MEMBERSHIP

INTRODUCTION TO MEMBERSHIP

The strength of your PTA lies in its membership—the parents, teachers, school administrators, business leaders, and community members who devote themselves to making a positive difference in the lives of children. Members are the lifeblood of Utah PTA by providing the passion, leadership, and hard work needed to fulfill Utah PTA’s Mission.

Every individual who joins PTA is giving something, not only to his or her child, but to every child. Imagine how much stronger your community could be if every parent, every community member, and every business leader who could be involved in PTA did get involved.

Attracting new members, and retaining current ones, is among the most important duties of a PTA. A strong membership is essential for PTA to be a force in decisions involving the welfare and education of children. A thriving membership drive doesn’t just happen. It requires good planning and year-round attention from leaders like you.

Your PTA should plan and hold a kickoff membership campaign at the beginning of the school year and then continue membership recruitment efforts throughout the year. Every PTA sponsored event and every school sponsored event is an opportunity to recruit new members, and every participant is a potential PTA member or supporter! Successful membership recruitment drives are essential to bring new volunteers and excitement to your PTA.

September is Utah PTA Membership Month and PTAs everywhere will be launching local membership campaigns. The campaigns will build on the excitement of children going back to school and encourage parents to get involved in their children’s lives. Utah PTA Membership Month provides an opportunity for PTAs across the state to create joint membership events in our communities.

January is another important back-to-school period and a great time to recruit new members. Parents are resolved to be more involved, and new families may have moved into the community. It is a great time to remind parents that it’s not too late to join PTA to make a real difference for their children and schools in the current school year.

Many PTAs run only one membership campaign a year – in the fall. PTAs that run more than one campaign a year have, on average, 20% more members. That’s because potential members have more opportunities to say “yes” to becoming a member. Nationwide, approximately 18% of PTA members join in January and February, second only to the traditional, fall back-to-school campaign period.

To bolster your membership recruitment activities, we have developed a suite of materials, including a campaign toolkit that outlines how to effectively communicate the value of PTA membership, a suite of dynamic visuals and collateral materials, and a campaign roll out checklist. These materials are available at utahpta.org/membership. Additional tools and resources to help you develop programs and increase participation in your local PTA are available in the “Local PTA Leader Kit” on the National PTA website, pta.org. 

GUIDELINES FOR THE MEMBERSHIP CHAIR

Membership is a year-round activity. Continually invite individuals to join and become involved. One more membership represents one more parent involved in a child’s life. The membership chair is responsible for facilitating the work of the membership committee and ensuring timely, accurate communication with other PTA committees and officers. The membership chair and committee should develop a membership growth plan that will direct the activities of the committee. This plan will create membership recruitment and retention strategies that will lead to overall membership growth. Attracting new members, and retaining current ones, is among the most important duties of a PTA. A strong membership is essential for PTA to be a force in decisions involving the welfare and education of children.

• For a complete Job Description of a Membership Chair, visit: utahpta.org/membership-guidelines 

• For a Timeline of Membership Activities, visit: utahpta.org/membership-calendar-time-line-ideas 

• Need campaign Theme Ideas? Visit: utahpta.org/membership-campaign-ideas or find our theme boards on Pinterest

• PTSA/Student Membership Ideas: utahpta.org/membership-ideas-ptsa

• How to Pay State and National PTA Dues: utahpta.org/how-pay-state-national-dues 

• Learn about different Membership Awards that will help you grow your PTA/PTSA: utahpta.org/membership-awards 

• There are many benefits to PTA members that more than make the membership pay for itself. Learn about the many PTA membership Benefits here: utahpta.org/membership-benefits 

THE VALUE OF PTA MEMBERSHIP

For over 125 years, National PTA has worked to better the lives of every child in America. When you belong to PTA, you are part of a network of millions of parents, teachers, administrators, business leaders and policymakers who work together to ensure our public schools provide a quality education for every child in a safe and healthy environment.

PTA Members ...

• Strengthen family and community engagement in schools.

• Elevate the voices of families in critical child advocacy work.

• Support programs that improve student outcomes and success.

Community 

PTA provides a network of support for families during the busy, fast-paced school year. There are hundreds of opportunities for parents, teachers, administrators, business leaders and political leaders to build the relationships that help our communities thrive.

Advocacy

For over 125 years, National PTA has been the conscience of the country for child and youth‑ related issues. PTA members advocate every day for federal, state and local policy initiatives that better the lives of every child in education, health and safety.

