PTA quiz Night

[juliek9650]

We are holding our first school pta quiz night at the end Jan and are looking for tips advice on what has been successful with other school PTA's. How much do you normally charge, whats included in ticket price, how many rounds of questions , best place get get questions from and any other fundraising ideas on the night. Any help would be much appreciated as we are a new PTA commitee. Thanks

[Runoutofideas]

Hi,
Our PTA ran a quiz night in October and made around £1000 in profit. Depends on the size/demographic of your school but ours worked as follows:
£10 per person entry in teams of 6 which included fish and chip supper (cost around £4 out of the £10). We had space for 14 tables of 6 so 84 people. We made them book in teams of 6 rather than as individuals. Ours is quite well known as a fairly heavy drinking night. We got an events licence from the council £21 and sold about £700 of drinks. (Bought 3 for £10 wine from ASDA and sold it for £8 a bottle!) Also had bottled beers/ciders and soft drinks.

We have a guy who kindly is Quizmaster every year and sorts out all the questions himself, so luckily we don't have to make them up ourselves. We generally ask people to arrive at 7 when bar opens then quiz starts at 7.30pm. I think there are generally 3 or 4 rounds of 10 questions, taking about an hour, then an interval to eat the fish and chips and play "bar games". Then another few rounds after the interval, then the scores - then finish about 10.30pm and clear up.

The bar games also earned us a fair amount of money. We had a treasure map, with a donated bottle of champagne as the prize, and asked people for £2 per square to guess where the treasure was. This earned I think about £120. We also played roll the £1 coin towards the bottle (wine etc) nearest wins the bottle... etc .. We also in previous years have done a raffle, but it depends if you can get many donated prizes.

Good luck with it - if I can help any further, please shout!

[Mrsrobertduvall]

We do not do food/bar as it became a bit of a hassle, but still make £700 a quiz (we do 2 a year) People bring own food/nibbles.
We usually have a theme eg the summer one will be Olympics so people can dress up- we have a prize for the best themed table.A good one is At the Movies or Summer Holiday.
Usually start with a picture round, then 3 more rounds...interval.......then maybe a food tasting round (crisps/chocolate/dingbats/anagrams) and 3 more rounds.

We aim not to ask intellectual questions, more random ones... a Family Fortunes type round is a good leveller as no brain required!!! We are a secondary, and encourage the girls to come, so questions have to be balanced.

Our raffle is a fiver raffle...instead of scrabbling round for raffle prizes, everyone who wants to take part puts a fiver in an envelope with name on it...the name drawn out gets half the money, half to the school. Depending on how many people take part you can raise about £100-150.

[juliek9650]

thank you all for your ideas fingers crossed it will be a success

[Ladymuck]

With the questions, you want to hit a level where for most rounds most tables will score 8 out of 10. A quiz night is fun provided you're not trailing throughout. Your ideal is to have a range of no more than 8 or 9 marks between 1st place and last.

[Nanny0gg]

Have some questions (pictures or quotations of some sort) on the table to be done at the beginning, during the break or whatever.
If you can have a bar it will make a fortune.
Our local fish and chip shop will do food if we can't be bothered to do jacket potato and filling type suppers. People bring their own nibbles.
Mix of questions - make some fairly frivolous.
And there doesn't have to be a sports round!!

[senua]

Some people take quizzes very seriously. Make sure that you have the correct answer, that each question has only one answer, that there is a good marking system (teams usually mark each other) and there is a system for collecting and collating scores. Poor or slow admin can ruin a good night.

For those who don't take it so seriously, you need to keep their interest engaged even when it is clear that they won't win. I think it helps if the quizmaster reads outs some of the wrong/witty/daft answers to lighten the mood.

[eatyourveg]

We charge £6 per head for teams of 6-8 and include a lasange supper cooked by the school dinner lady in the school kitchens - we pay for all ingredients.

Agree with NannyOgg most of the takings comes from the bar.

We have a picture round, a music round, sports round, geography round, history round, literature round, current affairs, entertainment round and two others which have slipped my mind. 10 rounds in all and each team has a joker which they can choose to use on any round they want (must declare it at the start of the round) and their score is doubled for that round.

A raffle at half time when the food is served is another good one as there is a captive market and people feel very obliged to buy tickets.

Usually come out with £1K+ profit - its great fun. Hope yours is a roaring success

[Amber1234]

We keep the ticket price low (£2.50) and just provide nibbles/sandwiches on the tables - ours are always bring your own booze events but we also serve teas/coffees for donations (we normally get more than we do if we charge a set price).

We run a raffle with prizes we have managed to get donated from local businesses - particulary visitor attractions ie family pass for zoo etc. This usually makes the most money as we sell tickets in school before the event as well.

On the night we have an break for food and usually have some sort of extra game - the most popular was roll the coin. We had a bottle of whiskey (a donation left over from the summer fete tombola) and people had to stand behind a line and roll a £1 coin to the bottle - the closest won the bottle and we raised over £100 - some very competitive Dads!

[Redley]

HI. Can anyone advise on fish and chip suppers for PTA quiz nights? Does the shop deliver or do you collect? How does it all stay warm? Thank you!

[Leeds2]

For ours, people were asked to say whether they wanted fish and chips, chicken and chips or veggie burger and chips. One order was placed by PTA a couple of days in advance, and the shop delivered to school at a time guesstimated to be half time in the quiz. Each portion was wrapped in paper by the shop, and nothing more was done to keep it warm!

Probably best to ring the shop in advance and ask how much notice they need, as well as whether they would deliver.

[redskybynight]

Our PTA tried to organise a quiz night. They charged 5 which included a fish and chip supper. Only one team entered (a PTA team). The cancelled the event.

i would therefore suggest putting out some feelers to check if your school demographic is interested in such an event first!

[Hakluyt]

Quiz nights are always a good fundraiser for us.

Makes sure you book well in advance and publicise well.

And do something like Heads and Tails in the break after people have had a drink or two. Always fun!

[Lonecatwithkitten]

£10 including fish and chip supper which is delivered. You need several volunteers and a good list to get food dispatched out to the tables fast (do not allow people to collect they will not remembered what they ordered and you will end up with a regular sausage for a veggie).
People bring their own nibbles and soft drinks wine is sold.
Table rounds with identifying logos and google earth pictures are good.
Now in it's sixth year started at raising around £1000 now raises £5000, it had to move to a bigger venue and has teams return year after to year. The staff table always does badly, but comes back year after year.

[PtaHolyfamily]

Hi do you have a printable attachment or link to the guess the treasure game please?

[lanthanum]

A "tasting" round (eg identifying crisps) costs a little bit to run, but gets people out of their seats between the other rounds and hopefully to the bar if you have one!