Volunteering

Welcome to my blog about being a member of the Joan Austin PTO! We are trying to gather more input from parents and get more parent involvement at the school. Blogging is a new technology that I'm exploring for work, so I thought I'd try to use this tool for PTO purposes. I'll try to post monthly articles designed to get conversations started.

Volunteering at the school is fun! I like getting connected with the school staff, other parents, and finding out what my kids are up to. As a parent who works full time outside the home, sometimes it's difficult to balance volunteering with all the other things I'm doing. But I agree with studies I've read that show kids do better in school when their family and community members volunteer at the school.

As a relatively new school, Joan Austin has fewer volunteers than older, more established elementary schools in our area. I've heard comments like, "we should be able to do better than this" and "why does no one else seem to care about the school?"

I don't believe that no one cares. But I still can't answer why there aren't more people involved. What if we examined some of the common reasons people don't volunteer, and explored ways to get around these road blocks?

I don't have time to volunteer!
OK, this is very common, and probably utterly true. If you are working full time, single parenting, holding two jobs, or parenting pre-schoolers, time is a premium. In fact that's true for ALL parents, right?

So how come some parents ARE able to volunteer? Are they all just upper-income stay-at-home moms with no younger kids? Actually, no they're not. The people who do volunteer are making the time, because it's really important to them. These folks have gotten creative with finding the right volunteer opportunities that fit their schedule. There are lots of different things you can do from home, or things that don't take very much time. But doing these things makes a big difference to the school.

Me personally, I started volunteering when my eldest was in kindergarten. I talked to my manager about getting time off work to volunteer and she was lukewarm at best. Fortunately, she said "What are you really asking me for? You want reduced hours for the same pay?!" Uh, no, not really.

So I did some quick math and came up with a plan to take shorter lunches and come in 1/2 an hour early here and there. I created a formal document showing how I was going to take responsibility for my schedule, and ensure that I worked the same number of hours as before. I explained that I would be willing to cancel volunteering for major work-related emergencies, and communicate my time off to my team members. And she approved my plan! After two months, I met with her again about this, and confirmed that it was working for me and for her. I chose to volunteer in the classroom and had a blast!

Sure, this plan won't work for everyone. But if you don't ask your employer, you'll never know. More and more companies are looking at their work-life-balance rating, and wondering what they can do about it. Maybe you can help them out. The key for me was having a plan thought out, and coming at it from the "how I'm going to take responsibility for my time" angle.

So, what do you think? Let us know- if you do volunteer, how do you do it? If you don't volunteer, why not? Use the comment link to add your voice to the conversation!