Business Proposal Part 1

Business Proposal Part 1

Hailey Wilson

Grand Canyon University PSC-495

November 25, 2018

Business Proposal Part 1

Purpose Statement

The purpose of this proposal is to dive into the root problems that are causing the membership board member of PRIDE Academy PTA to fall below the expectations of parent membership quotas.

Problem Statement

The lack of incoming parent membership effects the school in terms of financial support, volunteers, and activity planning.

Original Problem Statement

Membership board member is not meeting standards for parent membership.

Stakeholders who are Most Affected by the Problem Comment by Hailey Wilson: Expand stakeholder list, originally 2.

The following is a list of stakeholders that could be impacted by any change made within the PTA.

· Board Members

· Parents

· School Staff

· Community Members

· Students

Type of problem

Knowledge and attitudes: Many parents are unaware of what the PTA does or what is needed to join the PTA. Other parents have a stigma about the PTA and what we do as a PTA.

Suspected Causes

A lack of effective distribution and communication to the students, parents, staff members, and community members has created an environment where little is know about the school’s PTA by the stakeholders.

Goal for Improvement and Long-Term Impact Comment by Hailey Wilson: Add long term impact, missing from assignment 1.

The goal for the PTA is to have more memberships than the previous year. Ultimately this will lead to more parent involvement. As the PTA builds funds, they can give back more to the school. The long-term impact of increasing parent memberships is a rise in the school environment. When parents are involved in the PTA the make a positive change in the school and the students by supporting building improvements and fundraising for programs and events (Why, 2018).

Proposal for Addressing the Problem

Have membership board member attend every possible event the school or PTA hosts.

Create an effective communication channel to communicate and distribute information to parents.

Final Problem Statement

The membership board member is not bringing in the needed amount of memberships for the organization. Both the board members and the students of the school are impacted by the lack of incoming memberships. For this school year, the goal is to obtain more memberships than the previous year. To reach this goal the PTA membership board member (or a substitute) will be attending all school and PTA sponsored events to try and recruit more parents for membership. There will also be an established and effective channel of communication to the parents to encourage their participation. This is an opportunity to create a fun, loving, and inspiring school for the students and teachers.

Data and Research Findings Comment by Hailey Wilson: Fix reference

The National PTA is comprised of 54 state congresses and 20,000 local units in all 50 states (Leadership, n.d.). Every Parent Teacher Association (PTA) across the nation sets a budget and the standards that they expect to meet for the following school year. The budget covers all aspects of the intended expenses for the school year. The PTA is broken into different levels starting with the highest at the national level, then the state, district, and school (Leadership, n.d.). There is great reward in working with a school PTA by providing educational information for the students, involvement with the other parents, resources for the school, students, and teachers, and events and activities (Leadership, n.d.). Although there is great reward in working with the school PTA, there are also obstacles faced in running a successful PTA. The PTA at PRIDE Academy faces a problem with obtaining parent memberships.

The Problem (Part One)

One way that parents can support the school’s PTA is through the yearly membership that is offered. In the school’s PTA there are various board members that have specific roles, one of those roles is the Membership Coordinator. The Membership Coordinator oversees recruiting new parents at the beginning of each school year. The Membership Coordinator is not bringing in the needed amount of memberships for the organization. For the 2017-2018 school year at PRIDE Academy there was a total of 155 members. For the 2018-2019 school year there were 107 parent members. This is a decrease of 31% from the previous year. When parents purchase yearly memberships, it helps support the PTA at the school, district, state, and national levels (Memberships, n.d.).

The following chart represents the decrease in parent memberships over the last three school years:

Board Members and Parents (Part Two)

Board members and parents are both important in the functioning of the PTA. Board members organize events, create budgets, hold meetings, and interact with teachers when help is needed. Parents that become members of the PTA help in volunteering at PTA events and give backs for the students. After speaking with three parents and two board members the majority were in favor for a minimum of two board members at every function that the school or the PTA organizes. The parents that were interviewed were all asked the same question: “Would having a minimum of two board members at every PTA or school organized event increase the number of parent memberships for the PTA?”. Three of the parents C. Holstein, J. Holder, and J. Molina all voiced that having PTA members present at all functions would help the PTA memberships by giving parents more opportunities to join (personal communication, October 30, 2018). Board member T. Alkafi stated that two board members must be present for the exchange of money and that being present at all functions would allow for more opportunity to join (personal communication, November 4, 2018). Board member S. Dykens was opposed stating that every parent is sent home an invitation to join at the beginning of the year. Therefore, she felt that there was no need for two board members to attend every function (personal communication, November 2, 2018).

The following chart represents the opinions of the three parents and two board members that were interviewed:

Cajon Park (Part Three)

The following chart represents the yearly memberships for Cajon Park’s PTA:

Proposed Solution Comment by Hailey Wilson: 1 reference with no in-text citation.

The purpose of this section is to demonstrate the previous attempted solutions and address the current proposed solutions.

Previous Problem Solutions

In previous years the PTA had used the distribution method the school district provides, Peach Jar. This application is used to send digital flyers to parents and has saved schools over $6 million annually in printing costs (Send, 2018). While this was a great resource to utilize for the school, the PTA completed a survey at the end of the school year (on a printed hand out) and input the results into the PTA database. The survey concluded that the Peach Jar delivery system was not effective. The survey asked, “How often did you view emails sent through Peach Jar?’. The answer options were never, sometimes, and always. The results from the survey showed that 0% of parents opened every email. While 65% of parents never opened the emails and 35% of parents sometimes opened the email (Alkafi, Holder, Wilson, 2018). Therefore, the delivery system in place was not effective.

