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've been on the PTA since my daughter started - so 10 years now? I've been the secretary for a few years and have another 2 to go (I could step down but it's almost no work and I like to know I've done something useful!)

The best thing that happened in our PTA was a couple years ago a new Chair stepped in and she has decided to do everything each year in exactly the same way. It means there is very little work and no arguing. Now and again we get an email from an uninvolved parent saying we should do something more interesting, so we open it up to them to plan something and... crickets.

So, like clockwork, we have a Halloween disco, winter fair (in November so plenty of time for gift shopping), cinema night, summer fair. We fund various things throughout the year - cinema trip at Christmas, P7 autograph books, and we created the first ever school library (genuinely something I'm more proud of than anything else). Plus we do tea towels in the spring and Christmas card fundraisers (our best earner and almost no work for us - I organise both with the school office). We are a state school in a very under-privileged area so we focus on experiences for the kids and keeping everything affordable. We only bring in a few thousand a year and spend most of it during that year - we are currently saving up for some playground equipment so have a bit in the bank.

As secretary all I really do is help out where I can and take minutes at the meetings. The treasurer is a friend of mine and he just gets people paid back for stuff and deals with the auditing and whatnot. The co-Chair deals with various external things - council requests, equality initiatives, etc (think this is usually a parent council but we only have a PTA).

Your PTA sounds great @PurpleThistle7 .

In the end I didn't put myself forward for Secretary or Vice Chair as my friend's account really put me off. Two keen parents (who are both new to the school) volunteered and were elected.

I will be helping to organise and run the summer fete though, as they need plenty of volunteers.