10:30 PTA meetings

[Anonymous]

Who, would you guess, is going to volunteer for a group which holds in-person PTA meetings around 10:30 AM?

Just curious.

[Anonymous]

People who are available at 10:30?

People who work from home, or near the school, and have flexibility in their schedules

People like restaurant servers, retail workers, nurses, first responders, etc . . . who have jobs with unusual hours

The DH of the person on the other thread who is in jealous of his "European hours"

SAHP's with kids in morning preschool

Surely you realize that there are people with all sorts of schedules out there.

[Anonymous]

Truly, these meetings work for me. My schedule changes week to week, and I work rotating shifts. I often make the daytime meetings.

[Anonymous]

I am a SAHM. Our schools have never had any daytime meetings except kindergarten orientation. Meetings that are just for the adults never begin before 6 pm.

I started to answer this before I realized it was in the Fairfax forum. I’m in MD (MCPS) and our PTA sometimes hires help to provide free childcare in the gym during meetings. I don’t know if they just pay the aftercare people to stay later or whether they get free help by having high school students earn SSL hours by leading a few activities.

[Anonymous]

I am not active in PTA stuff, so here is my take.

If you don't volunteer, you don't get to complain about what the PTA does.

If you do volunteer occassionally, you politely give input, with the understanding that they might go with something else due to traditions, school limitations that they know but you don't, or because your idea is hoing to be really inconvenient for the people running things.

If you volunteer all the time, especially for an officer or leadership position, which always appear hard to fill, at least from the repeated emails the PTA sends each spring, then you get to do things like set meeting times that are convenient for the leadership and the people putting in a lot of hours.

Complaining about the PTA officers setting a meeting time that is not convenient for you, is akin to compplaining about the crappy incompetent rec league coach who is the only parent who volunteered to coach your kid's team which would have folded if they couldn't find a coach.

If you want to set the time for the PTA meetings next year to a time that is convenient to you, then volunteer to be an officer or a committee chair next year.

[Anonymous]

I bet that daytime meetings became a convenient thing when all the feds were working from home and could easily take care of things like attending PTA meetings during the work day.

The people in charge might not have noticed that since people are working in the office instead of at home, they can no longer attend the daytime meetings.

[Anonymous]

The people who do most of the volunteering at school. Frankly, the 6/7 pm times are the worst for anyone with elementary age kids. Suggest they offer a virtual option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not active in PTA stuff, so here is my take.

If you don't volunteer, you don't get to complain about what the PTA does.

If you do volunteer occassionally, you politely give input, with the understanding that they might go with something else due to traditions, school limitations that they know but you don't, or because your idea is hoing to be really inconvenient for the people running things.

If you volunteer all the time, especially for an officer or leadership position, which always appear hard to fill, at least from the repeated emails the PTA sends each spring, then you get to do things like set meeting times that are convenient for the leadership and the people putting in a lot of hours.

Complaining about the PTA officers setting a meeting time that is not convenient for you, is akin to compplaining about the crappy incompetent rec league coach who is the only parent who volunteered to coach your kid's team which would have folded if they couldn't find a coach.

If you want to set the time for the PTA meetings next year to a time that is convenient to you, then volunteer to be an officer or a committee chair next year.

If you take that attitude, you guarantee that no one else will be active in the PTA. Public meetings should be held when the public can attend.

[Anonymous]

I have a full time job and could make a 10:30 am meeting. The meetings I don’t go to are those that are at 7:00 pm.

[Anonymous]

No idea. Ours are 7 ish. Virtual for the board once a month.
In person - with childcare and pizza for kids for in person ones which are like 4 times a year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not active in PTA stuff, so here is my take.

If you don't volunteer, you don't get to complain about what the PTA does.

If you do volunteer occassionally, you politely give input, with the understanding that they might go with something else due to traditions, school limitations that they know but you don't, or because your idea is hoing to be really inconvenient for the people running things.

If you volunteer all the time, especially for an officer or leadership position, which always appear hard to fill, at least from the repeated emails the PTA sends each spring, then you get to do things like set meeting times that are convenient for the leadership and the people putting in a lot of hours.

Complaining about the PTA officers setting a meeting time that is not convenient for you, is akin to compplaining about the crappy incompetent rec league coach who is the only parent who volunteered to coach your kid's team which would have folded if they couldn't find a coach.

If you want to set the time for the PTA meetings next year to a time that is convenient to you, then volunteer to be an officer or a committee chair next year.

If you take that attitude, you guarantee that no one else will be active in the PTA. Public meetings should be held when the public can attend.

What hour do you think “the public” can attend?

I think it’s interesting that people who work far from home 9-5, Monday to Friday think they are “the public” and deserved to be catered to.

[Anonymous]

They are facing the reality of who is usually volunteering and getting things done. It’s a bit of a litmus test; if you can’t make this meeting, you won’t be involved in the school day things either.

[Anonymous]

Our school does PTA meetings 10 mins after school starts. I drive my kids on those days and just wait in my car for 15 mins with warm coffee. That is the best time IMO.

[Anonymous]

I never joined the PTA. My kids are college and rising HS senior. I always found the women who were a part of the PTA to be completely intolerable personalities. The kind of women I would have a root canal without anesthesia to avoid. Oddly, the PTA was mostly comprised of full-time work-outside-the-house moms with an ax to grind and something to prove. Like they were saying, "See? Look at me! I can do it all! All at once! I'm better than a SAHM, I'm a full-time working mom running the teacher appreciation week food committee!" Ugh. I didn't need that noise. Avoid, avoid, avoid. Let those crabs duke it out in the barrel. I have better things to do. I'll drop off a dessert for teacher appreciation week, and throw some money into the pot, but that's all you're getting so I protect my peace. My kids told me I was smart to avoid it. They didn't like these hover moms much, either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not active in PTA stuff, so here is my take.

If you don't volunteer, you don't get to complain about what the PTA does.

If you do volunteer occassionally, you politely give input, with the understanding that they might go with something else due to traditions, school limitations that they know but you don't, or because your idea is hoing to be really inconvenient for the people running things.

If you volunteer all the time, especially for an officer or leadership position, which always appear hard to fill, at least from the repeated emails the PTA sends each spring, then you get to do things like set meeting times that are convenient for the leadership and the people putting in a lot of hours.

Complaining about the PTA officers setting a meeting time that is not convenient for you, is akin to compplaining about the crappy incompetent rec league coach who is the only parent who volunteered to coach your kid's team which would have folded if they couldn't find a coach.

If you want to set the time for the PTA meetings next year to a time that is convenient to you, then volunteer to be an officer or a committee chair next year.

If you take that attitude, you guarantee that no one else will be active in the PTA. Public meetings should be held when the public can attend.

Perhaps they discovered that most of the people who actually volunteer and attend things prefer a daytime meeting.