Proposed Problem Solutions

There are two solutions that are being proposed: board member attendance and effective communication. The proposed problem solution of board member attendance is greatly supported by the board members, parents, and school staff. While effective communication is important it will be the presence of board members that ultimately seals the deal for memberships from parents.

Results

In conclusion, after weighing the proposed options, it seems that the proposed problem solution of board member attendance is the best way to increase parent memberships. There are good arguments for and against each solution. However, effective communication is not the best route, but simply a portion of the route to accomplish the PTA’s most successful year.

Stakeholder Analysis Comment by Hailey Wilson: Add more references to support claims.

Stakeholders play an important role in the success of an organization because they provide expertise, reduce and uncover risks, increase project success, and give acceptance for the project (Schoenhard, 2017). In this case, PRIDE Academy PTA is reliant on their stakeholders to have a successfully functioning PTA to provide for the children at PRIDE Academy. This paper will examine the predisposition, support, influence, reactions, issues, motivation, drivers, expectations, involvement, management activities, and deliverables.

In the Figure 1.1, the stakeholders are grouped into categories based on common interest within the project. The board members are the primary operational stakeholders. The board members accomplish various tasks including the financials and any organization and execution for events that are carried out. Parents, school staff, and community members all play a vital role in support for event organized for the school by becoming a role model and support new buildings and events (Why, 2018). The school staff and students also receive benefits from the organization. For example, school staff are beneficiaries from luncheons and classroom supplies that are hosted and donated by the PTA.

Figure 1.1:

When presented with the project proposition it is expected that board members and school staff will be very supportive as it directly involves them. Parents and community members are expected to also be supportive, but not as involved as it does not directly involve them. Even though the students are the primary beneficiaries, they do not provide support or any other ancillary service that other stakeholders do. The support from board members, school staff, and students is expected to be positive. The support from these stakeholders is expected to be positive because the board members and the school staff aim to provide a better atmosphere for the students. The students are greatly affected by the PTA’s decisions, therefore, there is positive support from the students. The influence from board members and school staff is positive because they have the power in the project. They are the voices and vote holders for change.

When a project is propositioned there are anticipated reactions and issues that are expected. Figure 1.2 depicts these reactions and issues from the various stakeholders. The PTA board members at PRIDE Academy are all working mothers. Therefore, the issue anticipated with the board members is a lack of time to dedicate. There may be mixed reactions from the parents for support. In an interview with T. Alkafi she noted that the previous PTA board was notorious for canceling events that parents, and students alike were excited for (personal communication, November 4, 2018). The lack of the previous PTA promised events has caused a stigma on the new PTA board members from the parents. The school staff, community members, and students are all anticipated to have positive reactions to the project proposal.

Figure 1.2:

The board members are the most involved stakeholders. The briefing of all stakeholders is represented in Figure 1.3. Board members are all volunteers that are there to simply better the school environment for the students and staff (Lineberger, 2018). While the school staff is also there to better the environment their jobs are paid jobs. The motivation for parents to support the PTA and project proposal is also to improve the environment for the students (Why, 2018). With higher membership numbers, the community members, organizations/businesses specifically, will have an opportunity to reach more consumers through PTA events.

Figure 1.3

Board members are the stakeholders that must propose the change (Bylaws, 2018). Therefore, they need to be involved from the beginning. A parent can begin to weigh in on the decisions once they have pledged for a membership (Bylaws, 2018). School staff and students will be involved once a decision has been made on the project proposal. At this point, they will have input on events and advertisement for the events. Community members will be involved when the event planning begins. At this point board members reach out to community members to secure their spots for the event.

Figure 1.4:

As depicted in Figure 1.4, board members will be the recruiters to retrieve new parent memberships via the membership chair. Once new members are received the parents that have elected to share their contact information will be given a survey on their experience joining and being a part of the PTA. The school staff will be supporting the PTA in events. At last year’s Spring Festival, school staff signed up to be a part of the dunk tank. This is just one way that school staff have supported PTA events. Community members and students will just need to participate when events are held.

Figure 1.4:

Board members and school staff have positive support and a high influence as they are the stakeholders that ultimately make the decisions (Bylaws, 20181). Parents are in both negative and positive areas with moderate influence because there are parents both for and against the PTA and all these parents have moderate influence (T. Alkafi, personal communication, November 4, 2018). Students and community members mostly participate. Therefore, they have positive support but a low influence.

Implementation Methods Comment by Hailey Wilson: Finish

Creating goals, getting them on paper, and finding ways to implement methods to reach them is the easiest portion. The action of doing the implementations is the hard portion. Will the PTA be able to encourage more parents to get memberships? Will there be PTA board members that are able to dedicate the amount of time the position needs? Will a communication channel exist to meet all parents need? The best way to implement the proposed change is over the course of one year. This time frame will allow the PTA to survey and research the best possible method for communication and information distribution between parents and board members. There will likely be a lack of support from parents that do not have confidence in the PTA. The time frame proposed allows the PTA another school year to build rapport with these parents. Successful events, fund raisers, and give backs will prove that the PTA is putting their all into the success of the organization and the bettering of the school for the children.

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References

Bylaws - Governance | National PTA. (2018). Retrieved November 25, 2018, from https://www.pta.org/home/About-National-Parent-Teacher- Association/Governance/National-PTA-Bylaws

Leadership - About PTA | National PTA. (n.d.). Retrieved November 4, 2018, from https://www.pta.org/home/About-National-Parent-Teacher-Association/PTA-Leadership

Member Benefits - About PTA |National PTA. (n.d.). Retrieved November 4, 2018, from https://www.pta.org/home/About-National-Parent-Teacher-Association/Benefits-of-PTA- Membership

Alkafi, T., Holder, J., Wilson, H. (June 3, 2018). [Personal Survey]. Unpublished raw data.