Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think our PTA is once per month on zoom in the evening. PTOs and PTAs operate a bit differently.

Wrong. Please don’t type things you don’t know about.

Our school has a PTO because we don’t want to pay dues to the national PTA. We meet. The second Wednesday of the month at school at arrival time.

???
They do operate differently. You just said PTOs don’t have to pay dues to the national org. That’s a different operating procedure thank PTAs.
PTOs don’t have a governing body and can do whatever they want. PTAs are held to strict bylaws.

-Not the PP you quoted, btw.

PTO's have their own bylaws that are generally similar. PTA's have to follow the Umbrella PTA bylaws and their own and pay dues. PTA non profit status goes under the state so they all use the same tax id. A PTO is a separate non-profit.

The biggest difference IMO (as a parent with kids who have a large age gap and attended two different elementary schools) is that PTAs are required to share out information while PTOs can make up their own rules. As working parents, we much preferred the PTA to the PTO b/c we knew where our money was going and there were monthly meetings. The PTA also had access to resources from the National PTA, so they had parent-focused events with speakers on mental health, special education, etc.. The PTO school had one "open" meeting a year that was pretty useless and from what I could tell, they spent their money on assemblies and monthly teacher-focused events (like "this month we're doing a candy bar, next month, we're doing an ice cream bar, etc...). They had one family-oriented after school event to prove that they valued diversity (of course the one event was international night at a school that had a small minority population and of course dumped all the work on them).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sadly, there is no right answer here. I've been involved with the PTA at our school for a long time and at this point, none of the meetings are well-attended. And a lot of the moms who are on the board with me DO work, and we are able to attend the meetings too.

Our your meetings in the middle of the day? I would love to participate in the PTO and even volunteer for the board, but I can't attend daytime meetings.

They always hold our at 9am on Thursdays monthly. I can’t attend because I go into work. This means I was never able to attend PTA meetings for a decade.

This thread has been eye opening. I had no idea the reason meetings are held during the daytime is because people who don't do anything all day long don't want to give up their "precious" evening family time.

You may consider it “doing nothing,” but PTO meetings are used to recruit volunteers for PTO events. These events are largely organized by and carried out by SAHMs. If working moms want to take time off to do it, great, but until then, meetings and events will occur at the time convenient for those who are volunteering.

You misunderstand. Doing nothing refers to the fact that you don't have daytime obligations. A working parent has to take off literally half the day in order to attend a 10:00am meeting. If you want working parents to volunteer, you can't say "well come to our meetings, then you can volunteer, too!" but then have the meetings at an inconvenient time for them while also saying "the meetings and events will occur at a time convenient for those who are volunteering". What a hypocrite!!!

The ES my children went to had 7:00pm PTA meetings, and even the principal made sure that community meetings were after hours. Most of the PTA board members were working parents. I volunteered a lot - most of our committee meetings were over zoom after our kids went to bed and we held a ton of evening events and fundraisers. I was on the committee for our fall and spring fundraisers and was even a room parent one year. The PTA made it easy for ALL parents to volunteer which was great because it was a nice mix of the community (even dads, more than one), it was a really great experience.

Again, you're holding the PTA hostage. Don't complain when you don't get volunteers because you are actively making it hard for people to volunteer. I feel really bad for families at schools like yours.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sadly, there is no right answer here. I've been involved with the PTA at our school for a long time and at this point, none of the meetings are well-attended. And a lot of the moms who are on the board with me DO work, and we are able to attend the meetings too.

Our your meetings in the middle of the day? I would love to participate in the PTO and even volunteer for the board, but I can't attend daytime meetings.

They always hold our at 9am on Thursdays monthly. I can’t attend because I go into work. This means I was never able to attend PTA meetings for a decade.

This thread has been eye opening. I had no idea the reason meetings are held during the daytime is because people who don't do anything all day long don't want to give up their "precious" evening family time.

You may consider it “doing nothing,” but PTO meetings are used to recruit volunteers for PTO events. These events are largely organized by and carried out by SAHMs. If working moms want to take time off to do it, great, but until then, meetings and events will occur at the time convenient for those who are volunteering.

Anonymous wrote:Nope, happily married, and still not taking time away from my family in the evenings for volunteering. That’s what school hours are for.

Seriously, you can't take one hour a month to attend a PTA meeting in the evening?

You do realize that lots of PTA volunteers do so during the school day, without the actual monthly organizational meeting happening when working parents have to work?

You can volunteer all you want during the day but still have an inclusive PTA that meets at night monthly.

Anonymous wrote:Do people's PTOs share meeting minutes and/or the budget? Ours does not share either of those things, and it makes me not want to donate or participate in fund raisers. There is no transparency whatsoever. What goes on in these mid-morning Board meetings? Where is all the money they raise being spent? I have no idea, and I can't ask anyone because their rare open to the public meetings are also in the middle of the day.

That is outrageous. I'd organize parents to switch this to PTA.

Anonymous wrote:We switched from a PTA school last year to a PTO school this year and it's like night and day. Literally night and day. The PTA met monthly in the evenings (with a Zoom option) while the PTO only meets three times in the entire school year and two of those are mid-morning on weekdays. It has been very disappointing because there is also not much communication from the school itself.

Can you get them to switch back to PTA? That's ridiculous.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sadly, there is no right answer here. I've been involved with the PTA at our school for a long time and at this point, none of the meetings are well-attended. And a lot of the moms who are on the board with me DO work, and we are able to attend the meetings too.

Our your meetings in the middle of the day? I would love to participate in the PTO and even volunteer for the board, but I can't attend daytime meetings.

They always hold our at 9am on Thursdays monthly. I can’t attend because I go into work. This means I was never able to attend PTA meetings for a decade.

This thread has been eye opening. I had no idea the reason meetings are held during the daytime is because people who don't do anything all day long don't want to give up their "precious" evening family time.

Anonymous wrote:Nope, happily married, and still not taking time away from my family in the evenings for volunteering. That’s what school hours are for.

So what you're saying is that stay home moms basically hold the PTA hostage by refusing to do anything in the evening?

Why can't you spend an hour away from your husband and children? What is with the mommy martyrdom? You know that they can handle being away from you, right? Do you never go out with friends? Like if your kids are home, you MUST be with them at all times? How sad.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sadly, there is no right answer here. I've been involved with the PTA at our school for a long time and at this point, none of the meetings are well-attended. And a lot of the moms who are on the board with me DO work, and we are able to attend the meetings too.

Our your meetings in the middle of the day? I would love to participate in the PTO and even volunteer for the board, but I can't attend daytime meetings.

They always hold our at 9am on Thursdays monthly. I can’t attend because I go into work. This means I was never able to attend PTA meetings for a decade.

Nope, happily married, and still not taking time away from my family in the evenings for volunteering. That’s what school hours are for.