Volunteer with the Dragon PTA

The best way to build a connection with our school is to VOLUNTEER.

If you haven't volunteered yet, give it a try. You'll see how gratifying it is to spend time with our students, teachers, and staff, doing something to lend a hand.

Green Lake Elementary means so much to your kid(s); don't you want to get more of a feel for what goes on, and who they're spending their time with every day? Don't you want the folks that are on a first-name basis with your kid(s) to know who you are, too?

It's not as demanding as you may think.

We see the same core group of volunteers over and over again. It's because when you volunteer once, you get hooked! We all have full time jobs, hobbies, and family members to care for as well, but we make it work. If you can find just a few hours every month to spare, then so can you.

We're recruiting now for PTA Board and Committee roles that need to be filled for the 2024-25 school year.

We have several open PTA positions in the 2024-2025 school year, all with different degrees of involvement and catering to different skill sets - it takes a village! See the list of open positions and all the information about them here.

The mission-critical roles: PTA Board

If we don't fill these roles for our Board, we don't have a PTA. Bylaws require a minimum of 10 Board members for voting purposes, and the more Board members we have the more we can do.

It's not as scary as it sounds. If you're looking at this, you're someone who is going to be volunteering every year anyway so you may as well take a job.
Here are the roles we need to fill now, before the end of the school year:

PTA Treasurer

This is a 2 year commitment. The first year is pretty easy, you're a "Treasurer in training" and you're mostly there to listen and learn and support the 2nd Year Treasurer as needed. You divide and conquer on tasks to share the load.

If you:

are detail-oriented, patient, willing and able to follow the carefully compiled playbook we've laid out
would NEVER DREAM of just "fudging the numbers" to get by
can add 2+2 in an Excel spreadsheet and don't break into hives at the sight and sound of Quickbooks
have at least heard of Managerial Accounting and have filed your own personal taxes at least once in your life

Then you would be GREAT for this job an we'd be so happy to have you! Here are the details on the role:

	1st Year Treasurer, aka “Treasurer in Training”	2nd Year Treasurer, aka “Check Writer, Quickbooks Keeper, Budget Balancer, and Tax Master”
Responsibilities	Required: Commit to being 2nd Year President the year after Listen and learn and be the 2nd Year President’s backup if they need coverage, when you can Attend the required WSPTA training - just ~3 hours one time Optional: Meetings - 1x month with Principal Klainer, 1x month with Board, General Meeting every other month Sign checks and other financial docs as needed	Required: Contribute to meetings by providing monthly reports on income and expenses and sharing any questions/issues that need troubleshooting. We’ve got formatted documents for this, it’s just a matter of reconciling and plopping numbers in. Provide visuals and a little storytelling where you can. Special meetings ~3 times per year for $ related stuff: 1. Facilitate budget review in early Sept, to prep for opening the books. Includes reconciliation of late Accounts Payable that came in over the summer…we can’t stop our vendors from doing this even though it messes with our books. Work with the Board to identify any amendments. 2. Tax filing in March – consider hiring a professional to help, it will go faster! 3. Facilitate budget planning and balancing for the coming school year, in May Cut checks 1-2x month and notify signers. Monitor bank statements and ensure checks clear.
Why it matters	Required in Bylaws and will set you up to be a confident 2nd Year Treasurer. Plus, math is hard: another set of eyes on the books helps keep everything in order.	Without you, we'll never stay on top of all the money in money out - and we'll probably end up on the wrong side of the law. This is a HUGELY important role and the Board goes all in to help.
Average time commitment	~2-6 hours/month. Any less than that and we’ll worry that you’ve embezzled from us and you’re sipping Mai Tais in Bermuda.	~6-10 hours/month. If you do any more than that, the PTA will figure out how to pay for an Accountant to get you some help. For real.

