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Data Collection
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The National Parents Teacher Association otherwise referred to as the PTA, is considered

to the largest and oldest non-profit organization that functions solely on the behalf of the youth

and the children of the country. This Virginia based volunteer organization has 54 state congresses

and more than 20,000 local units throughout the overall United States. One of the primary tasks of

this organization is to set the standard and the budget that are to be followed in the following year.

The budget includes all the upcoming expenses that the school is supposed to have in the upcoming

year (Advocacy, 2019).

PTA is divided into four different levels that start at the national level, which is the highest level

after that is the state, then the district, and finally the school level (Leadership, 2019).

Besides budgeting, PTA members help students by proving various important education-related

information. Additionally, they involve themselves with different activities and events that take

place at the school and maintain healthy communication with the parents, teachers and the students

to ensure a better education for the children.

Even though the organization is regarded as highly accomplished, they are experiencing some

difficulties to gather a sufficient number of parent membership at PRIDE Academy.

Part 1- The Problem

Being a member of the school’s PTA is actually the primary way parents are able to support

the organization and membership is offered each year. Within the organization, there are different

board members responsible for different tasks. The recruitment of new parent members is directed

by the Membership Coordinator (Programs, 2019).

At Pride Academy, the Membership Coordinator has failed to maintain a steady rate of

parent recruitment and a sharp decline is clearly visible if looked at the membership data.
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A graph has been produced below that demonstrates that the parent membership numbers

are consistently declining over the last three years.

MEMBERSHIPS
250

200 200

150 155

100 107

50

0
2016-2017 2017-2018 2018-2019

The graph indicates that in the 2016-17 school year PTA had 200 parent members than in

the following year the number was reduced to 155, which is a 22.5% decline and in the next school

year membership numbers reduced even further. In the 2018-19 school year, the total number of

parent members was only 107, which is 31% less than the previous year.

The impact of the declining in membership has multiple effects, as it decreases the

credibility of the organization and at the same time hurts the organization financially. The PTA

receives a great amount of financial support from the memberships that parents buy and

experiencing such decline only results in a significant financial loss (Memberships, 2019).

Part 2- Board Members and Parents

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For the Parent Teacher Association to function properly it is very important that the parents and

the board members have smooth coordination. Both of these parties are indispensable for the

organization as they perform very different yet mandatory tasks. Where the board members are

responsible for budgeting, organizing meetings, activities, and events, communicating with the

teachers and students, the member parents do volunteering at those events and also supports the

students and the organization.

In order to collect primary and qualitative data, 2 board members and 3 parents were interviewed.

They were asked the following semi-structured question regarding the problem.

Interview question:

“Does having a minimum of two board members present at every event arranged by the school

or the PTA increases the likelihood of obtaining more parent membership for PTA?”.

The three interviewees who were chosen from parents are:

 Michael Malone

 Jim Hudson

 Andrew Scott

All of them unanimously responded in favor of the idea stating that if PTA board members are

present at those events, it would increase the likelihood of getting more parents as PTA members

(personal communication, January 5, 2019). They pointed out that, the board members can directly

communicate with the parents in such events and motivate to join the organization.

The two interviewees who were chosen from the board members are:

 Richard Hendrix

 Angela Martin
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Richard Hendrix also responded in the favor of having two board members present at such events

while pointing out the same reasons that the other three interviewees pointed out earlier (personal

communication, January 14, 2019). However, the other board member Angela Martin responded

by opposing the idea and stated that as all the parents are sent an invitation to join at the beginning

of each year and she believes that no additional communication regarding recruitment is neither

necessary nor communication at such events increases the likelihood of obtaining more

memberships (personal communication, January 22, 2018).

On the basis of their response the following graph has been produced:

80% 20% 20% In Favor

Opposed

As the graph indicates that the majority of the interviewees are in favor of having a minimum of

two board members present at each of the events or functions the PTA or the school arrange as

they believe it increases the likelihood of obtaining more parent memberships for the

organization.
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Part 3- Cajon Park

Cajon Park is another school that is located in the same district as Pride Academy. But

unlike Pride Academy, they have been able to produce strong parent membership numbers for

their PTA in a consistent manner. The following graph compares their numbers with the number

of Pride Academy in the last three years:

Memberships Comparison
200
2016-2017
184

155
2017-2018
261

107
2018-2019
306

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350

PRIDE Academy Cajon Park

To know and understand about the way they operate their president Gavin Wilson, and treasurer

Oscar Gomez were interviewed. When asked about the reason behind their strong membership

numbers, Gavin Wilson, the president, informed that the key is to establish a strong communication

channel and to build a strong bonding with all the parents, teachers, children and even their

families. In an effort to do so the PTA of Cajon Park introduced a program where any of the family

members, even pets can join their team. This he believes helped to create a strong connection

which then reflected in their membership numbers (personal communication, November 1, 2018).
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Oskar Gomez was asked the same question that the interviewees of Pride Academy were asked:

“Does having a minimum of two board members present at every event arranged by the school

or the PTA increases the likelihood of obtaining more parent membership for PTA?”.

And he pointed out this is an absolute necessity not only because of exchanging money or just

communicating, but also to make an impression. He said that in events organized by their PTA

they often invite parents whose children are not a student of the school and they use these events

to convey the effectiveness of PTA and how being a member would benefit the society which he

believes is a principle reason behind their successful operation (personal communication, January

17, 2018).

Conclusion

For the discussion above, it can be concluded that the Parent Teacher Association of Pride

Academy can obtain more parent memberships and improve their sharply declining membership

numbers by adopting the techniques that Cajon Park uses. Firstly, they can introduce a program

that allows family members to obtain membership. That way they will be able to reduce the

communication gap that is impacting their numbers. Secondly, by making two of their board

members present at every event they can make a good impression of their organization and inspire

more parents to join.

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Reference

Leadership - About PTA | National PTA. (2019). Retrieved March 4, 2019, from

https://www.pta.org/home/About-National-Parent-Teacher-Association/PTA-Leadership

Member Benefits - About PTA |National PTA. (2019). Retrieved March 4, 2019, from

https://www.pta.org/home/About-National-Parent-Teacher-Association/Benefits-of-PTA-

Membership

Advocacy | National PTA. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.pta.org/home/advocacy

Programs | National PTA. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.pta.org/home/programs