For PTAs and PTOs

Every PTA committee's sign-up sheet, in one place.

Fundraiser nights, teacher appreciation week, concessions, dances, hospitality. Each chair runs their own sign-ups, the board sees the whole year, and the handoff in May is a login rather than a shoebox.

Free for volunteers, always · $1 to try for your organization

The board changes every year. The knowledge shouldn't.

A PTA runs on about a dozen people and a calendar that repeats annually with small variations. The hospitality chair has a spreadsheet. The fundraising chair uses a sign-up site. Somebody's personal Gmail owns the account. Every May, two of them step down, and next year's board rebuilds half of it from memory.

The other quiet cost is the same twelve names. Without a way to see who has already worked four events this semester, the ask goes to whoever answers fastest — and the people who always answer are exactly the people who burn out and don't come back.

What goes on the sheet

The roles you'll actually be posting.

Fundraising

The events where a thin shift genuinely costs money.

  • Fun run and jog-a-thon stations
  • Restaurant and spirit nights
  • Auction setup, check-in and checkout
  • Silent auction table monitors
  • Spirit wear sales and distribution
  • Bake sale and concession shifts

Staff appreciation

Short, high-turnout weeks that live or die on the sign-up sheet.

  • Teacher appreciation week, day by day
  • Staff luncheons and breakfast setup
  • Conference-night dinners
  • Birthday and welcome-back treats
  • Classroom supply drives

Events

Evening and weekend work, usually staffed by a different crowd than daytime volunteering.

  • Dances and movie nights
  • Trunk-or-treat and fall festival
  • Family game and bingo nights
  • Book fair cashier shifts
  • Fifth-grade promotion

Running the organization

The unglamorous jobs that keep a chapter compliant and staffed.

  • Membership table at events
  • Meeting childcare
  • Newsletter and social media
  • Box Tops and label collection
  • Committee chairs and shadow roles for next year
Committees

Each chair runs their own, on one calendar

Make every committee a group, give its chair a coordinator seat, and let them post their own shifts. The board still sees one calendar for the whole year — which is the first time most boards can answer "what else is happening that week?" without asking around.

Burnout

See who is carrying the year

Hours per volunteer is not just for recognition. It tells you that the same five parents have worked every event since September, which is the moment to widen the ask rather than send them another one.

Handoff

The May transition, in one step

The organization owns the schedule, not a personal account. Add next year's chairs, remove last year's, and the history — every event, every sign-up, every hour — stays where it is. If the subscription ever lapses, nothing is deleted: the schedule stays readable and printable.

Turnout

Reminders that go out without a chair sending them

Email and text before the shift, and an urgent call-out to eligible volunteers when someone drops out close to the day. No chair has to remember to send the Thursday reminder, because nobody ever remembers to send the Thursday reminder.

Before you commit

Questions we get from PTAs and PTOs.

Can each committee chair only manage their own events?

Not today — coordinators can post and edit across the schedule. What is per-committee is who can claim a shift: restrict a role to a group and only that committee's volunteers see it as available.

Do we need a school email or district account?

No. The organization is yours, created with whatever email your board uses, and it does not depend on the school's systems or survive on one person's personal login.

What does it cost a PTA?

One dollar for a one-week trial, then $19.99 a month for up to 50 volunteers or $29 a month for unlimited. Volunteers never pay and never see an ad.

Can we collect money through it?

No. ShiftSteward schedules people; it does not process payments, and it takes no cut of anything you raise. Keep using whatever your chapter already uses for money.

What happens if we stop paying over the summer?

Nothing is deleted. The schedule stays there to read and print — you just can't post new shifts or take sign-ups until the subscription is back. Turning it back on in August picks up where you left off.

Hand next year's board something better than a shoebox.

A dollar to try it for a week. Every volunteer you invite is free, forever.