PTA Housekeeping

Automatically generated from the audio, so it may not be perfectly word-for-word.

Hi, welcome to the PTA Podcast. My name is Yvonne, and I've been a PTA volunteer for a few years now. But I'm just one of thousands of volunteers up and down the country who all want to make a difference to their schools. PTAs are becoming even more crucial in UK schools to boost budget, and I find it fascinating to talk to other volunteers about the different approaches they take. So please join me in this podcast to share information, generate ideas, debate issues, and celebrate success. And I hope that you can take something away for your PTA today. Hi, welcome to episode 8 of the PTA Podcast. How are you doing today? I hope you're well and have had some great fundraising so far this year. So in the UK we've just um had our two-week Easter break and are just back at school now. This is the first week back. My Easter break felt really long because in the first week uh we were very, very busy visiting relatives and having days out. Uh, so it was really busy the first week, and then I basically spent the second week recovering from the first week, so we didn't go out anywhere. Tried to catch up on some sleep, didn't do um uh half as many things in the second week. So um, by the time we got back to school, the kids and I were a bit more relaxed and a bit ready, more ready to get back, so that was pretty good. Um, so in my PTA, we are between events at the moment, and I also try not to do any PTA related things over the holidays. I try not to contact my PTA team um or email any teachers because I feel that holiday time is an essential break for everyone. Uh, but at the moment we are between events, so I thought I'd just use this patch of time to uh catch up on my PTA to-do list, which, as you know, a to-do list for the PTA, it just constantly rumbles on, and there's new things being added all the time. Uh, my to-do list is full of tiny little jobs uh which I really need to get ticked off. So I thought for this episode I could try and do all those little jobs um whilst sharing my PTA housekeeping with you. So I'm just gonna go and grab what I need and we can get started. A lot of the things on my list are probably five-minute jobs that I have basically put off because they are a bit fiddly to do, or uh, my very busy life has just got in the way, and I can never seem to get around to them. I know that I can procrastinate sometimes, and then this is how these little actions have built up, so this episode is really going to help me complete them. I but I also wanted to share with you my sort of day-to-day PTA work, and I wondered if you have a similar list of jobs that you need to do and are putting off, or maybe you're finding it hard to prioritize time to get those things done. Why not drop me a line and let me know? It's hello at ptapodcast.com. Okay, the first thing on my list is to update my um mailing list for my PTA emails. So when I am sending out agendas and notes to my PTA team, I have made a little mini mailing list on my email account which has all of my um PTA volunteers listed in there. And um I haven't updated it for about a year and a half uh because I just haven't done it, and every time I email them, I have to edit my list, I have to remove the people that have left, and I have to try and remember who is on my committee and add them in. So inevitably, I always end up missing somebody off, which is really embarrassing as chair. So this is just gonna be a five-minute job. In fact, you know what? I'm going to time this on my phone. Uh, let me just get my clock ready. Uh, I really want to do this so that I can see how long these tiny little jobs do actually take in real life. So I'm going to just go to my emails. And oh no, actually, do you know what? I need to go to my contacts, don't I? Where's my contacts? Okay. So I use a Mac. I don't know if that's what you guys use as well. Uh, and I'm going to oh, there we go, that's my PTA mailing list. So I'm going to from my contacts remove people who are no longer on it. So let's delete that person. Okay, and I need to add a different email address for my friend. Um so my PTA emails don't go to her work address and it's just her personal address. So let me just adapt that. Okay, so I've got one, two, three, four, five, six people in there, but I also need to put in my newest member who's just drawing. Okay, dear listener, I have completed that task, and I need to confess something to you now. I did record how long that took me on my phone, and do you know how long it took me? Well, you probably don't because of the magic of editing in podcasts, it probably sounded like five minutes, but it actually took me. It took me 20 minutes because uh the software on my computer kept crashing, so I had to restart about three times. So, my little five-minute job that I was thinking was just gonna be five minutes was in fact 20 minutes, but now it is completed and now I can tick it off. So, let's just hope that the rest of the jobs on my uh list for this podcast are not all going to be 20 minutes each because you guys are gonna get a bit bored with that. So, we're gonna move on and hope that the next task runs a bit more smoothly. Okay, my next task is to update the PTA section on our school website. So, I'm going to go straight to the