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VC Corner Q&A: Reece Chowdhry of RLC Ventures
Reece is the Founder and CEO of the multi award-winning RLC Ventures, a venture capital firm that specialises in investing in technology-based seed stage businesses. Since launching three years ago, Reece has invested in 30 start-ups and sits on the board of six portfolio companies. Currently, 70% of founders in the RLC Ventures portfolio are from diverse backgrounds.
Startup Q&A: Quicket Solutions
Christiaan Burner and Akshay Singh are the cofounders of Quicket Solutions, which delivers a cloud-based workflow automation, storage, and analytics platform for public sector organizations. Over 100 government agencies that collectively serve millions of people utilize Quicket to reduce manual data entry, enable real-time collaboration, automate services for residents and visitors, and eliminate costs associated with managing server infrastructure.
Strong Foundation Helps SURVIVR CEO Brian Hoang Thrive in Challenging Times
SURVIVR CEO Brian Hoang has always understood the power of virtual reality. His vision and tenacity have taken him through programs and opportunities made available via the Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars network, Startup Grind, and Techstars Austin Accelerator. As a software engineering student at The University of Texas at Dallas, Hoang started a small production studio for virtual reality content.
Startup Q&A: Delfast
Delfast Inc. was founded in 2014 in Ukraine by Daniel Tonkopiy and Serhii Denysenko. A smart electric bike development company, Delfast manufactures efficient and eco-friendly vehicles that meet both commuting and professional needs of a rider. Their e-bike also happens to hold the Guinness World Record Holder for the longest distance on a single charge. Keep reading to learn how Delfast has grown over time and what they’re focusing on for the future.
VC Corner Q&A: SC Moatti of Mighty Capital
SC Moatti is the managing partner of Mighty Capital, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, and Products That Count, one of the largest and undoubtedly the most influential network of product managers in the world. Previously, SC built products that billions of people use at Facebook, Nokia and Electronic Arts. Andrew Chen, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, called SC “a genius at making mobile products people love.” Mighty Capital is an early-growth Silicon Valley venture capital firm.
Playgrounds: More Than Fun and Games
Who hasn’t heard at least one child say his favorite subject is recess? While that kind of statement tends to elicit wry smiles and small sighs from concerned adults, it’s not actually a reason to be discouraged. Kids think recess is all fun and games, and it is—but it’s also so much more. Time on the playground gives children a chance to gain social and physical skills as well as to develop emotionally and cognitively. It’s an essential part of their school day. Just ask Catherine L.
Are You a Leader or a Manager?
Leading a parent group requires a unique balance of skills. A leader often needs the personal charisma and big-picture perspective of a visionary. At the same time, she must be an efficient manager, willing and able to oversee the implementation of the group’s strategies. If both sets of skills aren’t present, leadership can falter. For example, a woman named Dolores was excited to be elected president of her PTO and was eager to implement her ideas.
What Does a Vice President Do?
The role of vice president is typically one of the least-defined jobs on the PTO executive board. Most bylaws identify the duties with a vague description like “Assist the president.” These loose guidelines allow vice presidents the unique opportunity to tailor the job to their own skills and interests.
Create an Effective Parent Handbook
Finding your way in a new school system can be a daunting task, not just for children but also for parents. Many PTOs and PTAs publish welcome packets that help orient parents by providing key information including contacts, meeting dates, and policies.
Join Plus for Freebies and Our Best Parent Group Resources
What’s it like to get first dibs on sampling programs, free stuff, discounts, customized flyers, access to an exclusive Facebook group, and a direct line to PTO Today experts and our best content? You’d have to ask a PTO Today Plus member because they received all that—and more—in the 2017-18 school year, and they’re loving it! For example, the Pocahontas Elementary PTO in Powhatan, Va., has been a Plus member for more than five years.
PTO Secretary Job Description
Everything you need to know and more about how to be an effective PTO secretary. Advice and insight on characteristics, weekly and monthly tasks, and other job requirements; can be used as a guideline in writing descriptions for other executive board positions. File Name: pto-secretary-job-description.pdf File Size: 29.99 KB File Type: pdf Last Updated Date: 03/11/2015 Downloads: 12918 Downloads Contributor: Liz L Download Now Want to share a file?
June PTO To Do List
Have a meeting with the principal to review PTO activities for the past year and talk about goals for next year. Ask officers and committee chairpeople to do a year-end wrap-up. Committee Chair Year-End Report Make sure transition is going smoothly from outgoing officers to their new counterparts. Schedule a final PTO meeting, open to everyone, to recognize retiring board members and review how much money is available to start the next school year.
