Reply to Did Covid disrupt the parent volunteer pipeline

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]90% of the child-related volunteer mental/emotional/physical labor is done by moms and the newer generation of moms are not into doing free labor that is being taken for granted and baked in to the school budgets. They no longer need or want that validation. [/quote]

This is pretty true.  The reason men aren't very involved in PTA is that it's very little tangible and financial reward for time spent.  You have to see and value the intangible community-building aspect of it.

I was asked to step in and run a PTA craft fair fundraiser with six weeks notice.  The financial return to the PTA was fairly equivalent to what the women leaders involved would have earned in hourly billings as freelance consultants, ad agency, graphic designers.  We probably could have raised just as much money with a straight appeal for cash donations.  I did the work because cancelling would have cost the PTA money.  But I would rather have just donated.  It cost me two days vacation and about a work week of personal time.  Some people think craft fairs are a fun community activity.  I don't.  We are not doing it this year because nobody stepped up to kick it off.  We will fundraise a different way or spend less.  So we don't give out free snacks during exam week and tickets to the after-graduation event cost more.  The world will keep turning.  [b]I do PTA so I can get in front of administrators about academic concerns.[/quote][/b]At least you admitted it.[/quote]

PP.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with using PTA as a way to communicate with administrators.  It costs $10 to join.  The monthly meetings are open and the principals come to talk about the school and take questions.  That's what I mean about "getting in front of administrators".  I ask them my questions then, from the role of a member/board member.

I will further state that nobody likes complainers who contribute nothing.  So I volunteer for PTA and do work so I'm not a do-nothing complainer.  Because I complain a lot.  I'll admit that volunteering gets me a little credibility but it's no giant conspiratorial benefit.  I'd say as far as it goes is, they believe my concerns are valid.  Instead of being skeptical.  Most of the time they don't have the resources to act on my suggestions anyway.  But at least they give more credence that there are issues.

Feel free to come to the PTA meeting and gain your own credibility by attending regularly and speaking up.[/quote]

This makes me less likely to want to go to the PTA meeting where the blowhards and loudmouths get on their soapboxes about their pet issues.[/quote]

PP. Examples of some of my pet issues included 1) a dysfunctional "district required" K-3 handwriting system that was scarcely taught but affecting various children's handwriting randomly (D'Nealian cursive), 2) ongoing bathroom maintenance problems including too many stalls out of commission, water on the floor, odors, etc., and 3) not having proper Spanish instruction (time or instructors) to support the fiction that the children were learning Spanish, etc. So, fine, I know many people don't want to hear about details like that. Because someone is supposed to be addressing those issues.  But to me, those kind of issues really need to get fixed and if nobody notices, they get deprioritized.  I'll take my opportunities where I can find them.  People will make a million excuses not to take any action.  I'm familiar.  I'm also the only person on the PTA board who seems to care about the academic quality of the school or to have lived outside my state (not grown up as a local).  Most of the board members are either doing it because "it's the right thing to do" without any clear vision (to let the school administrators know some parents care) or they want to run some of these social activities that many people here doubt are critical (exam snacks, senior all-night party, etc.).

It is sad when there is almost nobody who has a question or improvement suggestion at a school like mine that has middling SATs, middling state assessment results, and middling results at extracurriculars of all sorts.  Last year we had a principal of only one year quit in October because she had an alcoholic flare-up that became detectable even to the kids. This year we have a brand new guy who is coming from a district that was in extreme financial trouble. Yet very few parents are interested in enough to question what is going on and give it a few hours of their time to monitor.

BTW, I'm not in DMV, so most likely, I'm not at your local meeting.  So I won't be there to annoy you personally. Check yours out before you write it off.  You should know more about the people who are in charge of a large fraction of your children's lives.  A couple of hours a month is a good investment if your child's school is not meeting your expectations. [/quote]

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