Papa Pear
I’m sitting here, playing way too much Papa Pear Saga on Facebook. I’m over Candy Crush. What silly games we play, eh?
I figured an entry would be more productive than mindlessly shooting pears at vegetables.
I am kind of terrified of being PTA VP. The prez and I finally learned about the functioning of the PTA and we are basically completely hosed. In 2011 our district stopped paying for an activity bus, so our PTA took it on as their project. Any kids who live on a bus route can ride a late bus home on Tuesday and Thursday night. This costs about $25/day.
Problem? They have not really done much fundraising. They were just counting on their slush from previous years and that slush is G-O-N-E. We have $4000 that will go away the first week of school thanks to start-up costs. What the bleepity bleep are we going to do? Fundraisers, obviously, but our PTA is completely dysfunctional and I don’t know if the president and I will have enough determination and charisma to make everything happen.
What successful fundraisers has your school had? We do a book fair and this year we only did one catalog sale. It brought in $1700, but that is not enough. We were supposed to do BoxTops but the guy in charge of it never sent them in, so that’s about $1000 right there that we will eventually get.
I think we need to hit the BoxTops and restaurant night fundraisers really hard. I also want to start selling sponsorships in our newsletter and directory. We need a big fundraiser, though! Chocolate bars? First aid kits? Read-a-thon? Walk-a-thon? Mixed Bags? I hate the catalogs with overpriced junk and cookie dough. I send in a donation check instead of ordering something.
I’m really happy that our new prez is a working mom and says she refuses to take care of all the business during parent pick-up. This has been my biggest frustration. Instead of dealing with stuff during our PTA meetings, they do it all at parent pick-up and people who are not there have no clue what is going on. The prez and I are on the same page about the ridiculousness of that method. We also found out that none of the committee chairs have any oversight right now, which is why no one is doing their jobs. They are going to be shocked when the prez and I get in there and expect to be included and expect people to do what they signed up to do.
Hopefully this will end well, but I see a lot of drama in my near future.
Mike and I have been obsessively watching Orphan Black. There are only 10 episodes available, but we’ve breezed through 7 of them in three weeks. I know that sounds ridiculous to people without children, but for us that is a marathon. Love, love, love this show! It’s on BBC America, so you know it is a high quality production. I guess I thought it would be kind of lame because the main character is a clone and plays several parts, but she does an amazing job. It is hard to remember it is just one actress when she is switching between characters.
Time has really gotten away from me so I have to wrap this up. I’m dropping Elsa off at a sitter (yay babysitting co-op!) and going to the dentist. Luckily the sitter lives next to Erik’s school (yay MOMS Club for fostering hyper-local chapter boundaries!) so she can pick him up if the appointment runs late.
Hopefully it won’t run late.
I don’t want them to poke my gums with that sharp metal stick again. I hate that and don’t know why it is necessary.
MommyProf said,
June 12, 2013 @ 6:13 pm
Bun’s PTA had a brilliant fundraiser this year (although admittedly, it probably works better in an affluent school). They sent a letter home saying “We’re making a chain around the school. We suggest that a fair share for a family is X amount (it was $50), but for any amount you can donate, your kid can add their link to our chain. If we raise enough, no catalog of crap sent home.”
They have apparently done this for years and it always works.
If you are bold, you can have good luck with asking local businesses to support particular things. In Central State, we’d ask businesses to sponsor the fun events in return for sponsorship credit in materials. In about March, a PTA dad with a jigsaw made cutouts of the school mascot (donated sheets of plywood) that the rest of us painted with a message about how X business supports education, and it became a mark of pride for the local businesses to have one. That way the events didn’t come from our budget.
Finally, auction baskets. We assigned each class a theme (pamper mom, new baby, pets) and the room moms coordinated donations from parents and sometimes businesses to fill a laundry basket (or several). They were auctioned during the book sale and made us several thousand dollars a year.
~zandra~ said,
June 14, 2013 @ 7:40 am
I love Papa Pear! That and Pet Saga are my only facebook games.
With fundraising I will say that if a friend is selling something for their kid, I rarely contribute, but those jump-a-thons, rocking chair a-thons, and the like, I always donate to. So my opinion is to stick to those (but I have zero school experience in my adult like so take it for what it’s worth).
Good luck to you on fundraising!
Caroline said,
June 15, 2013 @ 11:43 am
Our PTO does a “give us money and we won’t bug you” fundraiser, and SquareOne art where the kids draw something and you can have it made into a crappy potholder or other thingy for not too ridiculous a cost.