User:Dave/visit/2014-07 PTA Convention Leadership Training

July 2014, I was sponsored (~$100-$150) by the Sagamore Hills Elementary School PTA to attend the Georgia PTA Community Leadership Training. I was not on the Sagamore PTA Board, but an interested volunteer who had helped a little with communications and science. I went with:

• Jen Ranero, President 2013-2015
• Kristie McMahon, President 2014-2016
• Amy Gabriel, Treasurer
• Nancy Shober, Communications

Experience

I wasn't too impressed by the experience.

On the plus side, it was nice to see the organization’s enthusiasm for children. I can see how such a get together could fire folks up to do more good than they would have otherwise. I enjoyed getting to know the Sagamore PTA Board.

On the weak side, I was disappointed in the lack of training. I feel like there's quite a bit of stress for our PTA around issues that every other PTA is probably also addressing, and I was hoping a get together like this would suggest best-practices and real world, go through the motions, training, that we could take back. There was mention that there was a lot of wisdom in the audience, but they didn't provide opportunities for attendees to share and teach one another.

Notes

Took a look at vendor offerings. Grabbed material but didn't chat.

IT Vendors

It's an appealing idea, that a single product could take care of our school IT needs. The following vedors were there to help.

Unfortunately, my impression is that they're still not right. Little mobile support, no mention of how to export data, …

SchoolCollabo

Quick impressions: Looks good, started by MIT parent (smart), not too much marketing-speak, looks like they're thinking

PT Avenue

Quick impressions: Not so good, old design, simple throw-in-a-bit-of-everything thinking, poor tech (urls, asp, also work on office software, mention hardware updates)

Georgia Virtual

Went to a session by Georgia Virtual…