OMG I am now Chairperson of PTA at dds school,very stressed

[notasheep]

Will have to organise Christmas Fayre,Spring Fayre,Summer barbeque,cake stall,fruit stall,discos.....

All a bit too much responsibility,dont know what to do first.

Help!

[unicorn]

hey well done!

(you need to get a good team together - and delegate!)

[MamaG]

ooh, get you!


I second delegate

[Crystaltips]

delegate ... definitely .... and pray that you have a good secretary

[Fauve]

My tip would be: try not to show desperation - make other parents feel it would be a pleasure to work with you, and that there's something in it for them, eg getting to know other parents/re-booting their social life. Easier said than done, though!

[notasheep]

Delegate seems to be THE word!
I start the post in September-so lots of time to panic.

Its a fantastic school,but small(100 pupils in total from 4-11)
Oh i forgot sports day too!

[edam]

Congralutations!

Could your first executive decision be to spell Fair properly? Sorry, know it's not the most urgent of your priorities but always annoys me that schools of all places indulge in this 'ye olde fayre' nonsense.

[swedishmum]

You'll be just fine! Avoid being cliquey and get lots of other people involved. Also smile a lot around the playground. As others have said, delegate, and enjoy! Check what help you have, enrol some more, introduce wine into meetings, always thank people that help personally.

[notasheep]

dd was confused with the fayre/fair,disappointed no white knuckle rides.

[TheMammy]

I knew someone was going to correct your spelling.. it's so predictable


congrats you!!!! It'll be geat fun.. you get to do it all your way.. don't let the power go to your head now will you?

[notasheep]

Thankyou all for your support-dont think i will be getting much sleep tonight,head full of decisions to make.

Apparently it may look good on my CV

[swedishmum]

Never thought about the CV possibilities - suddenly all these leadership skills appear... great!

[mrsbang]

Good luck!

It WILL look good on your CV, a friend was joint Chairperson a couple of years ago purely so she could put it on her CV. Can't remember that she actually did much...

And our current Chair seems quite happy to let the secretary (me) and the former Chair do most of the work. Think they had quite a shock today when I handed them a list of jobs that needed doing for a forthcoming event lol.

[jampots]

its not as scarey as it sounds notasheep. I chaired ours for 3 years and it was good fun. Delegating is definitely key to success though and getting (and keeping) a dedicated team around you. Also coming up with good new ideas will also keep enthusiasm going. :)

[notasheep]

good new ideas-with this weather maybe a rain dance

[mrsbang]

Take a look at www.ncpta.org.uk, it has some useful information on and some good ideas.

Our school has a copper trail each year. The children save their 1p and 2ps. Bring them all in and make a trail with the money and then it's counted up.

Easy to organise, just put up posters, send a letter home and organise a date next term. Mention it in each letter you send out until the date.

We're a small school but it's a reasonable earner for little effort on your part and the children really enjoy this. Need the Head on side though to organise it within school.

[winnie]

congratulations notasheep :)

[Littlefish]

Congratulations notasheep.

You may have this already, but a good way to delegate stuff is to have a parent representative for each class on the PTA. That way, when it comes to summer and Christmas fairs, you can allocate one stall to each class and get the class rep to organise the manning rota, and collecting all the goodies for it. Saves you loads of time!

[notasheep]

Thankyou all again for your support and ideas-i have already discovered my first job-car boot sales throughout the summer to get rid of all the stuff left over from christmas and spring fayres/fairs-UGH!
mrsbang-thanks for the website will be v useful