is currently awful. I've been in it since my son started reception 7 years ago - thank God he is leaving in Jul! Run by 3 mean girls who are very close friends and they are not supportive of anyone with any new ideas.

A huge argument blew up recently when I had the audacity to ask for £350 rather than £300 towards the year 6 Leavers' party. It has been £300 since my son started in 2019. They basically told us that we shouldn't have asked. This resulted in some of the milder members peeking their heads over the parapet and asking why the money couldn't be increased. The flat out "no" seemed even more unreasonable given that they have £11k in the bank and no identified projects to spend it on.

The Chair didn't like being challenged and resigned in a huff. The Charity Commission annual return is overdue by 100 days and two of the trustees listed left over a year ago.

I can't wait to be out.

I bumped into my school mum friend again this morning and we had another chat. She told me that at the PTA meetings, they decide what events they are having and when (and yes, there's a teacher who comes to meetings with a diary and advises which dates won't clash with school stuff). So all good, mostly.

Then she said, what ought to happen is that the role-holders create an action plan, agree who is doing what and ask for volunteers to do particular tasks when necessary, (e.g. we have one volunteer coming in early to help set up the cake stall, but we need one more, and would one of the people who are good at making posters like to create one for the cake sale?)

Instead, what happens is that the old committee are still doing a load of stuff off their own bat and not informing the current one. So comms to parents are a confused mish-mash with perhaps two different posters and an email from the school office, and one event had twice as many volunteers as needed, because the old committee had taken it on themselves to put a sign-up sheet in the school reception, when enough other volunteers had already signed up via a WhatsApp group. And local companies might receive duplicate letters asking for raffle prizes because one person sent a load out with great enthusiasm but refused to share (or perhaps even keep) a list of which companies she'd contacted.

Blimey...

@EstoyRobandoSuCasa Now that sounds a nightmare!

Yeah it's not great, it is? And no doubt it's as tedious as it sounds.

And I thought it was all about putting on a few fun/educational events for the kids whilst raising some money for playground equipment and classroom supplies. Goodness knows why anyone wants to squabble over posters or who gets to send a begging letter to M&S.

@Poppingby We would never ever do that for a state school. Ball at private secondary was another matter. Stick to what’s reasonable and get dc involved. Quiz evening and school disco are way easier.

@EstoyRobandoSuCasaTo be honest, that’s hopeless. They cannot go forward with 2 sets of organisers. I’d let the whole thing drop until the difficult parents leave. I’d also ask the school to be clear about what events they are supporting and NO other promotions or info goes out. No access to book bags etc. They won’t do this I suspect which makes the whole thing untenable. Beggars belief really!

I’m the Chair of my kids primary school PTA & have been for 5 years - I’m expecting to remain so until my DS leaves in a few years as no-one wants the job!

If the old guard people have kids in Yrs 5-6 will they be leaving the school soon? If so, this may not be an issue for long.
Squabbling over roles & duplication is madness -
why hasn’t the new Chair told them to stop? It’s their responsibility to lead the meetings & allocate jobs - or are these people just doing it without discussion?

As others have said you need to run events to suit your situation. We only do two large events a year which require more than one person to run them.

They do it without discussion, I think.

Yes, the old guard have children in Years 5-6. So they're not all leaving this July. They wanted to stand down, but it sounds as though they can't let go!

I mainly duos the accounts side as I do that at work
It certainly cured any thoughts I had about being a SAHm !

Met lots of people and the dC loved me being involved
Stepped back when they decided they wanted to build 2 classrooms which I thought was a step too far

@EstoyRobandoSuCasaThey haven’t really gone though. They just don’t want the roles required by the charity. I assume it is one. I would say the new post holders should make it clear who is running the show and they are not just there for the role of chair, secretary and treasurer. The admin in other words. Or, leave it for 18 months, and start again. Judge who is causing trouble amongst the y5 parents. If they are followers, start again sooner. If they are the problems, they have 1 year and 4 months left at the school. Get going again a year from now and you should be able to have a decent PTA run efficiently and effectively. I’d suggest the officers meet with the head to explain strategy. They should refuse to continue and hand it back.

I was in the PTA for many years and was treasurer, chair and secretary at various times.

It sounds as though this committee could do with a bit of governance. The Chair and Treasurer should both write a summary of what their role involves over the year - plus the treasurer should include things like how to get into the PTA bank accounts, how to fill in the return for the charity commission, the process for agreeing expenses and by when receipts must be submitted.

The new chair needs to make it very clear that people are only to do the tasks allocated - if people go off and do what they want with no consultation then they will be out.

I joined the PTA to do some work, was a charity trustee for a time, stepped back last year so the new people could get on to it. We finally have a new team and I am at the stage of letting them. They consulted a lot at first. Now they are doing their own thing without me. It's how it need to be.

I got removed from the PTA for not “liking” a Facebook post. Apparently the rule was of you didn’t press like or comment on it, it would be assumed you were leaving the PTA. It was a random post at the start of the school summer break, I vaguely recall seeing it but there were no other reminders or means of contact.
As I was barely on Facebook and had never communicated with the PTA via Fb, I was slightly surprised to find out I’d been kicked out! I found at by chance during an informal chat with the deputy head in early September (who attended the meetings). He jokingly said they had missed me and had wondered where I was as they had cake for the meeting but I was absent!
the chair was a rather controlling woman, quite unhappy in her life.
i did rejoin but seemed to have the same issue the following year so i gave up.
obviously this is my personal experience and I am sure there are some lovely PTAs but this wasn’t one of them!
I think they do tend to attract people who like to take control and this isn’t always positive.

You cannot be removed from a pta. All parents are members because they are parents!