To avoid PTA raffle

[Caulifleur]

We have a fabulous pta which works hard and raises loads of money.

I know there are perks of being senior PTA but at my dc primary school there is sometimes a feelings of “dividing the spoils” at the end of an event like a school fair or bbq. I always feel a bit uncomfortable and I’ve stopped helping out at clear-up.

Recently there was a lovely raffle at an event. PTA said they’d hold the draw at the end. I stayed to clear up. But they waited til everyone left then let their kids draw the winning tickets. The kids were sniggering and I realised they had each bought a ticket and hidden it in their palms so they just pulled out their own ticket, literally the top prizes were all taken by the PTA!

The pta team had their backs turned but the kids were loud and obvious and if I could tell, their mums and dads must have noticed.

I do think it’s nice to reward the pta but I think it’s a bit rich to literally take all the prizes!

aibu to spurn the raffle in future?

I think there is something to do with GDPR that prevents them from publishing a list of winners without their consent - like the lottery has to get consent to do publicity for winners and they have right to remain anonymous.

Sorry but your daughter witnessed this and was upset, yet you are doing nothing? What kind of message does that send to her?

You are very wrong and complicit in keeping quiet.

This sounds totally insane. Our raffles are always drawn in public and we are careful not to put our own names in. I have been on the pta for 9 years now and spent endless hours helping at the school and actually felt guilty when (1) my daughter won an art contest and her drawing was on the front of our cookbook. It was anonymous and voted on by the teachers so literally no bias and (2) sometimes I let my kids look at the used books at the fair a few minutes before we opened because otherwise they’d miss out altogether as I was always running something. I clearly lack the ability for high stakes crime lol

Who locks up the school after the event has finished?

My child’s school is too much of a dive/shithole area to even have a PTA. Too many parents are banned from the grounds for fighting. We have no school events here. It would be carnage.

I miss this kind of shit from when I had my first kid in a middle class area. I LOVED all the PTA drama, bitchiness and in fighting. PTA mums are fucking batshit - I was one of them. best fucking years of my life getting pissed up on gin and doing the tombola at the Christmas fairs.

When we ran PTA events the head would sometimes pop in but wouldn't be there for the whole event. Scotland, so governors are not a thing. When we booked the let with the Council they would arrange for the person we'd call the janny and English people would call the caretaker to be there during the event and to lock up after.

@SheinIsShite the caretaker counts as staff so if you needed a neutral witness to the raffle draw then the caretaker would count.

Just found this thread whilst googling for other ways to do a PTA raffle as it is back breaking work at the end of a long day.

What you have said is outrageous and as an active PTA member I’d be horrified if any schools near us did this. Certainly doesn’t happen at ours- we do it in public - our head just won two prizes which is fine she spent a lot on that raffle. None of my committee won a single thing! Luck of draw but I do like it when my committee and helpers get something as they put hours of extra work in and never get to do the other Fayre stuff as stuck on a stall.

I have just been looking for online raffle platforms that do the draw for you ( can’t find one yet) but if we do this in future I’ll be doing it in public and announcing winners at same time!