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

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…