National PTA sponsored a compre-hensive survey to determine men’s perception of their PTA membership to identify barriers to and challenges in men’s involvement in PTA and to discover improvements needed to recruit more men.
Among the many findings from the National PTA survey, three are noted here. The survey indicated that 67 percent of respondents “disagreed that PTA does a good job promoting male involvement”, 90 percent of respondents said their spouse or significant other encouraged them
to join PTA and when respondents were asked to give the top reasons why men are not joining the PTA, 49 percent said “never been asked”.
Specialized promotion/marketing, effective recruitment, and “asking” are just a few of the issues relevant to encouraging male involvement. The key to encouraging and increasing male involvement lies within a well planned membership recruitment plan of work. PTAs can benefit from developing a segmented marketing effort within their overall plan, targeted to men of the local PTA community. The three basic steps in a membership recruitment process are:
Within each step, considerations should be identified and strategies embedded to promote male involvement. Based on just the three survey findings included here, at a minimum, a membership plan should acknowledge that females are the primary recruiters of their spouses and significant others and “local” supporting material should be created to help their efforts in encouraging their male counterparts to become involved.
Also, at a minimum, a year long effort to promote male involvement should be a part of the plan to address that 67 percent of survey respondents who believe PTA does not do a good job promoting male involvement. Finally, the plan of work should identify opportunities to approach and “ask” men to become involved in PTA.
Maryland PTA has identified National PTA trained presenters available to conduct workshops covering membership recruitment. Presentations can be tailored to meet the needs of your local PTA community. Contact Maryland PTA to schedule a training meeting, Office: 410-760-6221, Fax: 410-760-6344, toll-free:1-800-707-7972, or office@mdpta.org.
Sources : National PTA Male Involvement Survey Report; National PTA TCBI Training Library
