What is the PTA in a cloud? What is the “cloud” anyway? These days almost all data is stored permanently on a private and secure place that can be accessed via the internet. Typically, the remote server that a user is accessing via the web interface is the “the cloud”. Data in the “cloud” does not mean anyone can see it – only the authorized users would be able to access the data. Data could be your PTA’s documents, forms or whatever you might want to store on the cloud.
A PTA/PTO deals with secure and private data and financials year after year, as they build the student directory and run half a dozen fundraisers each year. Keeping your PTA/O information on a private and secure place on the internet, that is not google-able is the best time saver and collaborative tool. Instead of sending emails loaded with attachments to numerous people, everyone involved gets access to the documents on the cloud.
A cloud based repository for your PTA/O helps collaboration amongst the parents in your school who are involved in the fundraising activities. For example, our local school does a family fun fair each year that requires a ton of participation from parent volunteers. Forms, Documents and sheets of planning information are exchanged between volunteers for book keeping the details of the fair. All of this can be stored on the cloud and accessed by one and all easily.
Dropbox and Box Popular cloud based storage solutions for consumers that are available at no cost for storing up to 5-10 Gigabytes of data or more in some cases when you share the service with other friends. Using cloud based storage and documents, makes the PTA/O’s life easier over the long term.