To think that the PTA is voluntary?

[malificent7]

I used to help the pta as and when i could with the Christmas fare etc.

Then i got more work so i had to stop. I will nog forget one of the PTA have a moan at me in the playground that some mhms were not pulling their wieght as they were not in the PTA. When i said id love to help but couldnt she said "we are all in the same boat" She didnt work.

Aibu to think that if you volunteer you shouldnt moan about people not volunteering for whatever reason!?

Voluntary means just that!

Not entirely true no

Because, the cost of the sweets to the pts would have to be factored into my £40, plus the hire of bouncy castles, rock walls, ponies, food for the bbq, obligatory pimms purchases for the alcohol stalk etc. so my £40 was not pure profit for the school was it? It could have been though as a one off payment.

Pta not pts... freudian slip

for me, it is one more thing to squash into an already packed weekend [...] truthfully I just don't want to add anything else.

Honest to god, Aderyn, I do get it. I personally don't get any jollies from my volunteering and am quite happy for events not to happen if not cost-effective or reasonably easy to organise! But my DC do like them, and as I said, I do feel it would be a loss to the school community as a whole in a lot of ways if these things never happened, so that's why I support them.

I have sympathy for the annual donation idea, but I think in reality few would choose that as an option, despite saying they would -- human nature being what it is, the 'voluntary donation' doesn't catch many people.

If PTA's so desperately want our help then cut the cliquiness, don't allocate all the 'nice' jobs to your mates and actually speak to the other parents who have volunteered and make them feel (gasp) welcome into the fold.

The problem with that is that a lot of the "nice" jobs on the day are given to people who have spent the days, weeks, months before the event doing the unseen organization ... so Suzie who is just sitting manning the tombola isn't getting the easy job because she's mates with the PTA president but because she's spent the last 6 weeks going to the PTA meetings & working with the other 4 people on the committee that actually turned up to decide on the events, spent evenings sorting out the decorations and sorting out what needs replacing/repairing, scrounging up the tombola prizes from various sources, co-ordinated the letters the kids sent home about the fair, organized the collection and storage of said donations until the day of the event (and possibly been one of the few parents topping up donations if they're thin on the ground), turned up early to get the table set up, labelled up all the prizes and agreed to spend 5 hours working at the fair.

I don't mean this in a bad way but anyone can turn up and tidy up/set up tables/litter pick etc and it's those kind of jobs that can be allocated to anyone at any time. So if it's your first year volunteering, then you're probably going to get stuck with the jobs just anyone can do, not because they're the shitty jobs, but because they're jobs that are easily transferable and only have "on the day" or short term committments.
I know with a lot of groups I volunteer regularly with, new volunteers are given low priority jobs because if you don't show up then there's going to be someone else who can do your job easily enough, and once we know you a bt more and seen that you'll atually stick to the job then you'll get given more responsibility and less "shitty" jobs. You could turn up on the day and be the best damn tombola attendant we've ever seen, but if you don't turn up at 9am on the day of the event with no warning, we're in the shit and have to scramble to find someone else who can do it on short notice.

You'd be surprised the amount of times that I've worked with a volunteer group where we get promised time or donations from people only for them not to show up or let us know last minute that X/Y/Z is available, leaving the rest of the group trying to find an alternative, with the gates opening in lss than an hour and 101 other jobs needing attention.

Ha music my dh is not a violent man but nearly was at the school BBQ. We try and support the PTA and dh and another full time working parent were tasked with serving the meat at the BBQ.

Some people seemed to struggle with the idea that this was a school event run by volunteers rather than a slick corporate thing. Some non PTA parents were SO rude to DH and our friend huffing and puffing about having to queue. As one man grabbed his burger dh said "I think you have forgotten something" when the customer didn't say thanks. DH concluded he is definitely not saintly enough to be a volunteer

I would, I donate to other charities, so why not school? I also give the after school club toys and computing equipment that my kids no longer use etc, and donated a load of fabric to the sewing club (teacher run and paid for sign up from parents whose kids were attending)

Can't you spare half an hour a term OP? Being a volunteer doesn't mean you have to do hours and hours of it, just say 'sorry I don't have much time but I can come over at the end of the event and help tidy up?' I am sure it would be very much appreciated.

And maybe the person talking to you wasn't commenting on herself but on other working parents who manage to work and spend three hours a YEAR helping at PTA events?

I do face painting at all school events, and have done so for 6 years, and you would not believe how much effort and time people put into those things, and just how rude some parents can be.

our school does say you can donate to it and give details - surprisingly no-one has though, if you can't volunteer, you should at least attend the events and try and donate that way - or directly donate. The point is the kids enjoy the halloween/christmas/summer fair and disco events as well as it raising money for the school. It's always the same 4-5 people doing it at ours too.

I agree re good v bad jobs.