school website now and log in to the editing program so that I can just change it really quickly. So we have just um completed some events and I need to take um references to those events off the uh website so that um it doesn't look like we're really out of date because I really hate it when we look out of date, um, and we don't have any um dates for new events at present, so um I'm just going to delete everything there, um, and I'm just going to type something like new events will be coming soon, exclamation mark, and then I can save it and publish it. Boom. Now I didn't even record the amount of time that was, but I know for a fact that was under a minute, so there we go. That was a really easy one. Whitey ho. So my next one I know is going to take me longer than five minutes, um, and I have to update our bank account details on um our just giving page. So as a PTA, we have set up a login and have an account on just giving, and we use just giving just giving sorry to um collect money for any sponsored events that we run. So rather than the children bringing in cash to school, we get um people to donate directly to just giving. This also means it's much easier for them to um gift aid their donation because we we got that sorted out as well, which was um a couple of years ago. So, just giving um do collect the gift aid automatically for us. So, if you're not sure what gift aid is, if you are a UK taxpayer and you donate money to charity, you can tick a little box saying, I am a taxpayer and I want to gift aid my donation, and what happens is the government then adds in an extra 25% on top of your um donation. Um, so basically, your donation is increased by 25% at no extra cost to you, or at any extra cost to the charity, so it's fantastic for really boosting your donations. So the fact that just giving can collect that automatically for us is great because otherwise, it's a bit of a palaver, there's a few formas to fill out, um, and we have basically uh outsourced that to just giving, so that's great. Um, about two years ago, or maybe last year, can't remember, um, we decided to change our bank account. So we were with um Nat West for our PTA bank account for many many years, and we decided um basically because of the difficulties with getting to Nat West and doing the banking, um, that we were going to switch to an online account. So we did a bit of shopping around and we've chosen Barclays, a Barclays, I think it's called a Barclays Community account, which means that any um expenses or payments out of the account have to be approved by two separate people. So on our NatWest account, if we ever paid any checks out to anybody, we had to have two signatures on the checks, so we wanted to keep like a dual signature or dual level approval, and Barclays we felt that Barclays offered that. Um, so we started the process of moving on bank account, and um we didn't have a very good experience. In fact, we had a really terrible experience, um, it was extremely difficult, and it actually took don't want to put anyone off, but it did take about 12 months before our new bank account was up and running, and we had the correct people uh as signatories on there. But it is up and running now. We still have the NetWest account because we don't want to um close that one just yet, we're just trying to make sure any you know direct debits or standing orders or anything like that are definitely transferred over to Barclays, and we have a few um online uh organizations that pay into the NetWest account, and just giving is one of those because when we set up our just giving account, we were with NetWest. So, what I need to do is uh swap our account over to Barclays. Uh so I contacted Just Giving, they got back to me really quickly and said, You need to fill out this form. I think I need to provide an up-to-date bank statement, I think. So um I need to log into our Barclays bank account, guess PDF, uh, fill out their form and email it over to them. So I'm going to do that now. I'm not going to talk you through the whole process because it's not very interesting for you, and it might take me a few minutes. So I will summarise my experience when I come back. Okay, so I located my email from just giving, and they have sent me a uh change of bank details form which I had to complete, um, and also I need to send them uh a PDF of our latest statement which I've downloaded. I can't actually 100% complete this action because I need to get another signatory on the change of bank details form. So I have signed it and I need to get my treasurer to sign it before I can send that back. So I've realized that I uh that by going through all of my actions, I'm of course going to generate even more actions to do. So I now need to start another list of follow-up actions from the actions from the original actions list. They just love PTA Live. Right, so my next action is also finance related. Um, I don't know if you have heard of the organization called Parent Kind, they provide um insurance for um PTAs, and we have our insurance with them. Uh, for the last two to three years, they've been running something called the National PTA Awards, and last year we applied um or we sort of submitted an application for one of the awards, and we were a runner-up in one of the categories, so we have been awarded um £250 for