August News: Fall Training on August 28th and More

Strength in Numbers

PTA would not exist were it not for its membership. Membership dues help support programs and training, but more importantly, member voices collectively influence how PTA advocates for children who don’t have voices of their own.

Does your school community understand how PTA helps all children at their school? Now is a great time to work on messaging that clearly states what your PTA does for your school and what parents, teachers, and community members can do to help. Enlist your principal’s help introducing your PTA in his/her beginning-of-the-school welcome to all families. Another effective strategy could be to compare your annual membership fee as less than what you would pay for, say, a cup of coffee or the California State and National PTA member perks they stand to benefit from as a PTA member. Clarify that PTA members are not required to volunteer and that what we really want is for them to have a voice in PTA decision-making so that we can more effectively advocate for all children.



See membership recruitment tools and resources from CAPTA and

more tools and templates from National PTA here and here.

Busy parents appreciate the convenience of joining via Totem or other online platforms. Click here on how to get started on Totem.

Summer Financial Review Time

A year-end financial review (formerly known as an audit) serves as an official examination of the financial records at the times specified in the bylaws and when there is a change in financial officers.

Now is the time to collect your organization’s financial records and go through the financial review checklist for July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023. It is critical that the entire fiscal year be reviewed to be covered by insurance.

Don’t have a financial reviewer? Consider partnering with another PTA unit in your community and trade treasurers to check the books for each other. You can also contact Peralta District PTA Treasurer Kristin Hergert at treasurer@pdpta.org. Once the financial review is done, don’t forget to enlist a couple of officers and/or members to be on the financial review committee as required by our insurance. For more information, check out the PTA toolkit.

Filling Board Vacancies

Whether your board has put out an open call for candidates or is actively searching your membership for just the right person to fill a position, each potential member of your board should be responsible and understand PTA policies as per your bylaws.

All candidates should be given the opportunity to develop a clear understanding of the role and responsibility of a position before committing (see Job Descriptions). Once a candidate is elected, be prepared to commit to working as a team. In the end, effective teamwork helps meet the goals of the group AND the individual.

Here are some ideas for filling board positions.

Good volunteers are hard to come by and should be valued and respected. Consider giving some committee chairs shorter-term commitments. For example, you can have a committee chair for the book fair, one for the fall fair, or a winter fundraiser, as opposed to having one committee chair handle all of them. Your team can achieve a lot when there are multiple supporting volunteers instead of just one.