Update Your Officer Information, Win Swag for Your Crew!
Your officer elections are over—whew! Next step: welcoming your new crew with resources, tools, and information for a successful school year (and the chance to get some cute cups!). Update your officer information in our system and we’ll give you our must-read list for leaders getting ready for back to school 2018—it’s a great way to welcome your board.
Which School Fundraiser Is Right for Your PTO?
With all the different ways to raise money for your parent group—product sales, special events, collections, and much more—how do you find the fundraiser that fits your needs best? There’s no single type of fundraiser that works for all groups and all situations. Traditionally, product sales have been the most popular choice, and for good reason. A product sale with a professional sales rep can be easy to run and profitable—whether you have a wealth of volunteers or just one person doing it all.
You Really Do Make a Difference at School
There are lots of reasons to become a PTO leader, in particular helping the kids and working to create a better school community. But there’s more to it than that. Here’s a look at some of the key ways parents make a difference, and some specific ways you can have the most impact.
May PTO To Do List
Conduct an executive board meeting to ensure that everything is in place for officer elections. PTO Officer Elections FAQs Meet with the principal to review any requirements or changes for year-end activities. Plan for an audit of the PTO financial books next month. Annual Audit: How and Why Organize an event for Bike to School Day on May 9. Do something special for the school nurse on National School Nurse Day.
PTO Today: Committee Chair Success Tips
In-depth orientation guide to prepare new (or veteran) commmittee chairpeople for a great year. File Name: 0406successtips.doc File Size: 110.5 KB File Type: doc Last Updated Date: 04/15/2008 Downloads: 6771 Downloads Download Now Want to share a file?
How To Start a PTO
One of the most common questions we get at PTO Today is “How do you start a PTO?” The answer is less complicated than you might think: Get a group of people together, agree on a common goal, then get to it! Something as easy as running a spaghetti supper or an ice-cream social can be the basis for building enthusiasm and getting parents interested in forming a parent group. Yes, there are a lot of organizational steps you can take to get your group buttoned up and running smoothly.
Sample PTO Strategic Plan
This is an abbreviated example of what a simple strategic plan for a PTO might look like. Note the difference between goals and objectives: Goals are broad but clear statements that relate to an organization’s overall intention. Goals break down an organization’s mission into specific, achievable components and identify the results the organization wants to accomplish. Objectives in turn help break down intricate organizational goals.
April PTO To Do List
Schedule an executive board meeting to review the year’s newsletters. What do you want to change or keep for next year? Newsletter Communication Tips Drop Everything and Read is April 12. Plan a Family Reading Night or other literacy event to acknowledge the occasion. Begin recycling efforts at school, if they aren’t already in place. Working with staff, invite a few students to read their poetry at a PTO meeting to celebrate National Poetry Month.
15 Easy Teacher Gifts for Your Teacher Appreciation Goody Bags - PTO Today
When it comes to Teacher Appreciation Week, you could say we PTO leaders are a bit obsessed—we’ve probably spent a collective nine bazillion hours combing Pinterest for pun-theme lunch ideas and super cute teacher appreciation printables (gah—it’s so hard to pick just one!).
Managing Personality Conflicts
Building parent involvement means welcoming all types of people and learning to work together effectively. It sounds simple enough, but it can be a real challenge, especially when people who care deeply about a cause have their own ideas about and approaches to making decisions. Consider the example of Ann, who reluctantly agreed to chair her PTO’s book fair committee. By the end of the first meeting, she was already regretting that decision.
Help Prepare New Officers for Success
Whether you’re a newly elected officer or you’re coming back for another year on the PTO board, the transition from one group of leaders to another can be tough to navigate. There’s a lot to do to prepare for the new school year. Where do you start? How can you build on the great work the previous leaders did without feeling pressured to follow in their footsteps? Follow these proven tips and advice from seasoned PTO board members to help you get ready for what’s ahead.
Free PTO Swag To Get Your Hands on ASAP
Spring’s here, and that means the PTO Today Live Expos are in the house! For one day only, the crew here at PTO Today and more than 60 exhibitors come to select cities to celebrate All Things PTO and PTA with groups like yours.
PTO Today Spending Survey 2017: Great Expectations
Most school parent groups had successful fall fundraisers, but the pressure to contribute more fundraising dollars and volunteer time remains strong. That’s according to an October 2017 PTO Today reader survey, in which many respondents said school budget cuts have resulted in the need to raise more money and to recruit volunteers to take on tasks formerly handled by paid staff members.
