Joining the PTA - what puts you off???

[GeeWhizz]

Just curious about other people's opinions of the PTA. Have been on our infant school PTA for about 18 months and would like to encourage more people to join.

We only have 3 parents and it can be tough going organising everything.

So what puts you off joining???

Meetings held at 9.00am are usually popular. Ous are held in the canteen with some toys out for pre-schoolers. EVERYONE has younger children because most people go back to work when their youngest start school! (IME)

They always seem so cliquey

There is def a certain "type" I know totally prejudice, but they are all well to do, live in the big houses outside the village and don't work as they must have husbands that earn or big inheritences, of and most of ours have horses.

I should really go and buck the trend, but I got caught up with some PTA types before and was helping them to set up a playgroup, I got totally kicked to the side and made a fool of.

Would it scare you if you are not very well educated?

we're just setting out into pta land, having re-formed the pta in april. we've been actively promoting the pta wherever we can and not just where we've asked for money.

to start off we sent home a questionnaire asking people what, how they could commit, what skills they had etc and asked for contact details. we stressed we weren't asking anyone to join the commitee.

at events since we've gathered emails and names by asking face to face.

we've set up a facebook group (closed so that we can refused entry for children who've lied about their age) and we've got a good cross section of parents and teachers catching up on the news and offering support.

we also send out group emails as and when necessry.

this term we will putting out an information leaflet telling everyone about who we are, what we do and listing meetings etc.

we've also booked a space in the monthly newsletter to communicate and promote and hankering after some wall space for a noticeboard.

we've got a large group of people now who will do things but not commit to meetings and others that will now join the committee.

one problem we faced was the "I'd like to come but little joey won't be allowed" - this was already solved as half the committee have pre-school children and we'd already set up a play area and take it in turns to sit back from the meeting and play with the children.

Thanks twinklytoes will definately try some of your ideas out.

Just getting eye contact with people would be a good start.

ah but crokky my pamper evening is also Christmas shoppign which I imagine you do, eh, eh???

hocuspontas yes, any meeting in daytime would have to include small children. There aren't that many mums (or dads) who neither work nor look after pre-schoolers. In our school anyway.

stressbat I am not well to do, certainly don't live in a big house and I work as well. I would say most of our PTA members do not fit your description actually.

Must just be our PTA then .

They all come across as bossy, power-crazed, and bitterly complain about parents who don't donate enough - no way do I want to be part of that gang!

I volunteer for events but stay as far away from the official PTA as I can get!

Cliquey, overpowering, and overwhelmingly middle class.

I'm a single parent, I CANNOT go to meetings. No single parent can. This means our views, as a social group, get sidelined.

I went to one PTA event. I am chatty, open and I know the staff at the school very well. I STILL got ignored.

Yuk yuk yuk.

I might not be quite getting the point but I think that some people and not all, don't join the PTA or similar school groups because their parents didn't and they aren't sure what it entails. I know it's only a short meeting and everyone would be nice and get to know them but I have a feeling some people are also perhaps more towny (sorry) and are not use to mixing and making new friends.

I find at school when i've been talking to other parents, that it's the parents who have come from towns that find it odd that village people talk to each other and say hi in passing. Again it's not all town people but they just find it difficult to fit in as easy as village people do. I know i'm being general here but this is what i've seen at our local school.

I'm looking forward to joining the PTA as i've just finished with being treasurer at our local Play Area committee so that I have time to commit to this instead. I've always been into organising and was an event manager in a previous BC life, so love doing this sort of thing.

Oh something else that I found really helped was instead of asking for general help was to ask for certain things. i.e. like for a stall at the fete ask all the parents coming if they could man a stall for 15 minute slot and fill their name in on a form. That way they know it's only 15minutes and it isn't the whole time.

The other thing that I have found helps is to do something non fund raiser to get people more involved like pumpkin carving/people and scarecrow competitions etc. Things that kids have to do with parents which doesn't involve much money and more people can join in with. It's a good point that some parents still need to get babysitting whether meetings are in the day time or evening. Our PTA has everything set up to go via email to interested people to. So even if you can't make a meeting you can be involved.

