Is anyone else on a playgroup/preschool committee?

[fqueenzebra]

Would love to discuss things that keep coming up in managing ours...

Are you going for kitemark status (if your Co. Council offers it)?

How do you handle staffing issues early in the school year when there are fewer children on the registrar...

etc.?

[fqueenzebra]

We are with preschool learning alliance (our constitution for the charities commission is with them, is that what you mean)? I have been chair of the committee for 8 months and only found out that we had a 'constitution' with the PLA about 3 weeks ago, only just got to see a copy of the constitution earlier this week(!)

So there really isn't much guidance for me... former chairs have not been forthcoming, current lead member of staff is very bossy but she is sometimes (or maybe even often) wrong about things. I think the former Treasurer really ran the place, and she has tried to keep it at arm's length since she stepped down.

The main thing is I wish I had a manual to help me do this job... but looks like only way that will happen is if I write it (that would be the only good thing to come out of the kitemark thingie).

Our preschool committee seems to lurch from crisis to crisis; most of the officers are relatively new and I don't think we know what we are doing. We own our own building and always lots of maintainence work on that alone, never mind staffing and other issues.

STAFFING EARLY IN THE TERM
How do you handle this? We keep the same number of staff on in September as we will need in July, but obviously this is expensive.
Do you have fewer staff on the rota early in the year? If so, does that lead to higher staff turnover? Or do you ask your staff to include any preparation time in their sessional hours for the first term (I am thinking we should do that to save money)?

ADMISSIONS POLICY:
What is yours? Do you have a waiting list? Ours is very long; oversubscribed as we are main feeder for only school in town with a decent reputation. Now staff are suggesting we could just open admissions 6 weeks before the start of each term, or ask that parents ring when children reach the minimum age (2.5yo). Otherwise parents put their names down, a place gets saved for their child, but then child doesn't turn up and we lose funding....

[throckenholt]

Zeb - about the admissions - given the long waiting list maybe you could ask parents to give a refundable deposit say 6 weeks before term starts so that you can cover some of the costs. And explain about the loss of funding if they drop out without letting you know in time.

Also if you are so oversubscribed - may raise the starting age a bit - so that you only get the ones who are funded which (for us at least) need lower staff ratios and get us more money to use for running the group.

Did you get my email with our chairs contact details ?

[fqueenzebra]

I did get the email, thanks.

I was thinking a £10 refundable depposit if they do turn up, like you suggest, do you think £10 is about right?

[fqueenzebra]

I have just found out today that we should have a "Mentor" as a contact person to help us run know how to run our committee (hey, I've only been in the job 7 months, but first I heard of this support person! From the PLA).

And that there are courses I can go on to become a good committee officer. Am looking into one (6 weeks, £10 cost).

[throckenholt]

I think maybe a bigger refundable deposit - given how much you lose in funding if they drop out, and the admin time involved.

We charge £10 per half term if they don't do a parent rota help session (just as a comparison for charges).

I have never heard of the mentor either !

[auntymandy]

pla should be able to help you with all these questions. We pay a £20 retainer for our place to be held. £10 is kept for admin and £10 knocked of fees. Staff are employed on minimum hours and asked to increase when times get busier. So we have a couple of full timers and 3 part timers doing a couple of mornings each then increasing when numbers pick up.
Is that any help?

[sunnyside]

I've just become committee member and tbh I feel useless! Chair is inexperienced and so playgroup supervisor tends to take over meetings. She's v dedicated but also quite over-baring so very few questions are answered properly. It seems that as the committee changes when toddlers move to reception there is no-one who really knows how to get things done so supervisor is the only consistent point of reference. Is that the same everywhere or is it just poor organisation on our part?

[fqueenzebra]

AuntyMandy: do you have problems with staff turnover?

Sunnyside, that's pretty much how things threaten to go with us, although it's more a case of trying to keep our supervisor sweet then exactly wanting to docilely do what she says. There's a real struggle of wills going on with many things, I don't like it, and don't know how to handle it given our supervisor's dedication is a positive thing in many other ways.

There are courses you can go on (I am signing up for one soon) to help you learn how to run a playgroup committee, how to perform each of the committee officer's roles.

I like the £10 charge if they don't help out, Throck...

[tmh]

our preschool committee seems to be bringing the place down and as a conserned parent is there anything that can be done before the next AGM which is not until next march/April.