that, and uh I need to send our new bank account details to them, so that's hopefully just the case of me replying to an email. So I'm gonna go and see if I can find that email now. Right, that was quite a straightforward one because I had just downloaded the um bank statement, so I've just emailed that off to ParentKind and hopefully they can make our payment really soon. Um we haven't yet decided how we're going to um use that money. Um we actually won one of the categories, I remembered it wrong. We won one of the categories, which I will talk about in another episode. We won the fundraising achievement of the year for 2022 um for the work we've done on um building a new library at our school. Um, because we won that category, we were awarded £250, and then all the winners from the different categories went forward to um the sort of grand final, I suppose, and you could stood a chance of winning a thousand pounds. Um, unfortunately, we didn't get there, but there were some amazing stories um in those awards, and I think uh the closing date for applications this year has just passed, so um in May there's going to be some more announcements about the awards. So I'm looking forward to um hearing all about the PTAs and what they've been up to to win those awards, it's very exciting. Okay, what do I need to do next? Ah, yes, I wanted to check how many trustees we have in our charity because following the age our ADM uh last year, I think um some stepped down, and I just wondered if that had been updated and whether we needed to add any more in. So I'm just going to go to the Charities Commission website and log into our charity and see what it says. So on our uh charity commission page we have three trustees, which is good because it means the ones who have left have now been removed. And yes, we've only got three trustees. One is me, one is my treasurer, and the other is my previous treasurer. So I need to get her removed, and then we have just two trustees. Um which may I'm not actually sure if we if that's okay. Um uh I'm just having a read at the website and um it says generally the trustees are the treasurer chair, board member, etc. So I feel like uh probably we should have a minimum of three trustees. Uh so perhaps this is something I need to raise at my next PTA meeting, um, what we should do about that because I do feel uncomfortable, it's just me and the treasurer, and we are also the signatories on the bank account, so that feels a bit strange. I think we should have another person listed on that. So I'm gonna make a note to raise that at our next PTA meeting and see if I can get a volunteer to be named as a trustee, um, so that can go on my other actions list. And I noticed something else as well on our entry on the Charities Commission website that says we're not registered for gift aid or we're not recognised uh by HMRC to be registered for gift aid, so that's something that we need to follow up because we definitely are registered for gift aid and we have a reference number and everything. So um, I might ask my treasurer if he can follow that up with the charities commission. Another thing to add to my new actions list, and that action leads me neatly on to another action from my original list, which was that I have received some emails from the charity commission, which I didn't really have time to go through properly, and I knew I had to read them, and so now I'm going to read them, and I've just had a look, and what they're asking us to do is to um that says they're going to change how charities sign into their online services. So I need to basically go in, sign in, and set up our uh charity commission account for the PTA. Um, so I'm gonna have a go at doing that now. Oh golly gosh, okay. So I have read my email um and gone to the charity commission website, uh, and with all government websites in the UK, I feel like I've just gone around in a few circles, um, clicking on some links, and then it just takes me back to where I was before. So it looks like I have to update my details before I can log into the new service, but then uh in order to update my details, I have to log in. Well, who knows how on earth I do that. So I think what I'm gonna have to do is to drop them an email and try and find out exactly what I need to do because it's just not very clear. Um and uh and I'll have to add that onto my follow-up actions list so that uh I don't forget to do it this time. So that's you know, at least I have moved it forward by one step. I understand what I understand what it is that I need to do, but I'm just not sure how to do it. So I'm gonna add that to my other actions list right now. So in actual fact, I've just sent my email to the charity commission now. Strike while the iron's hot and all that, so hopefully they'll get back to me and then I can follow that one up. So let's see how my list is doing. I'm doing pretty well. I have ticked off one, two, three, four, five, six things, and I have one, two, three, four things on my follow-up list. So that's down by two, so that's really good. Okay, what's next? Um, ah yes, I have to write the agenda for our next PTA meeting. So I've organized the date and time for the meeting. Um, most of our meetings now on Zoom because um I have noticed as chair get a much better attendance rate. You know, it's so convenient