Did Covid disrupt the parent volunteer pipeline

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think COVID did give parents a break from school and outside activities and they realized they didn't really miss some of the events and it was ok not as involved.

If any organization - PTA, sports, etc - has to beg parents and can't get any volunteers for certain events, then what happens is there is guilt, multiple emails, and finally someone saying ok i will do it this one last time. Instead the answer needs to be to drop the event and move on.

Other issues have been pointed out - asking for volunteers, getting there and standing around. If orgs want volunteers , they need to do better on understanding the actual need , and giving a concrete list of actions that the volunteer needs to do so they can show up and get started. Too often parents show up and no one knows what they even want them to do.

This. Our PTA runs these super volunteer-intensive events and then complains about it being the same 10 people.
1) I cant miss work to set up for fall festival and winter festival and x festival and also have a vacation for myself and be able to cover sick days.
2) Dont have 3 back-to-back events in the first 3 months of school.
3) Teacher Appreciation stuff should be less than X% of the budget and again, I cant take off work to be room parent and help with parties and then serve lunch to teachers. Figure out a way to remove the volunteer-heavy requirements.
4) I got tired of signing up and there being no one in charge and then wasting my time because they didnt have roles assigned or a task list. I got tired of signing up for 4-5 and then being asked to stay through 7pm because other people didnt show so I couldnt even spend time at the event with my own family.

Add in the book fairs and other stuff and its just TOO MUCH. Have 1 event in the fall and spring. Have monthly eat out nights/sponsored where we get a percentage of the funds. And start saying no to $600-800 staff lunches on developmental days. Less than 25% of the teachers are PTA members and less than 25% of the money raised should go directly to teachers.