Sunday, May 17, 2009

To whom it may concern...

This past Friday I had the privilege (or not) of attending our states PTA convention. They had quite a variety of classes to attend. However, as the day progressed I realized that what was in the class descriptions and what was ACTUALLY presented in the class were two entirely different things. The first class called, "Organization in your life" could be renamed, "What kind of PTA nut are you?" That's right, there were some completely crazy PTA ladies in there. When we first arrived at the convention, we parked our car a ways away from where the classes were being held, and they had shuttle vans to take us to the main hall where the classes were at. There was one lady on our van who had a rolling suitcase, with a matching purse and her shirt matched too. I wondered what in the world she could possibly be carrying with her. Perhaps she was from far away and had to check out of her hotel room, and that was her luggage. However after attending the first class where the lecturer instructed us all that we too should be carrying all of our PTA files and what not around with us {and a rolling suitcase is a great place to put it - cause it would also fit things like bottled water for those meetings that last just a little longer than anticipated} I realized that there are some crazy, wacked out PTA people in this world. To be fair, I should mention that there was maybe 10 to 15 minutes in the class talking about how to organize your PTA stuff {not your life like the class description said} the majority of the class was about how to set aside 1 hour every week that is completely devoted to doing your PTA duty. And she even went so far as to suggest that if someone asked us to do something else during that time we were to say {and I quote}, "I'm sorry, but I have other plans for that time." And then ask to change to a different time. Really? A whole hour every week? I know that there are events here and there that need extra time devoted or what not, but not 1 hour EVERY week of the ENTIRE school year. Come on, I am just not THAT much of a PTA person, nor should anyone else be. And seriously if you had a friend call you up and want to go shopping would you really say, "I have other plans for that time."?

The next class, was supposed to be entitled "The secret to parenting". Now who wouldn't want to know the secret to parenting right? Well, a more appropriate title would be, "Why the campaign, 'Parents empowered.org' is so great". I sat threw an HOUR of some guy up there talking about the states campaign to curb underage drinking. He talked about how wonderful it was, how brilliant he is, and a bunch of hoopla about filming the different commercials, challenges they had to overcome to be able to get the shot they wanted on film, yada, yada, blah, blah...

Pretty much every class went this way. There were a few of the other classes some of the other ladies attended that were exactly what they thought they were going to be. However, for the record, whoever is in charge of writing class descriptions, you did a poor job, and next year maybe you should find someone who could write a more accurate description. Either that or communicate better with your presenter as to what the topic is supposed to be 'cause that just didn't happen, I'm just sayin'.



3 comments:

Heather - said...

Um, James says I'm not allowed to be on PTA...

Lhone said...

amen to James. Although if I was in michelle's wacked out system, I might be tempted. good for you for getting involved. next time take a laptop or something else to do.

Batistas said...

OK so good for you for going to a PTA convention...never knew that they even existed! I don't think that I have even ever been to a PTA meeting...I'm such a bad parent. I hate when I have to sit throught something completely different than what I assumed it would be. It happened to my sister and I at Womens Conference once. I can't remember the title of the session, but it ended up being about the speaker and her husband and the TV channels that they fought over...ok that was uplifing...or not