PTO websites

[Sheherezade]

So......does your PTO or school support organization have a website? What do you like or dislike about it? What would you like to see changed?

I just landed the website development job for next year's PTO here. I asked for it because I think that it is a volunteer gig that I *might* enjoy. Considering that we don't HAVE a website now, anything will be an improvement.

I'm looking for ideas and suggestions. (I'm soooooo gung ho at the start of a project. Where does this enthusiasm go? )

Our PTA just started using Big Tent. Teachers can have their own page on it and send out messages. It seems to work pretty well. Obviously, parents have to internet access to use it. Some teachers are hesitant to use that for the only source of communication because not all families have reliable access.

[Sheherezade]

I've been looking at Big Tent since you mentioned it in another thread. What is good about it and what is just OK? It seems to offer lots of options but I'm not sure how they work IRL. For example, does your group use the discussion tools at all for committee work? Is it awkward or a good resource?

Our district has a big web page through school pointe with teacher websites. There is a space on it for PTO updates (news) - but we were looking at an independent option to help distribute information for volunteers (downloads) as well as provide news and advertise fundraisers. Bonus would be if we could use PayPal to accept payments for fundraisers, I guess.

I'm also planning on putting together a district-wide PTO email list. We have all the addresses submitted to us in individual committees; I was thinking it would be good to have that list put together for the PTO. Right now, word gets out by asking one person to send this on to their lists, etc. It works but .... it could be a little more reliable!

Angie, I could put you in touch with the guy who has put together all the Big Tent stuff for our school. I mostly work with the school foundation that does fund-raising to hire additional teachers. The PTA does more of the usual PTA "stuff" and committees. I participate on Big Tent as a parent at the school and member of the PTA but not really as a PTA volunteer.

So...I'm not sure if they use the discussion boards for the committees. I would think they could. They are just starting up with it this year.

I get weekly updates of the school calendar, any events the PTA is hosting, requests for volunteers, Foundation events, etc. I'll try to remember to forward one of the Big Tent notices to you so you can see what it looks like.

Some people have complained about it but they are the usual suspects of complainers and I haven't inquired much about their opinions. I like the format and find it easier than opening the PDF of the school newsletter (usually the same info).

So far, the PTA has not collected $$ through Big Tent but I think they would like to collect annual dues that way. They are looking in to PayPal and I think the Google check-out product.

Also not sure about downloads. I haven't seen that but doesn't mean it can't do it. I think you have to be a member of our school network to see the page. I bet I could ask for access for you to poke around if you want.

Check your email -- just don't send any prank emails to the principal from me, ok?

[oceanchild]

I think you could collect money from paypal without having a website. So once you have one, that should just be a matter of adding a link...

[Sheherezade]

I don't have a ton of paypal experience. Does anyone know if you can get paid for multiple different things and keep track of it easily? (Like "payment for wrapping paper sales, payment for dues, payment for chili dinner at X school, etc.) I wonder if it all goes in to one big pot or if you can have the payments indexed easily. I suppose you could put a link on each individual event page- maybe that would index it?

You could just add a link but I think they (at my school) are looking for a more integrated way of doing things. I'll have to check with them.

Angie, I would look at the Google check-out product as well. I think Paypal is sort of a PITA and from what I hear people say, the Google deal seems to be better.

Right now I am looking into ways to make a recurring donation to the foundation (monthly, quarterly, etc) that is not a headache for the treasurer. Our bank has some options. That would be a link to a site sort of situation.

[spotty_dog]

I don't have a ton of paypal experience. Does anyone know if you can get paid for multiple different things and keep track of it easily? (Like "payment for wrapping paper sales, payment for dues, payment for chili dinner at X school, etc.) I wonder if it all goes in to one big pot or if you can have the payments indexed easily. I suppose you could put a link on each individual event page- maybe that would index it?

If you owned your domain, I think one easy thing to do would be to have a different email alias for each category (sales@yourschoolpto.com, dues@yourschoolpto.com, etc.), and link them all to the same Paypal account. Then when you download your account history, there's a column for "To Email Address" that you could sort by.