1st Year Treasurer, aka “Treasurer in Training”

2nd Year Treasurer, aka “Check Writer, Quickbooks Keeper,
Budget Balancer, and Tax Master”

Responsibilities

Required:
Commit to being 2nd Year President the year after

Listen and learn and be the 2nd Year President’s backup if they need coverage, when you can

Attend the required WSPTA training - just ~3 hours one time

Optional:
Meetings - 1x month with Principal Klainer, 1x month with Board, General Meeting every other month

Sign checks and other financial docs as needed

Required:
Contribute to meetings by providing monthly reports on income and expenses and sharing any questions/issues that need troubleshooting. We’ve got formatted documents for this, it’s just a matter of reconciling and plopping numbers in. Provide visuals and a little storytelling where you can.

Special meetings ~3 times per year for $ related stuff:
1. Facilitate budget review in early Sept, to prep for opening the books. Includes reconciliation of late Accounts Payable that came in over the summer…we can’t stop our vendors from doing this even though it messes with our books. Work with the Board to identify any amendments.

2. Tax filing in March – consider hiring a professional to help, it will go faster!

3. Facilitate budget planning and balancing for the coming school year, in May

Cut checks 1-2x month and notify signers. Monitor bank statements and ensure checks clear.

Why it matters

Required in Bylaws and will set you up to be a confident 2nd Year Treasurer. Plus, math is hard: another set of eyes on the books helps keep everything in order.

Without you, we'll never stay on top of all the money in money out - and we'll probably end up on the wrong side of the law. This is a HUGELY important role and the Board goes all in to help.

Average time commitment

~2-6 hours/month. Any less than that and we’ll worry that you’ve embezzled from us and you’re sipping Mai Tais in Bermuda.

~6-10 hours/month. If you do any more than that, the PTA will figure out how to pay for an Accountant to get you some help. For real.

SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EQUITY CHAIR

SJE, DEI, Advocacy: these are all things that we value and strive to engage with for our community.
We did not have any volunteers for SJE in the 2023-24 school year, and it showed:

Nobody from the PTA to support special SJE content for school assemblies
Nobody to steward our relationship with our sister school, Rising Star - no social events, no joint service projects
No Black Lives Matter initiatives
No monitoring of critical legislation for our awareness and engagement
No liaison/advocate for the Seattle SPED PTA
No voting member on the Board to raise issues and drive actions

We have no place to go but up - and we need YOU to join us.

If you:

are passionate and at least somewhat informed of issues and best practices related to 1 or more areas (SJE, DEI, Advocacy)
are willing and able to be self-directed, take initiative, hold yourself accountable to your commitments, and take full advantage of the resources and support we'll put behind you
would be excited to do something, ANYTHING, making this work your own

Then you are perfect for this role. Here are the details:

	SJE Chair
Responsibilities	Required: Prepare content for and participate in 1 Board meeting x month, 3rd Wednesday evening 1 General meeting every other month, 3rd Wednesday evening With the full support of the Board, make a plan of action for the school year that AT MINIMUM includes Regular engagement with the Rising Star PTA: ask what works best for them, you can connect asynchronously through emails, meet for coffee, Zoom, be a guest at one of their meetings, ask them to attend one of ours. Ensure Rising Star receives their annual check during Spring Quarter Optional: You will be given a budget and we'd love to help you use it. Decide what your passion is, how many hours you have to commit, make a plan, keep us informed and ask us for help! Some ideas include: Tracking state legislation and sending comms via email, website, and Facebook to advocate for actions that support education Reinstating our BLM programming during Black History Month, with a special activity or event and bringing back the distribution of free BLM t shirts Organizing affinity group meetups with a little programming, maybe a book club, documentary, or guest speaker. Could be for anything that sparks our community's interest: disabilities, BIPOC, LGBTQ, etc. Co-hosting events with the Rising Star community: we've done environmental service projects in the past. The Board is talking about having a Movie Night series at the school at it would be fun to invite Rising Star over to play! We have MANY more ideas, and welcome yours.
Why it matters	This is one of the critical ways that our organization lives our values and it's been dearly missed.
Average time commitment	Minimum 3-4 hours/month, to include the Board meetings which can be 2-3 hours. Beyond that, you can plan your own projects according to your interests and availability. Even if you just do ONE little project, it will be more than we've had and will be greatly appreciated!