for people to just log in um using their computers at home, and if they have a partner but their partner's away, hopefully they can still come to the meetings. So um my meeting is only in a few days, so I just need to basically put some thoughts down um in an email to everybody, which I can now do because you know I have updated my mailing list, so I'll just get my email ready and then I can make my agenda. Okay, so I'm just going to type out a little agenda. So I always start my meetings, I I do try and keep my meetings very informal because I think sometimes formality of doing all these charity commission things and having a committee and doing minutes for meetings um can really put people off. I'm not quite sure why that's the case, um, but it can, and so I try and keep it as informal as I can. But obviously, as chair I have responsibility to make sure that we are running things smoothly and um with the right amount of detail um uh because you know we're we're the ones currently in charge of the charity, so I feel a deep sense of responsibility for that. Um so on my agendas, I uh do have some fixed things that I always put. Uh I do always set an agenda because um mainly for the benefit of myself who is chairing the meeting, otherwise I would it would just you know be chaos, I would forget to do loads of things. So an agenda really helps me um you know focus the meeting, I suppose. So my first point on the agenda was always apologies, where we just list who has been unable to attend and if they have sent apologies. Um, and I think that's really important. Um, that is minited by my secretary when she's doing the minutes because we definitely need to know who is at each meeting because of the various decisions that are made, it's just very important. So I always start with apologies and then I move on to matters arising. Oops, let's put that on number two. Matters arising from the previous minutes. Oops, if I can spell. Um, I think that is a really important agenda item as well, and I will always have that as number two on my agenda for each meeting. It's so important to follow up from your previous meeting, as I think you know, things can get dropped off or not followed up, not completed, not followed through rather, not followed up. Um, so it's really important to kind of keep the momentum of your PTA going by making sure that ideas and suggestions and you know any housekeeping that you've been discussing actually gets followed through and completed. So I always have matters arising from the previous minutes. Um, before the meeting, I will check what those are. Sometimes we don't have any because there weren't any actions to follow up, but it's um I always put it on there because it acts as a reminder for me as well to check. Then, generally, number three, we generally have a financial update, and I get my treasurer just. Say a few words, and they will um you know say how much money we've got in the bank account, whether we're expecting any payments or um to pay out any expenses, and we'll deal with any financial matters then. Then we can move on to the actual topics that we really need to discuss. So, uh, in number four, I'm actually going to write um PTA housekeeping so that I can follow up some of the things that I've just been talking with you about. I'm going to update my team on the things that I have done, and there are a couple of things in my follow-up actions that I need to just discuss with them. So we'll get that out the way um early in the meeting. And then number five, um, we're going to be talking about a couple of events that are coming up that we need to organise. So we are oh no, actually, before that, uh, I think we should have an update on our project that we're working towards at the moment. So, our big new project for this year is we are um raising money to um create a space on our school grounds for a forest school. So at the moment, uh children in Key Stage 1 go to the local woods, which is just about a 10-minute walk away from our school, to do their outdoor learning. Um, but we have quite big school grounds for the size of our school, and we've decided, or the school has decided, to carve out a little bit of that area to have an on a forest school on site. So um, if they can't make it to the woods, they can just use the school grounds, which will be so much easier, and save them 20 minutes in a school day of travelling to the woods and back, which is quite a long time. Um, so one of our teachers is in charge of this project, she's she's the outdoor learning leader at our school, so she's coming to our uh PTA meetings at the moment, and she's going to give an update at each meeting, which is really helpful. Um, so we'll get an update from her, we'll talk that through, and then we'll move on to talk about um a couple of events that we're hoping to run. So, the first event is going to be hopefully a festival of nature, which I might have mentioned in a previous episode, but uh, we haven't yet had um a good day to have this on. I'm sort of thinking that this event is going to be a bit like a fate or a fair, um, but it's going to be all about nature, and we're going to have crafts of things children can make, we're going to have activities and games, but with a nature theme. Um, and normally our fairs at the moment, anyway, we sort of run them after