Why School Parent Groups Are Always Looking for Officers and Team Members (And What You Should Know Before Saying No)
The gym floor at back to school night smelled like floor wax and stale coffee last week, and I was folding flyers that had big bold text across the top: Looking for Officers and Team Members! My 5th grader, Mia, leaned against the table swinging her neon water bottle, and when I reached for a stack, she bumped my arm and spilled half her lemonade across the bottom three. I wiped them up with a crumpled napkin, and Karen, our PTA president, sighed from across the table. We’d been there two hours, and 17 people had signed up to bring cookies for the fall dance. Three had signed up for general volunteer. Zero had put their name down for open officer or core team roles.
This isn’t new, of course. I’ve been part of the PTA for three years, and every single year we post the same call out, and every single year we wait months to fill open roles. Last year, we needed a new treasurer after the previous one moved across the state, and we sent four email blasts, put notes in every kid’s backpack, and asked at three back-to-back parent nights before a retired grandma whose youngest was in 8th grade finally offered to take it. She’s great, but she keeps saying she’ll step down at the end of the year, and I’m already dreading going through that again.
I talked to a mom of a 2nd grader who stopped by our table that night. She tilted her head at the flyer and said she’d love to help, but she works full time as a nurse, she can’t make midday meetings, she just doesn’t have the bandwidth. I get that. I work full time too. I have a 2 year old at home that still wakes me up twice a night. I told her about our communications officer from two years ago, a graphic designer who worked 40 hours a week downtown. She never came to a single in-person meeting. She did all her work updating the Instagram and sending newsletter drafts during her 30 minute lunch break at her desk. That worked fine for us. We didn’t need her to be there in person, we just needed someone to show up for the small parts that fit their schedule.
The thing a lot of people don’t get is that when we put out a call for officers and team members, we’re not looking for someone who can devote 10 hours a week and knows how to run a huge organization. Most of the time, we’re looking for someone who can do 2 to 4 hours a month, and is willing to learn as they go. The myth that you have to be a stay-at-home parent with nothing but time on your hands to take a role is what keeps so many groups short-staffed. When I took the co-secretary role two years ago, I’d never taken minutes at a meeting or updated a membership list in my life. The previous secretary sent me a folder with a simple Google Doc template and a 10 minute voice note explaining what she did, and that was all I needed. I still miss a line of discussion every other meeting, but no one cares. It gets the job done.
What I’ve noticed, that I didn’t expect when I first signed up, is that this isn’t just about keeping the PTA running. It’s about what our kids see us do. Last year, after I took the co-secretary role, Mia came home from school and said she wanted to run for 5th grade student council. I asked her why, and she said “all the kids say no one wants to do it, but you do stuff for the school, so I can too.” That stuck with me. So many parents I talk to say they want their kids to be responsible, to step up when something needs doing, to feel like they belong in their school community. But if we never step up ourselves, what lesson does that teach? It’s not that we have to do everything, it’s that regular people contribute to the things that matter to them.
If you get one of these flyers or emails asking for officers and team members, you don’t have to say yes right away, but you also don’t have to say no just because you think you don’t have enough time or experience. Try this: reply to the email and say “I’m interested, but I only have X hours a month I can give. What roles would fit that?” Every group I’ve been part of will rearrange responsibilities to make it work. We’d rather split a role into two small parts than have no one do it at all. Second, ask what the actual time commitment is before you turn it down. Most people assume a vice president role means 10 hours a month, but for our PTA, it’s four 1-hour meetings a year and helping coordinate two volunteer sign-ups. That’s it. That’s 6 hours total for the whole school year.
Last fall, we were looking for a team member to coordinate games for the fall festival. We had the post up for two weeks with no bites. Finally, a dad of a 3rd grader emailed me and said he works construction 6 days a week, can’t do any planning meetings ahead of time, but he can come the day of the festival and run the games if that works. We said absolutely. We did all the prep ahead, bought the sacks and the cornhole boards, mapped out the stations, and he just showed up that Saturday and ran them for 3 hours. He told me afterwards that it was the first time he got to meet most of his son’s friends, and he had a better time than he expected. He signed on to do it again this year.
After we cleaned up the table at back to school night, we had one more sign-up. A dad who takes photos at his kid’s soccer games on the weekend put his name down to do the candids section of the yearbook. We still need a vice president. I’m sending out another email next week, and this time I’m not just putting “looking for officers” in the subject line. I’m putting “Vice President role: 6 hours total this school year, work from your phone.” I’ve learned that vague calls get vague responses, and most people just don’t know how little time it actually takes.
Mia asked me on the drive home why everyone is so hesitant to sign up. I told her it’s not that they don’t care. Most people just assume the role is bigger and harder than it actually is. We’ll keep looking. It’s not always glamorous, and some months I forget to send the reminder email and we have to reschedule a meeting. But when the PTA was able to give every teacher $100 for classroom supplies last month, and Mia’s teacher bought a whole set of new watercolor paints that all the kids get to use, it’s hard to regret putting my name down. We don’t need perfect people. We just need people.
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