Programs

PTA provides research-based, high-quality programs that encourage families to explore everything from the arts and STEM, to healthy lifestyles and school improvement initiatives. They’re innovative, easy to implement, and even better—they’re fun!

Funding

Your membership in PTA gives you access to hundreds of grants to help you better engage families, support student success, improve the health and safety of students and families, increase access to arts education or celebrate advocacy and diversity.

Leadership Development

PTA provides leadership development and support to prepare leaders to run and grow their PTA. Our new online learning community, Thrive, offers short courses you can take from anywhere. PTA also provides mission-based training on family engagement and diversity, equity and inclusion.

Resources

PTA brings you the latest parenting advice, membership recruitment tools, programs, leadership development and advocacy training to help PTA members stay on the leading-edge and give more to our nation’s children.

WHY MEMBERS JOIN

Parents

• To be involved in a child’s education

• Parent Engagement training

• Parenting skills

• Understand school policies

• Networking/technology

• Friendship/socializing

• Leadership skills

• To have a voice

• To partner with school administration, staff

• To be part of the solution

• To understand the school system

• Interaction with other parents

• Opportunity to share their culture and a positive community experience

• To support the school

Students

• Friendship/socializing

• Citizenship

• Scholarships

• Community service

• Sharing issues

Teacher/School Staff/School Board

• A voice on issues

• Support parents

• Support students

• Share common issues

• Networking

Why Parents are not joining PTA

• No Explicit Ask to Join: That’s right - potential members said a top barrier to joining PTA was simply that they were never ASKED to join, but they were frequently asked to support PTA fundraisers. 

• Do not Understand the Value of PTA: Current members had difficulty explaining the role of PTA and how it supports education and curriculum needs, serves as an important advocate for children, or how it builds school community. They often see PTA as a social club and did not understand the role of PTA, the community it builds between the school and families or see how their dues or fundraising activities directly impacted their child. 

• Confusion About What PTA Membership Means: Our research found that people were not even sure if they were members! Specifically, they felt that PTA membership is confusing, inconsistent and not universally understood - and most often interpreted it as time consuming with volunteering and attending meetings being requirements of membership. 

• Not Welcoming to All Families: Parents would like to see a more diverse PTA membership base, representative of out growing multicultural communities to reflect inclusive and welcoming school community. 

• Everyone is Interested, Once They Understand the Role of PTA: The research also uncovered that particular audiences - including multicultural families, younger parents and fathers - are especially interested in PTA’s impact and getting involved in their child’s education. 

How to change the tide and get new members: 

You know the good work that your PTA does for your community every day—but talking about your accomplishments and inviting others to join you can be hard. Trying to start a Conversation with someone about how awesome PTA and how they would be a great addition. 

There’s no one-size fits all way to talk about the value your PTA/PTSA brings, but here are a few key tips.

• Always make an explicit Ask to Join

• Clarify what PTA membership means and that it is different from volunteering

• Remember that everyone belongs in PTA, and that everyone is interested, once they understand the association’s value and role

Find your PTA Why and Share it

We have found that the most successful membership recruitment and retention conversations answer the following questions:

• Why join PTA/PTSA?

• In what ways does PTA help me?

• How do those ways benefit me and my child?

The answers fall in one of three identified areas: 

• PTA/PTSA creates connections

• PTA/PTSA support your child

• Our PTA/PTSA amplifies your voice 

Here is a sample of Why I PTA membership pitch from the “You Belong” Toolkit:

• You should join our PTA because your membership can help you build a village to support your child and connect you locally and to a nationwide network that supports all children. 

• When you belong to our PTA, you’ll connect to important school and community resources. 

• Being a member of our PTA will help you access resources both inside and outside the school building, like mental health resources from the Healthy Minds Program, or parenting news and tips from the Notes from the Backpack podcast. Will you support our efforts by becoming a member?

Learn how to Create a PTA/PTSA Value Message with the “You Belong” Toolkit: pta.org/home/run-your-pta/membership-resources/reasons-you-belong

10 TIPS FOR LAUNCHING A SUCCESSFUL MEMBERSHIP CAMPAIGN

1. Form a Membership Committee

2. Choose a campaign theme

   • Decide how to implement Utah PTA’s yearly membership campaign theme or choose one that best fits your PTA.

   • Using a theme generates interest and enthusiasm.

   • Display your theme in a high-traffic area of the school.

