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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I would make the commitment and do it except that our PTA the past few years has been very unwelcoming and not interested in having members participate so many of us gave up.  Maybe you need to look at what you are doing as a group if no one is interested.  I volunteered a few times this year at PTA things and felt very unwelcome.  Its generally the working parents who are doing it so employment isn't the issue, the group of people running it and what they are doing is the issue along with the principal who is nasty.[/quote]

I hear that a lot and don't believe people anymore when they say this. I've been yelled at by a fellow PTA officer and I still volunteered for the post I was voted into. People expect the teachers and PTA to fawn over them and grovel if they show up to help, but that can't be the case all the time. YOU'RE NOT DOING THIS FOR THE PLAUDITS. YOU'RE NOT DOING THIS FOR YOUR KID ONLY. These are the two things people must understand.

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Np, but I agree with the first poster. Second poster, you must have some strange situations at your school and I'm sorry if you are getting just parents wanting shoulder pats but most of us with this problem relate to the first poster-- just unwelcoming and very disorganized. These are probably self perpetuating with the hoggy disorganized pta throw up their hands and say, i'll do it myself! It is really too bad.

The OP sounds like neither of these cases, just a school where everyone is too busy and hoping to freeload or skate through. There are great ideas on here for job sharing. [/quote]

Oh no, believe me. I have friends in all our area's public schools, and the ones who don't volunteer always say it's "because they don't feel welcome" and "the PTA is so cliquey". When I happen to know these particular PTAs work extremely hard and would really like to have more help!

It's a vicious cycle because the PTA officers in place have no one to replace themselves so they stay for years and get to know each other, and talk to each other, thereby giving others the impression that they exclude others, when in fact they don't, but that's because no one has volunteered to help. See?

There's another thing I've noticed: many parents want to participate in decision-making, without doing the actual work. That's not how it works! So when they ask for more of a say in cultural arts programming, or STEM activities, and complain that the school/PTA (of course they conflate the two) should do X instead of Y, and I reply: "Great! You can apply for the post and if voted in, we will gladly give you free rein" all of a sudden, there's no one :-) They're just "too busy", and it was "just a suggestion".

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See, I'm going to dissent here. Your whole post is so off-putting. You don't see how this attitude can turn people off? You clearly don't seem to want to work with people, you want them to conform to what's there. You end up stagnating, and yes, alone.

So there are clearly camps of people who agree with you, and clearly camps of people who feel what I am feeling. Instead of patting YOURSELF on the back for "keeping that ball rolling" don't you think it is in your interest to learn to reach out more and learn how to attract people to help? And I don't mean personal you, but you as the PTA that is chronically understaffed and overwhelmed. [/quote]

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