The Value of a PTA Volunteer

During this time of holiday celebrations around New York State, I wish each of you a joyous and peaceful season. Take some time to gather with your family and enjoy each other. Treasure the moments spent with your children – in the blink of an eye they will be all grown up. And as this year comes to a close and a new year draws near, I want to express my appreciation to all of our PTA members. Without each and every one of you, this great association would not have had a 120 year existence. I’d like to leave you with some thoughts about the importance of your presence as PTA members and also the presents that you receive as PTA volunteers.

I recently attended the Fall Luncheon in the Westchester-East Putnam Region and had the good fortune to hear the keynote speech delivered by Alisa Kesten, Executive Director of Volunteer New York, volunteernewyork.org. The mission of the organization is to inspire, mobilize and equip individuals and groups to take positive action to address pressing challenges, support nonprofits and strengthen the quality of life in the community.

Alisa specifically wanted to impress upon those present, the value of serving as a volunteer in the PTA. I would like to share an excerpt of her remarks:

I conducted a very unscientific Facebook poll hoping to illustrate the personal and professional growth each of you can and should expect as a direct result of your volunteer service for your PTA.

I asked my Facebook friends to give a one word answer to this question: Did you ever belong to a PTA? Then I sat back to see who said yes, because I know my friends. I know how active they are at work and in the community. I know their skills, and I suspected that there would be a strong correlation between those who are or had been deeply involved in PTA and their subsequent achievement. I wanted to illustrate how every friend who answered YES had developed a variety of skills – project management, communications, advocacy, financial management, event planning, negotiating, fundraising, and more – all honed as PTA volunteers… and that so many of us have used those skills for positive achievement. Well the responses are still coming in – which boosted my social media Klout Score, (an added benefit, for those who know how Klout works), and unscientifically, I was right!

A few of the responses included the following:

• Some were always attorneys but now have a different specialty as a result of their involvement in schools.

• Some had been elected to PTA leadership positions. Now many have been elected to school boards, county legislatures, and I know that Congresswoman Nita Lowey always references her PTA roots in giving her the foundation to run for Congress.

• Many gained confidence in speaking out at public budget hearings or in leading meetings. Now they are at the forefront of issues they care about, with well-practiced communications skills.

• There was a group who had left the workforce to raise children. But they always volunteered for PTA. Now they are restaurateurs, entrepreneurs, and small business owners whose clients or vendors may have first learned of their talent and character by serving side by side on a PTA committee.

• So many are now Executive Directors of nonprofits, like me, or program directors or finance directors at nonprofits and foundations. We’ve taken so many hands-on experiences of leadership from PTA along with us every step of the way.

• PTA members – former and current – are in large corporations and very comfortable in navigating deadlines, personalities, budgets and more because we navigated deadlines, personalities, budgets and more through PTA.

• And a ton of us continue to volunteer and give back to nonprofits whose missions matter to us and the community.

So thank you for the time you give, the meetings you run, the funds you raise, the events you plan, the letters you write, the e-newsletters you create, the actions you take – but know that you are building a toolbox of experiences that you WILL take with you. Those experiences can help open doors, climb ladders, and be successful in whatever way you choose to define success.

Alisa’s comments are so timely as there has been quite a bit of chatter with regard to a recent post by Lean In on Facebook. Their post declared rather authoritatively that by listing as a credential “member of PTA” on one’s resume, a woman was 79% less likely to be hired. This shocking statement should surely compel us to immediately amend our resumes and make the appropriate changes on our LinkedIn, Monster, Indeed, and ZipRecruiter sites.

Wait! Not so fast! There is a small problem with this Lean In ‘fact’. The problem is that it’s just not true. Lean In provides no details on the survey that yielded this information and makes no effort to support it. LeanIn.org, by their own description, is “the nonprofit organization founded by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg to empower all women to achieve their ambitions”. So when you see 1.2 million “likes”, don’t be so sure those represent clicks by real people!

In fact, the actual opinions of the real people follow Lean In’s bold but bogus statement. Scroll down. The truth is embedded in the comments. The life experiences reflected by the commenters paint a different picture! PTA provides the opportunity to hone and widen the scope of one’s skills by working alongside men and women from all walks of life representing nearly every profession. The transferable skills an individual develops as a PTA member working for child advocacy are enumerated and extolled within the vast majority of comments made on Lean In’s Facebook post.

I remain perplexed as to why Lean In would choose to deride PTA and intimate that parents, particularly moms, should be ashamed to proclaim that they spend a part of their valuable time supporting a professional association that works to provide a strong voice for their children.

Take heart! PTA is well worth your time. Be proud! Hiring managers can use people that have strong skills and won’t be put off because you care about your family. Employers that would turn away a qualified candidate because they also possess strong family values are not the norm as the Lean In post asserts. The Lean In post was based on an article written in 2007 based on questionable research from 2001. If in fact someone with an agenda commissioned a survey 15 years ago to accomplish some unknown purpose, it probably wasn’t accurate then and certainly isn’t relevant today. We’ve all been told to be aware of “fake news”. Consider the source and platform from which this message was delivered and assess it accordingly!

If you do not serve in a leadership position in your local PTA, consider doing so. If you currently serve at the local or region level, consider stepping up to join the New York State PTA! Our Leadership Development Committee has just launched a new Letter of Interest. Please click here for more information, and here to apply online.

Remember not to let the words of uninformed individuals with an unknown agenda minimize in any way the great work and experience gained by being a member of PTA – your efforts ensure a better future for our greatest resource – OUR CHILDREN. Because of the hard work and advocacy efforts of PTA volunteers and members, there are seat belts on school buses, kindergarten in public schools, a federal school lunch program, strengthened child labor laws, and a ban on corporal punishment. These are just a few of the many accomplishments.

I suggest that the folks at Lean In consider purchasing a membership to their local PTA so that they too can join the efforts of millions of PTA members across the nation to help to Make Every Child’s Potential A Reality!

Warm regards,
Gracemarie Rozea, President