3. Set goals

   • The Membership Committee sets membership goals pertaining to membership growth.

   • Make sure the goals are reasonable and attainable, yet challenging.

   • Choose goals that fit your individual strengths, comfort level, budget, time, and expertise.

4. Target potential members: Retain and Recruit

   • Assign committee members specific responsibilities:

   • Retaining members.

   • Recruiting new members.

   • Increasing male engagement.

   • Asking teachers and staff to join.

5. Have a plan

6. Sell the value of PTA membership

   • Recruiting new members goes hand-in-hand with making sure they find value in PTA and renew their membership the following year.

   • Emphasize to new members what they get for their membership dues.

   • Keep members motivated through on-going communication, opportunities to volunteer, and recognition.

   • The number one benefit that PTA members receive from PTA membership is the ability to help their own child.

7. Incentives/awards/prizes

   • Post membership goals and progress in a high traffic area of the school and in newsletters.

   • You may choose to offer discounts and incentives for membership promotion.

8. Campaign all year long

   • Every event your school or PTA holds is a chance for members to join PTA. Set up a table to have sign-up opportunities available.

   • Continue to ask members to join throughout the year.

   • Continue to promote your PTA throughout the year.

   • Coordinate with school personnel to include PTA membership materials in new student packets in the school office.

   • Schedule your recruitment and retention activities throughout the year, particularly at back-to-school time and the beginning of the new year in January.

9. Use your resources and follow through

   • Don’t reinvent the wheel

   • Plans are worthless unless they are put into practice

10. Evaluate and adjust accordingly

    • Seek feedback from committee members and PTA members. Regardless of whether the evaluation is done through a formal survey or informal communication, it should be systematic, recorded, and used to adjust and improve the goals of the Membership Committee.

The “For Your Child” PTA membership campaign has great tools and ideas to support your membership goals.

PTA MEMBERSHIP ADVANTAGES

THE VALUE OF UTAH PTA

Where does my $2.75 go?

Leadership Training

• Utah PTA website - utahpta.org

• Utah PTA Leadership Convention

• Utah PTA handbook for local PTA boards

• Training handbooks for leaders

• Field service for local PTAs

• Council support

• Financial training and oversight

• National Standards for Family-School Partnerships

• Student Leadership Conference

• Social media

• Commissioner Resources

Advocacy Efforts

• Training on how to work with policy makers

• Information on current issues affecting children and families

• Take Action Network

• Legislative Bills Sheets

• PTA Day at the Capitol

• Advocacy Conference

• Oversight of School Trust Lands 

• Training on how to work with superintendents, principals and teachers

• Represent parents on coalitions with legislators, other advocacy groups, and various prevention and health groups, including the Governor’s Education Excellence Commission, and the Utah State Board of Education (USBE)

PTA Programs

• Reflections

• Battle of the Bands (PTSA)

• Schools of Excellence

• Ribbon Weeks

• Healthy Relationships Month

• Family Reading Experience

• Come Play with PTA

• PTA Take Your Family to School Week

• Teacher Appreciation

• Practical PTA

• Access to information on other programs

Awards & Grants

• Utah PTA Awards

• Arts and Education Fund Grants

• Membership Awards

• Gold Star Unit Awards

• L.E.A.P. Awards

The Value of National PTA

Where does my $3.25 Go?

Running Your PTA

• pta.org

• National Standards for Family-School Partnerships

• One Voice blog

• eLearning

• Local PTA Leader Kit

• PTA Membership Campaign

• Diversity and Inclusivity Toolkit

• PTA branding and web guidelines

• Spanish resources

• Marketplace

• e-Newsletters

Advocacy

• Take Action

• Federal legislation

• PTA Positions

• Legislative Conference

• Advocacy resources

• Advocacy awards

Family Resources

• Parents’ Guide to Student Success

• Family guides

• College and career readiness

• Our Children magazine

• Health Resources

• Safety Resources

• Special Education Toolkit

• Notes from the Backpack podcast

• Summer Learning

Events

• Event calendar

• Annual Convention 

• and Expo

• Legislative Conference

• Safer Internet Day

• State Conventions and Leadership Training

• Teacher Appreciation Week

• Take Your Family to School Week

• Every Child 

• in Focus

• Back to School with PTA

Programs

• National PTA School of Excellence

• Reflections

• STEM + 

• families

• Family reading experience

• Connect for Respect

• Healthy 

• lifestyles

• Award and grant opportunities

• The Smart Talk

• PTA Connected