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Parent Advisor		October 3, 2007

25 Tips to Inspire Parent Volunteers Does your child's teacher need more parents to volunteer in the classroom? Do the same six parents work on your school fundraiser every year?  PTO Today, which provides resources for school parent groups across the nation, shares 25 timely tips your parent group can use to inspire others to get involved. The list includes: Make a list of one-hour jobs: You already know that one of the biggest fears of volunteers is that they'll be sucked into a black hole of never-ending time commitment. One way to address this fear is to create a list of all the helpful tasks volunteers can do in just one hour to help your school. Ask individual parents to do specific jobs: The No. 1 reason people say they don't volunteer is because "no one asked." Asking doesn't mean a newsletter ad that says "new officers needed." It requires a personal approach, and it works best if you have a specific task in mind. "Jim, we need ticket-takers for the carnival. Can you spare an hour to help?" Follow up: Don't let volunteer surveys sit around for weeks before you respond, even to people who expressed interest in an event that is months away. People are much more likely to follow through later if you make a connection now. Also, this is an opening to ask for more involvement: "I know you said you'd help with the spring carnival, but I wonder if you could spare an hour to help children pick out books at the book fair in October?" Learn more about how to catch — and keep — school volunteers Learn more about PTO Today Back to top

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From Our Readers: What Working Parents Can Do

Thanks to those of you who who told how your schools involve parents who work outside the home. Some of you described creative ways to get involved. Others say schools and parent organizations still have a lot to learn to make full use of your time and talents. Here are some of your ideas:

• Work with your parent group to get organized. Mom Lynn Payne writes: "This year for the volunteer sign-up sheets we color-coded them:
  • White: Volunteer work during school hours
    
  • Yellow: Volunteer work after school, at home, nights, weekends
    
  • Red: Donate food or water for an event (for those really busy parents)
  This worked wonderfully and the working parents really appreciated having jobs that they can do during non-school hours. It also helped the person running the event because they knew ahead of time when volunteers were available."
• Share a job. California mom Wendy McIlveen says: "I always volunteer to be the room mom, on the condition that I share that duty with another mom. It really is great. I get to be involved in all the fun stuff, like planning parties, etc. The best part is I can do it in the evening or use my lunchtime to send emails to other parents."

• Get better at using working parents' skills. Texas mom Georgia Wren-McConn writes: "Some ideas for those who would like to help but don't have flexibility during the day could include computer work, emails, organizing committees, accounting for funds — anything that can be done via email can usually be done ANY time of the day or night and could give those parents who want to participate an opportunity to do so."
• Get more creative. Jackie Edmonds Clark says: "If you must have more hands present, tell parents to be responsible to provide a warm body; the parent can then recruit an uncle, grandparent or neighbor to be the warm body."

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