Pros and Cons For Joining a Parent Teacher Organization

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Pros and Cons For Joining a Parent Teacher Organization

Posted by San Luis Obispo Mom on Sunday, March 26, 2023 Under: Mom Life

Many schools call their Parent Teacher Organization, PTA (Parent Teacher Association), others are just PTO.

What's the difference?

A PTA, Parent Teacher Association, has to pay fees to the the national PTA organization in U.S.A. but a PTO, Parent Teacher Organization, doesn't have to pay fees to the PTA and can have different rules and regulation/by laws.

Regardless if they are PTA or PTO, how they are run can be pretty impressive, dependent on the leadership of the board.

After volunteering for the last half year, here is a table of my thoughts.

Pros and Cons For Joining a Parent Teacher Organization or Parent Teacher Group.

Pros
You can connect with other parents (adults) in the school for a good purpose. The goal of the parent teacher association or organization is to help the kids and teachers. That could include fundraising for field trips, planning fun events for the community and volunteering to help serve the kids with any activity. You can be creative by volunteering to create signs, flyers or graphics for events. Make sure you properly tell everyone during the meetings so that no two people are doing the same work so that the team can be efficient and have their focus on finishing everything. You can add your volunteering projects to your resume! This is especially helpful if you need to beef up your resume for a new job. I feel that volunteering for your kid's school can set a really good example early on in their childhood because when they see mommy (or parent) volunteering, they may be more inclined to do community service projects in the future. They've seen me run around helping out at events and attending meetings for the benefit of planning projects for all kids and not just for them.

Pros

You can connect with other parents (adults) in the school for a good purpose. The goal of the parent teacher association or organization is to help the kids and teachers. That could include fundraising for field trips, planning fun events for the community and volunteering to help serve the kids with any activity.
You can be creative by volunteering to create signs, flyers or graphics for events. Make sure you properly tell everyone during the meetings so that no two people are doing the same work so that the team can be efficient and have their focus on finishing everything.
You can add your volunteering projects to your resume! This is especially helpful if you need to beef up your resume for a new job.
I feel that volunteering for your kid's school can set a really good example early on in their childhood because when they see mommy (or parent) volunteering, they may be more inclined to do community service projects in the future. They've seen me run around helping out at events and attending meetings for the benefit of planning projects for all kids and not just for them.

Cons
Like many groups or clubs, there may be conflict with ideas and processes. I feel that we can always learn from each other but if you don't handle disagreements well, I advise that you come with an open mind and read some self-help books to help resolve conflicts. Volunteering requires time out of your day and/or evening to work on projects or be there for events. If you don't have a lot of free time, just make sure you can commit to the hours or projects that you volunteered for. If you're volunteering during school hours on the school property, your school may need you be get fingerprinted and pass the background check to avoid pedophiles, or people with a history of crime, from be around children. This is a standard procedure for every volunteer or employee and it's a good one! So, make sure you have all of that already taken care of before volunteering on property during school hours. Meeting new people at any group may be a bit intimidating and it's okay to feel nervous at your first meeting. Try to learn to be assertive so that the group knows you'd like to volunteer. Sometimes they don't want to push work on whom they are not sure would be up for the task. Raise your hand during the meeting if there is a project you'd like to volunteer for!

Cons

Like many groups or clubs, there may be conflict with ideas and processes. I feel that we can always learn from each other but if you don't handle disagreements well, I advise that you come with an open mind and read some self-help books to help resolve conflicts.
Volunteering requires time out of your day and/or evening to work on projects or be there for events. If you don't have a lot of free time, just make sure you can commit to the hours or projects that you volunteered for.
If you're volunteering during school hours on the school property, your school may need you be get fingerprinted and pass the background check to avoid pedophiles, or people with a history of crime, from be around children. This is a standard procedure for every volunteer or employee and it's a good one! So, make sure you have all of that already taken care of before volunteering on property during school hours.
Meeting new people at any group may be a bit intimidating and it's okay to feel nervous at your first meeting. Try to learn to be assertive so that the group knows you'd like to volunteer. Sometimes they don't want to push work on whom they are not sure would be up for the task. Raise your hand during the meeting if there is a project you'd like to volunteer for!

I've volunteered to chaperone for 5 different field trips so far. Read about my list of Pros and Cons for Volunteering For a School Field Trip!

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Originally from San Diego, California, I'm a San Diego State University alumna, veteran's wife and mom of two kids who were born two years apart. After living on the East Coast for 6 years, we now reside in San Luis Obispo County and here, the exploration continues.

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