Ring in the New Year with a survey of members!

The end of the calendar year is often recognized as an opportunity to reflect back on all of your Personal and Local Unit success for the year.  It is also a great time for everyone to assess where you are as a group.  Grab a coffee or hot chocolate, and as a Board, look back on the goals your unit established at the start of the school year.

·         Begin with the positive!  What has worked well as a Board?  Enhancing what is strong will only bring more success.  Then you can take a more progressive look at what did not work well.  Maybe the program was tailored in such a way that by placing a leader with a different skill set, it would be launched into success.  Maybe personalities are clashing.  Did your unit have a few bumps in the road at the start of the  year?

·          Be sure and evaluate it! Come up with plans and ideas of
how you would do things differently next year.  We all know that ignoring
problems only makes them bigger, but this brainstorming exercise should be a safe place to throw out some fresh perspective, and an opportunity to change the way you have done business in the past.

·         Start your New Year off right!  I found this great quote on goals "Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending." (Carl Bard)
What better way to establish a goal then to ask your members!  There
are many ways to survey your members; you can send one home through kid mail, at a General Membership Meeting,  or you can email a link to an online survey (Survey Monkey is free and really easy to use!).  Creating attractive incentives to getting a response is one way to get them back in.
Everybody has a few minutes to give feedback, so you want to be sure that you carefully evaluate what important information you are trying to capture in the survey with quick and direct questions.  What do you want to know?  What kind of information are you trying to capture as a Board?  Results can play a key role in identifying strengths, areas to improve, or even where organization improvements can be made.    Be ready to respond to the information you collect in your surveys, and always thank your members for taking the time to participate.  Use the data collected in your decision making as you establish or enhance the goals for your Unit.  And as always have fun doing it! Please feel free to share with your
Local Units.

by Virginia Muniz
Region 7 Director
Washington State PTA