19 Ways To Use School Spiritwear
T-shirts, jackets, pants, baseball caps, and other wearable school spirit items are a staple at many school stores, with good reason: Spiritwear gives people a sense of belonging to their school community. Enhance that sense even more by considering the many ways you can put your spiritwear to work for your PTO and school. Create excitement around an event.
Laughing Cow Offer
The #1 resource for school parent groups. PTOtoday.com has expert advice, free programs, tools, tips, and tons of ideas to help make parent groups successful and schools great.
22 Apps To Make Fundraising Easier - PTO Today
These days, parents use apps to keep track of everything from grocery lists to soccer schedules, not to mention keeping the kids entertained. Savvy PTO and PTA leaders are also turning to mobile apps to streamline fundraising tasks, including organizing volunteers, advertising events, and accepting payments. With help from members of our PTO and PTA Leaders & Volunteers Facebook group, we’ve compiled a list of apps leaders are using to create flyers, manage auctions, and more.
PTO Elections and Transition: What You Need To Know
School parent group elections are generally pretty straightforward, but PTOs will benefit from having a few formal policies in place. Read your bylaws (as well as standing rules, if your group has them), make a few decisions up front, and communicate well, and your election will be a short step in the process of getting your board ready for the new school year.
Flyer Communication Tips
When should we use flyers? Use flyers to remind parents about events or approaching deadlines, such as the due date for fundraising orders. Try to distribute the flyers at least a week in advance. How much information should flyers have? Your flyer should serve a single purpose, whether it’s promoting a specific event, sharing a list of upcoming events, recruiting volunteers, or something else. Don’t try to do more than one thing at a time.
PTO Gift Ideas for a Retiring Principal - PTO Today
We have asked all the teachers to have their students do a writing prompt on “What does Mrs. XX do all day?” I’m binding them all into a book for her. There are some pretty cute stories in there! - Crysti C. We had each student thumbprint on a vase that was later decorated into bugs, butterflies, etc. Each student placed a flower into the vase after we presented it to her. - Julie P. We had every student in our school draw our principal, and then hung all 600 drawings around the building.
Superhero Teacher Appreciation Printable Pack
Celebrate your teachers as the extraordinary superheroes they are! This collection of printables includes an event announcement, event invitation, poster, table tents, water bottle labels, photo booth props, and iron-on transfers with a matching superhero theme, in one convenient zip file. Files may be customized or edited to suit your parent group's needs.
Don't Do It! - PTO Today
Many parent group leaders feel a sense of nervous excitement as they anticipate the beginning of a new school year, just like their kids. If you’re one of them, you may be looking forward to fun family events and major projects, but be worried about how everything will turn out. Relax. It’s OK if an event doesn’t come off perfectly. What matters most is that parents feel welcome at school and find ways to support their child’s education.
Vendor Directory
Members of the Association of Fundraising Distributors and Suppliers (AFRDS) adhere to a higher standard of service, professionalism, and integrity, and have the experience, industry know-how, and solutions to help your group achieve fundraising success. Learn More
5 Ways PTOs Support Teachers
Supporting teachers is an important part of what parent groups do. When teachers have the backing of their school’s parent group, it helps them do their best work and makes the school an all-around better place. Whether your group is already in the habit of working with teachers or wants to start doing so, there are many ways to provide support beyond your regular appreciation efforts. Decide which ones work best for your group and school, then focus on making the most of those efforts.
How Good Are Your Bylaws?
Bylaws just don’t get a lot of love. If your parent group is like many, your bylaws are the most important document that no one can find. They may be stuffed in the back of the PTO filing cabinet or jammed in the 4-inch policies binder or lost in last year’s president’s basement. Or they may not really exist at all. Bylaws have a way of disappearing into the black hole of a parent group’s archives.
More Than Just Good Manners - PTO Today
My son and I were rushing out the door one day when he said, “You’re welcome, Mom!” out of the blue. We’d been talking about the importance of saying please and thank-you for weeks, and he wanted me to acknowledge that he’d done something that deserved a thank-you—holding the door open. It was one of those slap-yourself-on-the-forehead parenting moments. In my busyness, I had forgotten to use the very manners I’d been telling him are so important.
Marketing Must-Dos for PTOs and PTAs
Your parent group is committed to involving parents, planning great events, and running thoughtful fundraising programs. But what if families don’t know anything about your parent group (or even worse, if they have a bad impression)? All that effort will be lost. That’s where marketing comes in. We know “marketing” can sound intimidating, but it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money or take a lot of work.
