Your Membership Committee

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Your Membership Committee

 

Your PTA does not exist without members. PTAs are membership associations and should have a focus on growing membership. A growing and engaged membership is the foundation for achieving PTA's mission to make every child's potential a reality. Growing membership is the responsibility of everyone on your board, but you may want to have a specific person or committee to focus on membership growth.

This guide provides tips and resources to help all PTA leaders understand their role in membership development.

Key Points to Remember:

  • Building relationships is the key to growing your membership. We often think about membership in terms of tactics - flyers, forms, incentives, benefits. While these can be important, membership growth is driven by people, not paper.
  • Anyone and everyone should join PTA. Their membership is an investment in children and supports the success of students, families and schools in your community.
  • Welcome all families, community members and school staff. Show that new faces are welcome by being open to new perspectives and ideas.
  • Listen to understand. Ask questions to ask families and community members what is important to them. Actively reach out to groups not represented in your membership and leadership. Use feedback tools such as surveys, suggestions boxes, and social media to better understand the needs and interest of your community.
  • Focus on what makes a meaningful difference. Emphasize actions that will have the greatest impact in your community and communicate this focus to your members.
  • Value time. Make sure parents know that volunteer time is not a requirement of membership. When they do volunteer, make sure time spent on PTA is meaningful. Share your progress often and to a wide range of people so everyone—parents, teachers, students, and the community—see that PTA is a worthwhile cause.
  • Use the tools available. Volunteers need to feel comfortable in their roles and feel they have a chance at success, so why start from scratch? Use National PTA membership tools to recruit and support your team and share this Local Leader Kit with all involved.
  • Make it easy to join. We often think of joining in terms of membership tables at schools or PTA events. While these ways are important, here are other ideas to make joining PTA easy. 

Membership Roles & Responsibilities

Effective membership recruitment and retention plans require the entire Board's support. However, your PTA may have a Membership Vice President/Chair and/or a Membership Committee to focus specifically on growing membership:

Membership Chair

Your Membership Vice/President Chair or committee is responsible for growing membership and ensuring timely, accurate communication with other PTA committees and officers. Membership Chairs are often tasked with:

  • Developing and deploying a year-round membership recruitment and retention plan (with emphasis during the big Back to School time in your community)
  • Coaching other PTA leaders in how to talk positively about PTA and membership with others
  • Switching to an online membership system, or looking for ways to move online (like a Smartsheet linked to a online payment vendor)
  • Set-up the membership categories for an online membership system and/or pricing for the new year
  • Drafting and distributing membership promotions and sign-up tools
  • Promoting membership at events at PTA, school and community events
  • Developing, distributing, collecting and tracking membership forms and dues in partnership with the Treasurer
  • Entering data from membership forms into the PTA record keeping system
  • Collecting dues on a monthly basis
  • Encouraging online PTA membership sign-ups
  • Distributing physical or online membership cards
  • Create or make improvements to your member onboarding process
  • Providing membership reports to the officers or board
  • Provide PTA history and accomplishments

Membership Committee

An ideal membership committee candidate may:

  • Be excited about PTA and willing to share their excitement
  • Be reflective of the families in your community
  • Be a past PTA officer who knows your PTA's history and successes
  • Be a new member who is enthusiastic about the work your PTA does
  • Have experience in marketing, public relations, sales, recruitment or statistics
  • Be someone who can make the ask of people to Join PTA
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