Sorry long waffle

Our school is just a normal school in the city, parents not remarkably well off. No Boden here.

I'm SAHM with 2 DC but everyone else on the PTA works and has children.

We don't raise loads of money at events and the school disco made a loss as we were only charging £2 per adult and £1 per child. But it was great fun which is really what we wanted. We try to keep prices low so everyone can come.

The best events seem to be those where the children are dropped off so the parents can have a night off.

I chaired the PTA at our school for 2 years, and it had always been very cliquey.
A friend and I stood as co-chairs(easier if 2 people do it)and we really opened it up.
Apart from the committee, we had an army of mums who didn't want to "committ" too much, but were happy to do things at home eg wrap lucky dip prizes for the fair,put posters up in local shops for fair etc.

At the beginning of term we sent out a letter to parents asking if they had links with local businesses (sponsorship), skills eg face painting/carpentry- anything which could help us.

Also asked for ideas from parents how they would like to see money spent- and I think this is key.You must know what you're raising money for- new library books, playground equipment etc
Parents need to see termly how money raised is spent, otherwise they will turn off.Especially true for year 6- we would always earmark money to buy something for existing yr 6 pupils so they would benefit from that years fundraising.

I went to meetings regularly for a while, and volunteered as a helper. But I don't think I will do any of it again. Maybe it's just me that's doing it all wrong .

Some meetings were difficult to participate in, some events were badly organised or at impossible times for me to help. Sometimes nobody would take charge when I asked what should I do to help. Then when I did attempt to do something to help, I got told I was doing it wrong (felt like I was being told off). I've turned up for events and nobody could tell me what to do so I ended up doing a job that seemed rather superfluous.

One of the personalities (especially right now) I struggle to get along with. She (like others) probably complains loudly at every meeting how there isn't enough help at events, but I know she doesn't want me to offer.

I have too many DC, it's difficult to supervise them all and pay even a little attention at the meetings, I am happy to send mine out to the playground to play out of sight (others used to do that, too), but recently nobody lets the kids out to play, so I feel like a bad girl if I let mine go. So now all the kids stuck in the room get rowdy and bored during meetings (always straight after afterschool, I can't send DC off with anybody). Now that they can't play out in playground, DC dislike the meetings and strongly do not want to attend.

Any idea I ever have for fundraising turns out to be a dud (I think I'm just lousy at that!). Some of the PTA decisions I dislike, but nobody ever agrees with me.

Sorry for the essay; I feel it's plenty contribution if I let DC attend/participate in some events/stuff to purchase. That's the limit, though.

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"get someone"....

Who?

You only know about your life, MissSunny. True to say, I only know about mine, and my surmise that no single parent could do it was probably wrong ... but there is nobody reliable to "get" in my life!

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Which is nice for you (in a none sarcastic way) but I don't have those options.

My friends are childless and disinterested. My family is disinterested. Plus ds1's behavior is challenging to the extreme, and ds2 is three. It's too much to ask of someone who already has their own children.

In a different life, perhaps I could do it - it actually does interest me ... but why would arrange precious rare childcare to sit and be patronised for an hour?

Lucky you MissSunny, but some people have NO free childcare options. And in the cases of single parents, I imagine they're often too shattered to do hardly anything outside of paid work and parenting, anyway.

I can't understand PTA'S who are so up their own arses that they ignore those who genuinely want to help and take an interest. More should take a leaf out of Ruby's book.

Anybody else?

What puts me off joining is that they always meet on a wednesday evening.

As a single mum I can't easily get out in the evenings, and I don't want to waste a babysitter for PTA stuff.

Everything they do involvs being free in the evenings. Well, that might be fine for people with husbands at home, but it doesn't work for me.

My PTA meetings never start till 8, so it's a little late to be dragging a 6yr old along to

I'm a single mum who work f/t, and they have meetings immediately after school, so it's just not accessible.