subject: Pta Or Any Other Organization, Keep Organized Keep A Record [print this page] Several years ago I was the PTA president at our school. I came in brand new with my oldest being in first grade and had no idea what being PTA President entailed. I was president elect for a year and followed around the PTA president. There were about thirty different positions and I was trying to understand what everyone did. Often times when I would ask a question about a program or what the history of a program had been they would tell me that a certain person had been in charge of that program for the last several years and they knew what they were doing.
I thought that was great, but what if that person wasn't around. What if they moved or if they had their youngest move into Junior High or if they had to go to work and couldn't do that job anymore then who would know the information? We are a smaller community and everyone knows each other and feels comfortable that everyone is going to be around in some way or another to help each other.
I loved the whole concept, but I was one that loved to be organized and have a history and have information documented. I loved the idea of having procedure books or something in a file that was available for whoever had to pick up a program and do it. I decided that it was time to do this so I proposed some money in the budget to get this set up. We purchased file folders and then also binders with different tabs and had different forms that would be filled out when a program was completed. We also purchased an expanding file for the financial records.
It was exciting to see a history and record starting to be built for our school PTA. We were going to be able to refer back over the years to all of the records and see all of the fun things that were done. It has been several years since then and when people ask how much we spent or how much we made on a specific program we are able to refer to the history to see those things. For others they want some ideas for Red Ribbon Week and they can look back and see all of the fun things that have been done over the years.
Whether you are organizing a PTA records or your own files or an office or even a doctor's office it is always a good idea to get filing products to get a good start.