At a fair there are key stalls that have to be filled as they make the most money. Tombola is one of them. If we only have a few people volunteering up front then the tombola will be filled by one of those as it is a key stall. Tombola also often goes to staff members as they are reliable and we want to give them 'nicer' jobs so they keep volunteering year after year. If you turn up on the day, not having committed in advance, we will always find you something to do, but it is likely to be something that can be explained quickly and not all that exciting.

Someone way up-thread also made a comment about committee members 'swanning around with clipboards'. Without 2 or 3 people knowing about all the jobs and making sure they get done, the fairs wouldn't happen at all.

For the past 7 years I have been at our summer fair 8am-5pm. From about 12 when we get more than about 3 helpers, it may look like I am 'swanning around with a clipboard', but before then I have probably with 3 others set up tables, gazebos, moved stuff to each stall, put up signs, liaised with externals, worried about the weather, etc. Without the clipboards the committee wouldn't know what jobs needed doing and when. Then you would turn up for the fair at 1:30 and wonder why your raffle stall had no pens, or why no spare rubbish bins, or no gym mats for the gym display etc.

ps Did you know that left to their own devices, many people will set up a tombola in random rather than numerical order, thus making it 10x harder for the person running the stall? This kind of detail can make a big difference to fairs running smoothly.

I just think an annual "donation" wouldn't work.

Let's say a PTA raises £5K per year.
Single-form entry school, Reception to Yr 6, 30 kids per class = 210

£5,000/210 = £23 per child.

Seems pretty darn reasonable - I would happily pay.

But it HAS to be voluntary. And that's where it gets tricky. Because some people would NOT pay it. So then the school is left with a funding gap - for instance, our PTA pays for school transport to swimming, say, and musical enrichment.

It can no longer afford both.

So the decision is made to charge parents (via 'voluntary donation', liek school trips) for the musical enrichment activity. But not enough people pay that (because they think their annual donation of £23 should cover it) and so you get into a vicious circle, and the only people who lose out are the kids.

Or you can organise some events, with a bit of pester power for parents and some entertainment value for the kids, and get your £23 that way. Some will spend way more, some will spend way less or not at all.

You can always just donate the cash instead, and clear your conscience, but I don't think fundraising events will ever go away.

Yes, Squirrels. Realistically to raise the equivalent of £23 per child, you'd have to ask for £50 per child.

And actually our PTA raises more like £40 per child so you'd need to ask for £75 and so on.

And that's before you note that we have daft sibling levels (around 20 children per class of 30 has a sibling in school) so you're asking a family with two children to write a £150 cheque

Well no in that circumstance, I would suggest the school charge £46 PA, spread between terms. That way, that covers those that wont pay or dont, plus any surplus above the £5000 can be carried forward to the next year.

Also, own clothes days (of which there seem to be many) could raise money for the school.

C'mon, admit it. You like doing it really, you dont want the straight up donations. Its fun to be a martyr (just ribbing)

Have you suggested it to your school and PTA, Wookie?

Not being snarky, honestly, but there are usually really good reasons why ditching all the events is not a good idea. Some of them are monetary, for sure, but some are for reasons of inclusivity and community.

I'd be happy to be off the hook for meetings and events volunteering and just pay my cash and volunteer my time for reading in school, but I know my kids would prefer the halloween disco and the easter egg raffle!

People don't pay, don't kid yourselves. A few diligent souls will (likely the same families that man the events now) but the majority won't (cynical sorry).

Plus the kids love the events would be a shame not to have any of them - agree no more than 2 or 3 a year. I have vivid memories of my own school fairs. Rather dour and joyless to have people handing over cold hard cash - not that they will anyway.

Our school budget is dire it has been massively cut. School is now relying on PTA to fund stuff that I would have thought was pretty basic and should have been covered by the state but now isn't think building maintenance.

X-post! I am a martyr, you're right
did Joan of Arc grumble so much at the stake, I wonder, as I do?

No, because my pta are snooty and self important. They love doing it and feeling relevant. They dont want me telling them there is another way. Trust me.

Besides, how else could they network their pyramid scheme shit to the other volunteers?

It would be great to have the donations, don't get me wrong.

But a lot of the events would be missed - discos and so on. They could definitely be scaled back if we didn't need to make money on them, but it would be a real shame to bin them completely. They're part of what makes it a nice school to be involved with.

I suspect if we didn't need the money, we'd do the events in aid of other charities. The school holds a Macmillan Coffee Morning, for example. It would be the same volunteers.

Besides, how else could they network their pyramid scheme shit to the other volunteers?

Fortunately we don't have this shit. I can see that that would be a huge putoff.

kerala your last point about general school budget is concerning indeed. I accept that point.

Now, Wookie, as you're here, have I mentioned to you the fabulous opportunity I have for you? All you need to do is pay me some money for this AMAZING plant-based wonder food, which is totally going to make you back that £40 you just dropped on cakes at the fair, and then you can tell your friends ...

Oh mrs you are getting off lightly then, out pta sell..

Forever living
Phoenix
Jamberry
Juice plus
Stella and dot
Younique
...............

NO you can go right off some folks you know!

Fuck me.