As of this year, submission of volunteer hours to the State PTA in historian reports is no longer required. But the importance of having a historian and tracking hours continues.
Until this year, the California State PTA required all unit, council, and district PTAs to track the annual volunteer hours of their members, complete a historian report detailing their total number of hours, and submit the report to their council or district each year. Each PTA district calculated the total volunteer hours of all councils and units, aggregating the volunteer hours at the district level. Each district would then submit an annual report by June 1 to the State PTA, showing the cumulative volunteer hours.
In recent years, tracking and reporting volunteer hours have been the primary functions of historians in many PTAs. However, historians play a vital role on PTA boards in so many ways beyond tracking volunteer hours. They play a critical role in preserving the history and memories of our PTAs. They photograph events, create scrapbooks, and produce videos. They tell stories to incoming PTA leaders and develop innovative displays to help continue the legacy of what makes their PTA unique.
Tracking hours has many advantages:
- Community Support – Every nonprofit organization is required to demonstrate significant community support for what they offer. In PTA’s case, this might be child education, advocacy, and programs for families in public schools. Tracking volunteer hours provides tangible proof of this support, and the data is readily available whenever needed.
- Grant Applications – National and State PTAs, as well as many foundations, are most likely to award money to PTAs that can demonstrate a large amount of volunteer involvement. This support indicates to the grantor that the PTA is doing everything possible to ensure the program’s success, even before applying for funding.
- Advocacy – Tracking the number of volunteers in your PTA and their hours helps make advocacy efforts more credible and effective. Since volunteers are not paid, they are viewed as sincere and dedicated to their cause, and PTA is more likely to gain the attention of our local and state legislators. There is strength in numbers!
- Volunteer Appreciation – When PTAs track the contributions of volunteers and the hours they serve, it is easy to recognize and celebrate their accomplishments, showcasing how these volunteers contribute to the organization’s success. For example, some PTAs calculate the impressive amount of money their school saves by utilizing PTA volunteers rather than hiring additional staff, such as teachers’ aides or lunch cart workers.
Although the California State PTA no longer requires the submission of volunteer hours, please consider retaining the Historian position on your board. You can take advantage of the myriad of other ways your PTA can share its volunteer involvement, preserve its heritage, and keep your memories alive.
For more information about the historian position, visit toolkit.capta.org/job-descriptions/historian.