NATIONAL PTA OMDR PLUS
powered by

Introduction

National PTA’s Online Membership Data Reporting began as a member data entry system for PTAs but has since undergone a considerable metamorphosis into OMDR Plus.

National PTA contracted the services of Just Between Friends, Inc., a software development company, to develop and maintain a system designed to assist units with the challenges of running a PTA on a daily basis and growing it into a strong and effective organization. Additionally, it offers a suite of services that allow members to connect with their PTA and other community organizations.

The functions of National PTA’s OMDR Plus are generally divided into two categories.

1. Running the PTA

• OMDR Plus has a robust communication system for getting critical information to families in the school. This communication system has many features such as: automatic reminders that go out via email on a pre-set basis; the ability to create any number of logical groupings (school district, school, grade, individual class, etc.); and to easily select which audience shall receive which emails. Families can access the information from a private and secure account even when they don’t have email access.
• There is an events and announcements section automatically populated with the content of the reminder emails. This gives PTAs and school administrators two ways to reach families with critical information.
• The system supports robust directory capabilities that automate the creation of paper directories, significantly reducing the time and effort traditionally needed for this task. It also creates online directories that are private and secure with powerful searching capabilities. The online directories also have many other features, allowing for things like multiple last names in the same family, multiple contact phone numbers and email addresses, and parental choice of what information will be shared and what will not.
• And importantly, the system includes a unique method for designating which PTA leaders and volunteers can use various parts of the system – for sharing the tasks while restricting volunteers to their own area.

2. Supporting parents while promoting membership growth

• The system addresses the needs of individual PTA members who are trying to manage their busy lives. OMDR Plus helps with this challenge by providing one-stop shopping for all of their children’s school and community events.
• OMDR Plus provides a service to all families (regardless of whether or not they are a members of PTA) that, simultaneously, is both valuable to the individual parent and also gives the PTA leader the ability to communicate to them about all the great things PTA does, why their support is important, and how they can support PTA.
• Because PTA does not discriminate when it comes to students participating in PTA programs, it is important and appropriate that all families (especially non-members) be informed about the value that PTA offers to the school. Families and community members should also know how important their support is – whether they join PTA or provide support by purchasing the goods and services offered by the PTA fundraising efforts.

Implementation & Training

The following outlines the steps for implementation of National PTA’s OMDR Plus:

1. The unit president or designated leader goes through the group startup wizard which is a one-time process that takes about 10 minutes. Remember that local leaders no longer need to know their membership number to sign up.

2. The California State PTA approves the unit into the system.

3. Unit board members sign up for and receive the appropriate training for their position.

4. Once training is completed, the unit may get their members signed up. As part of their training, they will be provided with suggestions on how to go about this and examples of communications they can use to send to parents and other group leaders.

5. Members can sign themselves up on the system, also through a simple wizard; again, a one-time only process, which will take only a few minutes to complete.

6. After members have signed up through the wizard, the designated unit officer(s) will approve them into the unit, giving them access to all of the functionalities in the system designed for members.

Find the Startup Wizard.

Sign up for training.

Training classes available are:
Master Administrator – designed for the PTA president and an alternate.
Run My PTA – designed for the membership chairman or designated board member.
Communications – designed for any board member with an ongoing need to communicate with any group of members or school groups. – designed for the directory chairman or designated PTA board member.

For more information on training classes, please contact Julia Sheffler at Just Between Friends. Her phone number is 412.561.0500 and her email is jsheffler.training@justbetweenfriends.net.

Startup Wizard

National PTA and Just Between Friends have created a startup wizard process for your PTA. The PTA leader accomplishing this task, usually the PTA president, is termed the “master administrator” for the unit.

The Wizard is available here.
Before beginning, have all of the information ready.

• This is the unique identification number already issued to each unit or council by National PTA. Please check the unit’s bylaws or contact the district PTA to obtain this number.

• Include address, phone and email address. If running a council PTA, include information for the school district or coverage area.

• For councils, use the number of students in the school district or coverage area.

• This is the number of families living in one household that have at least one child in the school.
• For councils, use the number of students in the school district or coverage area.

• Include name, address, phone, and email address.

The following information is optional. Any additional information may enhance the value for you and the parents in your PTA.

• Include the name of the school district superintendent if running a council.

• When all board members are included, they may then be granted access to parts of the system that will help them do their PTA tasks. Customize their permissions to use only the parts of Just Between Friends and OMDR Plus that apply to their PTA positions.

• Set up the system to show the classes in each of the school’s grades. This allows customized communications, school directory information, and newsletters by class. Include teacher name, room number, and class size.

• Including the names of other school groups enables communications and directories for parents of students in other groups within the school (such as school teams, clubs, orchestras, etc.).

• There may be external groups (not directly associated with the school or PTA) with overlapping membership – such as local sports associations, theater arts groups, etc. Create the opportunity to make it easy for members to see the events from these groups on the same calendars as they see PTA and school events.

Once the information has been collected, it should take about 10 minutes to complete the startup process, after which National PTA will send information for system training.

Many of the materials in this Web site are available in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. The Acrobat reader is a free download from Adobe Software.