Stop the PTO Drama
There’s too much drama in PTO land. Yeah, I know, there’s too much drama everywhere. You can barely read the paper without hearing about road rage or a parent behaving badly at a Little League game. But sometimes it seems like drama is the norm rather than the exception for many parent groups, and there’s almost no way for involvement to grow and community to flourish in that kind of atmosphere. As a leader, one of your most basic goals has to be reducing or avoiding drama.
20 Super Easy Treat Ideas for Valentine’s Day
While it would be nice to have Martha Stewart’s talents to create Valentine’s Day treats, we need to get real. Most of us just don’t have the time for fancy. Luckily, there are lots of fun and easy treat ideas that require minimal effort. We’re talking store-bought snacks, drinks, and fruits that can be easily transformed into Valentine’s Day treat with simple decorations. So, relax. Check out these time-saving ideas below that we’ve rounded up from Pinterest.
5 Tips for Your Upcoming PTO or PTA Election - PTO Today
Parent groups often aren’t certain how to nominate and elect new board members. You might worry that you aren’t being official and procedural enough on such an important matter. In general, large organizations do well with a nominating committee of a few people who are tasked with promoting the election, seeking nominations, and recruiting folks they believe will serve the group well.
Forms To Manage Your Group's Cash Flow
Tracking what cash is coming in and what’s going out is a key job for treasurers, and we want to help make it easier! We’ve just updated some of our more popular cash forms into Excel formats with formulas so they are fully editable and will allow treasurers to automatically calculate transactions.
10 PTO Ideas To Try in 2018
With so many groups doing so many downright epic things (and sharing them on social media), we just had to package ’em up and deliver them with a big bow for you and your PTO peeps to try out in 2018. Which one of these will you give a whirl in the new year? For one glorious night, you can forget about all the guilt that comes with spending more on a tiny doll bed than (ahem) an actual bed. When it comes to super cool bingo prizes, AG dolls and swag are a hot commodity.
10 Tips for Booking Food Trucks
Food trucks can be a fun addition to your school parent group’s family event. Here are some details to think about before hiring one. Reservations: Many cities have services that help people find food trucks and make reservations. Look on Roaming Hunger or Food Trucks In to see if they serve your city, or do an internet search for “(your town) food trucks.” Contracts: Read the terms carefully and don’t be afraid to negotiate.
School Carnival Game Ideas With a Twist
Kids love activities that have an ick factor. For this game, a volunteer holds two buckets behind "nose holes" constructed on a piece of plywood or sturdy cardboard. One "hole" contains a prize while the other is filled with slime. For extra giggles, add a fuzzy moustache under the nose, as did the Trailblazer Elementary PTO in Highlands Ranch, Colo.
Real Talk About School Principals
Having a tough time making it work with your school’s principal? You’re not alone. Conversations in our community of leaders frequently reveal struggles they have with their school administrators; we break those down and give advice on how to manage these principal problems. What you can do: When a principal seems to discourage PTO involvement, it may be because he isn’t familiar with how parent groups work or has had a bad experience with one in the past.
Deconstruction Zone
Not all parent group events require a ton of planning or volunteers to be a hit—in fact, sometimes simple events can have a major impact. Lisa Pratto, past president of the Discovery Charter School PTA in Inver Grove Heights, Minn., learned firsthand how less is sometimes more at her school’s Tech Take-Apart Night, where students had permission to disassemble and play with donated, used electronics like CPU towers, CD players, printers, and alarm clocks.
PTO Finances: Midyear Budget Review
How much money will your PTO have in the bank on the first day of school? Will you carry over just the bare minimum specified in your bylaws? Will there be a comfortable cushion for starting the year so you won’t have to begin the year with a fundraiser? Will your PTO set aside a large sum that is earmarked for a special project, such as playground equipment? Or will you carry over thousands of unallocated surplus dollars?
Grab Your Best Bad Mom Friend and Hit the Movies on Us!
Recently, we added user reviews to our Vendor Directory to help everyone share their experiences, reviews, and recommendations working with vendors. The directory is organized by topic so it’s easy to find new ideas for activities, events or programs, or fundraising ideas. Think of it as the Yelp or TripAdvisor for the PTO world! Now we (and future generations of PTO leaders!) need your help! If you’ve worked with a vendor, we’d love it if you take a moment to share a review.
20 Ways To Make Family Tech Talk Night Fun
Some humor and creativity can go a long way. Let’s be honest—Family Tech Talk Night isn’t the most exciting family event of your school year, but it’s definitely one of the most important. As a millennial PTO mom, here’s my 2 cents: While the topic of Internet safety is serious, the way you talk about it (and share your own experiences) doesn’t have to be. In fact, a little humor and fun can go a long way when it comes to helping parents connect.
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