School governors v PTA!

[mrsmootoo]

Would you expect school governors to be involved in PTA events - fairs etc? Predictably there is a handful of us on the PTA that organise the summer fair and predictably hardly any parents or staff help (this is the last one I'm doing by the way!) However, I gave the governing body some raffle tickets and hardly any bought them. I would have thought that if you're a governor you'd want to be involved at least to the extent of buying a few tickets, or am I being unreasonable? What do govs/PTAs think? Thanks

I am a school governor and I feel that I have a responsibility to attend some school events when I can and I would buy tickets for a school raffle.

I did consider the PTA as well but felt that it wasn't something I could commit to and stuck with the governor role.

UANBU

No, I don't think governors would necessarily be involved in organising PTA events. Their role is not fund-raising, it is the strategic leadership of the school. They already do an awful lots of stuff for the school that you are probably unaware of if you are not a governor yourself. Asking them to buy raffle tickets is not unreasonable, but you need to find a way to get the tickets to the governors (e.g. come along to a full governing body meeting) and let them know this is what you are going to do beforehand to enable them to turn up with cash.

Actually given the amount of time governors volunteer I would say they more than do their bit for the school, there's no reason why they should have to support the raffle any more than any other parent.

I'm a governor and help on the PTA but I would not expect anyone else to do the same. Being a governor takes up more of my time and it's only because I don't work I have time to help with PTA.

Because the sort of person I've met who is a school G tends to be involved in lots of projects, if they gave to them all they wouldn't have much left to ay the bills.

Personally I think it's up to the parents to get behind the PTA and sell raffle tickets to their friends and family.

Selling tickets at the end of a long month is also not a good time, if you asked me on Monday I'd have more money in my bank account being the start of the month. I know some people are paid weekly ( or not at all....)

No, Governors give huge amounts of their time to the school. It's not their responsibility to get involved in fund-raising for it.

Being a Governor takes up alot of time so I don't think they should be involved in organising fundraising events.

No harm in buying a few raffle tickets though .

DH is a governor and I'm on the PTA and I would say he spends far more time and energy working with the school than I do, so no, I wouldn't expect a governor to get involved with organising events, helping run stalls, that side of it.

Not unreasonable regarding the raffle tickets though, a lot of our governors do attend the events and support them by buying tickets to quiz nights, raffle tickets, etc

Yes, school governors should make the effort to support the school and be part of the school community by running a stall for half an hour or buying a raffle ticket or two.

I'm a governor at one school and one the PTA of a different one and know from experience that this opinion isn't really shared, though.

Well I think Governors are part of the school community but in a different way and don't need to run a stall to show that.

I see from another thread that it is a secondary school. It seems they have much more difficulty filling the GB with volunteers.

If they were told that one of their expected duties was to run a stall for an hour and buy raffle tickets everytime I think we would have even less secondary school governors.

I think it's ok for them to not help organise, they are already giving their time to the school voluntarily in another way.

It would be nice for them to buy raffle tickets, but I no longer buy stuff from the charities I volunteer for because it got too much to keep doing it ever time. They get my time and the indirect donation of my travel expenses and minor costs (like printer use for example). I expect that could be similar for school governors.

Most schools only have one or two governing body meetings a term plus a couple of committee meetings. If you miss those you might not get many governors in school to buy raffle tickets. Not all governors will have a "connection" with the school - many will be councillors or clergy who are appointed to do a job on the governing body. A couple of the governors will be staff, who may be involved anyway.

Our meetings are in the evenings so only the parent governors (in our case 4) are in school in the daytime.

I have spent two full days in school this week alone on governor stuff. I really don't have a lot of time for PTA stuff as well.

I am a parent governor and was once on the PTA committee for 3 years so can see both sides. There are various types of governor - staff, community, parent etc so would more likely see parent governors being involved in PTA events than say the local councillor or member of the business community as I am more invested and involved in the school. We have full governor meetings once a month and then further committee meetings on top of this so it is time consuming but I have been elected to represent the parents so want to do a good job.

I work full time so have to take time off work for any event such as olympic torch duty/sports day/jubilee dinner but luckily I have an understanding boss.

It is the summer fair tomorrow (fingers crossed for the weather) and I'm on the cake stall. I like the social interaction and meeting all the children so for me to support my school is no hardship at all and its a given I will help out and take part.

We all have busy lives but a couple of hours of support is no biggie for me.

I've been a Governor for 4.5yrs and I used to run the PTA for about 7yrs (before I was a Gov.)

There's never been a connection between the two at our School and I don't necessarily think there should be either.

I would buy a few raffle tickets if I wanted them, but that's more because I'm a parent than a Gov.

Just because they are a governor doesn't mean they have spare cash

So, YABU

Our PTA always has at least one teacher and one governor representative at meetings / events

We have someone on our PTA who is also a Governor. I wish they weren't on the PTA. They have ideas that the PTA money should be used to shore up the school budget and is on the verge of causing conflict.

I think YABU to expect governors to do more than they already do.

xh is a parent governor and a skint freelancer. He gives up a huge amount of time to "governing" (meetings with LEA, etc) alongside regular gov meetings and around his work commitments. I had no idea quite how much work was involved before he started doing this and it would be unreasonable to expect him to do more. We both volunteer in different ways at school and between us we have no spare cash for anything - not even raffle tickets, I'm afraid.

Maybe the bigger issue is to find ways of engaging parents and families who aren't already involved? Difficult, I know!

I was a parent governor at school. When I became a governor I continued to attend PTA meetings but the problem with attending these it that you tend to wear 2 hats, that's your view as a parent and your view as a governor. From the start I was always introduced as the 'parent governor' to the school and unecessarily asked about funding issus for the PTA and where money should go etc. I felt that these were issues better left to PTA members. Many parents simply have no idea what is involved in being a g, particularly as a parent you are party to huge amounts of information about staff, parents and the responsiblity it holds and time it takes etc. If often jeopardises your own childrens education. Yes, I would have bought a raffle ticket and would have been happy to do so, but no I wouldn't want to help with a PTA event as sometimes it is unfortunately true that some mums have an agenda in these settings and can't help but tell you how they think the school should be run etc. most of them no very little about education and are simply unaware of the full picture!