school 3 to 5 or something like that, 3 to 4:30. Uh, but it's whether we can actually find a date that the school's happy for us to do that, uh, because the school calendar just gets booked up so quickly, there's so many things for the school to take part in and say yes to. Um, so I'm hoping that at the meeting we can really establish uh a date for it and a time for it, and then how many volunteers, and you know, all those things that you have to take account of. So I will just add that to the agenda. And I'm also going to add on sports day, which is going to be in term six, and we are going to have we've decided we're going to have a bigger presence at Sports Day going forwards. Uh, I have spoke spoken to the teacher who is the PE lead, and he had some ideas about how we could basically shoehorn a bit of fundraising in, but also add to the day, add value to the day. Um, so I had a meeting with him before these the holidays, and I need to update my team or what we discussed, and just get a bit of uh feedback from them as well. And I think talking about all of that is definitely going to take up uh a couple of hours, or try and keep my meetings to a couple of hours. Um, and then at the end of my agenda, I always put on an action point which says any other business, which then always covers anything else anybody wants to raise, or if the teachers who come along have something else that doesn't slot into one of the other you know um points on the agenda, it can all be raised at the end, and I've always got something that I've forgotten to talk about. So um just having any other business at the end of the meeting just sort of mops those things up, and it means that you can finish the meeting feeling satisfied that everything has been discussed that you need to be discussed. So that's my agenda done. Uh, I need to uh schedule the Zoom meeting and attach a link for that in my email, so I'll just do that now. Okay, that's great. I have emailed out my agenda. Let me just tick that off. Yeah, tick, tick, tick. Okay, so I've only got two things left on my original list now, and one of those is to claim my expenses, which uh which I will, um, and the other one is a little bit more involved, um, and I need to have a little bit of a think about it. But basically, I've called it make a checklist for future events, and I've thought um of this little job when I was which event was it? Oh yes, it was the Easter egg hunt. Uh so we were going to do an Easter egg hunt, and then in the end, we couldn't do the Easter egg hunt because uh the only person available to um the only person who could actually be there on the day was me. And um I have gotten myself into a bit of a bad habit of assuming that my um PTA team are available uh during school hours or straight after school, which is what my previous committee were like, they worked a bit more part-time and were a bit more uh flexible with their work, but this team that I have now isn't quite the same, and I'm honestly it's taken me like a year to realise this. Um, and so I thought if I could write a little checklist so that when we have an event and we're starting planning an event, like for example, at my next meeting, we're going to be talking about the Festival of Nature. If I can write a little mini checklist for things that we need to um decide at the outset, I think that would be really helpful. So that would be things like finding out who is available to help on which days and when, so then we can see if there's hardly any of us available, that means we need to rely on attracting volunteers from the parent community, um, which isn't always uh easy and also isn't always reliable. That we have had in the past that people say yes they'll volunteer and they've dropped out the day before. Which, if you've ever had that happen to you, if you're organising an event, um it's incredibly difficult. So we need to have a proper think about that. Um, something else that I thought could go on the checklist is just deciding where the event's going to be located, whether it's inside or outside. Um I did have some other things which I thought would be good to put on there, but I can't quite think of them at the moment. So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to have a bit of a further think about that before I put it together, and I'll update you in a future episode. So, thank you so much for bearing with me while I did my to-do list. Uh, I feel very satisfied that I I got quite far with it. Um, have you got a to-do list? Why don't you get yours done? Uh, mine did take a bit longer than I thought, but I feel really pleased that I sat down and just went through it in one big bash. Um, that was really helpful, and now I can update my team at the next meeting and you know try and look like I know what I'm doing as being chair of this organisation. And so that's it from episode 8 of the PTA Podcast. Don't forget to rate or review my podcast and follow me if you can, because this helps other people find me as well. If you've um got a to-do list that you're struggling to get through, or you have successfully negotiated your to-do list, please let me know on hello at ptapodcast.com. I would really love to hear from you. So, good luck with whatever your PTA is working on at the moment, and I look forward to chatting with you next time. Bye for now.