SJE Chair

Responsibilities

Required:
Prepare content for and participate in

1 Board meeting x month, 3rd Wednesday evening
1 General meeting every other month, 3rd Wednesday evening

With the full support of the Board, make a plan of action for the school year that AT MINIMUM includes

Regular engagement with the Rising Star PTA: ask what works best for them, you can connect asynchronously through emails, meet for coffee, Zoom, be a guest at one of their meetings, ask them to attend one of ours.
Ensure Rising Star receives their annual check during Spring Quarter

Optional:
You will be given a budget and we'd love to help you use it. Decide what your passion is, how many hours you have to commit, make a plan, keep us informed and ask us for help! Some ideas include:

Tracking state legislation and sending comms via email, website, and Facebook to advocate for actions that support education
Reinstating our BLM programming during Black History Month, with a special activity or event and bringing back the distribution of free BLM t shirts
Organizing affinity group meetups with a little programming, maybe a book club, documentary, or guest speaker. Could be for anything that sparks our community's interest: disabilities, BIPOC, LGBTQ, etc.
Co-hosting events with the Rising Star community: we've done environmental service projects in the past. The Board is talking about having a Movie Night series at the school at it would be fun to invite Rising Star over to play!

We have MANY more ideas, and welcome yours.

Why it matters

This is one of the critical ways that our organization lives our values and it's been dearly missed.

Average time commitment

Minimum 3-4 hours/month, to include the Board meetings which can be 2-3 hours.

Beyond that, you can plan your own projects according to your interests and availability. Even if you just do ONE little project, it will be more than we've had and will be greatly appreciated!

Additional 2024-25 school year roles

Position	Who we need	Attends meetings?	Duties	Time Commitment (outside of meetings. Board members have a 2hr meeting monthly. General Meeting is 2hrs every other month)
Grocery Program Apprentice	Someone who wants to ensure that every child has food at home. Someone who has a decent sized car and is available during the day once a week. Someone who can be counted on to follow through and find someone else to fill in if they need to skip a week.	Not required	Work with the Food Bank to ensure families with food shortages receive meals for the weekend. Consists of a weekly "grocery run" to pick up pre-packed meal bags and deliver them to school or to Cedar Crossing	2 hours / week
Communications Chair	Someone who wants to help build our community back up and make sure everyone who wants to be involved has the opportunity to get involved. Someone who can find their way around Canva or a Word document, who can check email and be on top of communication.	Yes - board	Make it your own! Historically, this person maintains communication channels (newsletter, website, Facebook, Reader Board messaging), manages email addresses for board roles.	3 hours / month, but how you want to do this job is up to you.
Multi-Arts Chair	Someone who would love to expose our kids to new and different experiences and encourage them to come out of their shells. Someone who's not afraid to talk to strangers. Someone who can work independently and find their way through ambiguity.	Sometimes - board and general	Make it your own! Historically, this person is responsible for PTA organized art-enrichment in the school. Could consist of organizing an artist-in-residence, enrichment assemblies, special instructors like drama or vocal music.	1 hour/week - but it's really up to you!
Tutoring Program Liaison		Sometimes - board	Works with GLES administration and the UW teaching school to start communication and make sure they have what they need to get the tutoring program running for the new school year	A few hours at the beginning of the school year
STEM Fair Co-Chair	Someone who thinks little science projects are fun and likes to see kids discovering something new.	Sometimes - board and general	Works with volunteers to organize an event with parent-run, interactive STEM stations in the school.	2-3 hours / week for one month leading up to the STEM Fair.
Facilities Coordinator		Sometimes - board and general	Serves as the liaison between SPS and PTA to advocate for and coordinate improvement projects on the school grounds.
Grant Writer		Sometimes - general	Write grants to Windermere for Islandwood, after school class scholarships and family support.