To think this PTA was grabby?

[Frassels]

So school fair scenario - entry £2 adults,£1 kids fair enough I guess. But this got you nothing , not a raffle ticket, not a coffee or a cake or a juice for the kids ( another £1 for the former). Just entry to a fair where it was over £1.50 for an ice team cone and £3.50 for a burger in a bun!

So aibu - tbh it left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth and I ended up spending a fortune in nothing. Im new to all this though - do I just suck it up or is there a way to pass on comments without coming across as tightfisted loon ( small village alert!)

PTA fairs are where all my money goes in the summer
I either resign myself on £20 going to the school or I don't go

YANBU. I volunteer for something similar...at ours, entry is free, all games are 5p each and homemade cakes go for 10p. We don't make much money but our philosophy is to provide a really cheap afternoon for children, parents and staff to have fun and get to know each other outside school. I suppose it depends on the primary role the PTA, and sadly yours seems to be to make as much money as possible!

You have to remember where the money's going. Once they've covered their costs, the money goes to benefit the school: it's not lining anyone's pocket.

I view these events as fun for the kids, and a donation to school council funds.

A word to the wise: next time, volunteer to help out on one of the stalls for the first hour, then you don't need to pay to get in.

YABU
It's a fundraiser for the school. If you don't want to hand over your quid then you shouldn't go!

That is a heck of a lot of money just to get in!
I am all for school fairs, and usually end up spending a tenner or so, but this entry fee seems extreme.

If they did this at my sons school, I have a feeling people wouldn't go.

YANBU

That's about the same as charged around here. You can spend a lot f money on absolute tat, but it's for school funds.

It's to be expected, imo.

Agree with Gumby allocate a set amount before you go in. This is the reality with all the cuts in Ed funding. Our school recently raised £2K at an auction evening....most of it went on the hire fees for the photocopier!

YANBU.

Its not uncommon to charge an entrance fee of £1 (we used to give ONE raffle ticket in return for it so people didn't feel totally ripped off) but it sounds like this PTA ARE being grabby.

You can hold successful fund-raisers without ripping people off and many PTA's forget this. People still want something for their money, OR if its a donation they want it to be clear that they are donating rather than paying for something in return.

For a good school fair, £1 entrance would mean that there are plenty of smaller profit stalls (hook a duck for example) as well as the usual money makers. Sounds like yours was rubbish if there was really nothing on the other side of the gate than ice cream and burgers.

The way to resolve this is to get on the PTA.

I'm no longer on mine, but when I was a few of us proved to the grabby Chairman that being LESS grabby and giving people more for their money increased profit dramatically.

I'm a PTA chair and we're charging the same for entry BUT that includes your cuppa and cake

We don't charge entry for ours at all, I think it might put people off coming and it makes it very relaxed in that you don't have to man the gate or have queues or any bother about whether people have paid or not. It raises plenty of money even without the entry charge, we have homemade cakes, good quality burgers from the butchers, beer and soft drinks, lots of fun stalls and one or two bigger activities (penalty shootout, bouncy castle etc) as well as a few craft stalls (restricted to people associated with the school, so not overly commercial)

I left our pta committee when they were discussing a black tie ball.

They were arguing about whether to charge 40 or 50 pounds per person...

I realised then why my previous suggestions of weekly 50p bun sales had been ignored! (Grin)

amistillsexy you made me chuckle, I point blank refused to charge £2 for a cupcake, I will not rip children off! I think I called the PTA members a few names and flounced...

Eventually we did strike a balance between Black Tie Balls and cupcake stalls, but it gave me the reputation of being a bit of an annoying hippy.

I do think its grabby to ask for entrance for no return. However at DD's school lots of parents spent last summer fair were complaining that raising the cost of hook-a-duck type games from 15p to 20p was too much. If we charged entrance fee no one would come. So the question is more whether your PTA has correctly assessed whether most people are likely to still come and/or mind if they charge this sort of entrance.

It's a bit shameless yes....and would certainly make it hard for familes on low incomes! OUr village school is tiny and posh but they never charge entry fee! Drinks are 50p and so are cakes....face painting a pound...it should be affordable. If they want more money they have to arrange more things over the term generally.

Not many parents would come if we did that. Only some would be able to afford it. Maybe that is why they do it, to weed out the undesirables? (controversial).
You have to balance fundraising with engaging parents. There is no point in raising ££££££ at one event if no one comes to the next one because they feel ripped off or embarrassed

Yes its for the benefit of the children/school but its taking the piss IMO.

There's no way we could do that at our school, nobody would come!

The burgers are waaay overpriced

Every family at the dc's old school got four free tickets. It was always a brilliant fayre attended by 100s of people in addition to pupils and parents and they happily paid 50p. What was really annoying were the few families with a lot of children, ie, upwards of half a dozen and three aunties who used to cut up the free four tickets to make them go round. They were ones who used to haggle over the prices as well. Wasn't in the right spirit.

Expensive entrance fees are just lazy fundraising.

You only need to charge a minimal amount and put the real effort into the stalls/games etc...

PTA events are usually a bargain compared with how much you would pay for things anywhere else. Our cakes are usually 4 for £1. Bigger cupcakes might be 50p.

See, from op I'm making it thirty quid for a family of two adults two children to get in, have a burger drink and cone, that's before they do anything at all. I think that's outrageous tbh.

The Summer fair is a fundraising event. This is charity towards the school, not the people visiting the fair! Summer fairs are essential in order to boost the schools income.

Last year our school raised enough money to add air conditioning to a few of the class rooms, we are hoping to raise enough to cover the other rooms this year.

Previous years have raised money for new playground, for whiteboards to all the classrooms, etc.

This is where the money goes, not to fund cakes and cuppas for parents.

Quint I think most people are aware of the purpose of fundraising!

Its an issue when you a)feel like you're being ripped off b) its too expensive to go to

I couldn't afford to go to the OPs one at those prices.

I am on the PTA so am involved in the planning and execution of such events!

It has to fit your audience and I think at a time when lots of families are struggling its not on.

We try and balance fund-raising and fun-raising, but there's always someone unhappy.

I find the PTA so expensive and grabby and demanding and thankless and entitled. We are inundated through out the year with requests. Having more then one kids means spending a fortune when i can't afford it - it does feel like a rip off and we are all expected to donate homemade cakes and send in large and small prizes for various stalls/hampers/events on top of everything.

So I don't take part if it's too expensive and this means we can't do all the events - the events are therefore very exclusive instead on inclusive. I tend to feed the kids up before we go or take a picnic. We might join in a couple of games or buy a slice of cake but that's it. I have mentioned to various PTA members about the costs but they are all more moneyed then most of us and just don't get it.