PTA raffle-all 4 of the Chair’s kids won the top prizes

[PTAcoincidence]

There was a PTA raffle at school this week to win Easter egg baskets. There were 4 huge baskets with around 10-12 eggs in each along with about 30 smaller baskets with a variety of eggs in them. Some had more eggs than others so between 3 and 6 eggs per basket. Lots of prizes, lots of happy kids at the Easter Fayre.
The raffle was drawn out of sight before the Fayre began with the dad of the 4 winning kids removing one huge basket from school before the rest of the baskets were even made up. Eyebrows were raised but you don’t cross the PTA mums I’m told.
Tickets were £2 each and approx 500 tickets purchased in total so a great fundraiser for the PTA. The chocolate was donated by the kids in exchange for wearing their own clothes as is the norm.
It is usually the PTA kids who win competitions, get chosen for the main
parts in plays etc and lots of parents roll their eyes and accept that’s the way it happens.
All 4 kids winning the top 4 prizes though? Surely that’s highly unlikely to be random and takes the biscuit? Or the Easter eggs in this case!
My dc won something and is very happy about winning so it’s not a case of sore loser before anyone accuses me of jealousy.

If this happened at your school would you think it was fixed or just luck?

YANBU = Fixed
YABU = Luck

Definitely fixed,two years running as well? Just don't partake again,any of you, and for him to take a basket before the draw? He knew they were going to win it anyway! Thats so unfair.

Maybe help out with the PTA more and you can stop stuff like this.

I saw a lot of dodgy behaviour during my time on a secondary school PTA committee, but one moment has always stuck with me.
I’d volunteered to do a shift on the bottle tombola at a fete. As I arrived, the chair pulled me aside and pressed something into my hand, saying: “Don’t put this back in until right near the end."
Among the usual assortment of beer and cheap plonk was a high-end whisky gift set, complete with crystal decanter and matching tumblers. She wanted me to hold the winning ticket for it back to encourage people to spend as much as possible trying to win it.
I dropped the ticket straight into the bucket with the others.
She was fixated on being the chair who raised the most money during her tenure - something she’d said more than once. Regulations - and ethics - clearly didn't play a part in that.

OP- hope you have complained!

Very suspicious.

Also weird that the Chair ended up with 40-48 Easter eggs in her house. Seems very pointless.

Did they do the raffle using People's Fundraising if so the draw is done by People's Fundraising themselves electronically.

I was the PTA chair at DDs primary school. I often won a prize at the raffle, through genuine luck and also because I tended to always buy the remaning tickets (often spending £40-£50 on the last tickets available so the school would get good donations). I never once cheated. And the teachers drew the prize. I do wonder whether I was talked about though - but truth is - if you spend £50 on tickets, you’re more likely to win that if you spend £1!

I don’t know how it was all done. We were told the tickets had to be bought online and no physical tickets were given out. The draw took place late morning after PTA dad took off with the biggest basket just after drop off at 8.45am. The kids were told after lunch if they’d won and were sent to the office to collect their prize. All very mysterious. Last time I bought tickets they were paper tickets that were sold on the school gate in the week leading up to the event and just before the event itself. That was a couple of years ago. The raffle still took place behind closed doors. I’ve never seen a raffle be drawn in front of everyone at the event and I’ve had kids at that school for over 10 years in total. Maybe it’s always been suss and I’ve just never noticed or thought about it much.

Have never heard of a draw not being done in front of the audience. New rule to implement for next time. I would like to think it's not fixed as that's just plain stupid and unfair. Sorry if any mistakes, I can only type into a small box at the top hidden part of my screen.

I’ve had a quick nosey at the PTA website and it was no surprise to see that the husband of the chair is the treasurer. He is the one who is credited with setting up the online payment system and the one who took the top prize just after drop off.
I won’t be saying anything about it but it wouldn’t surprise me if someone else does because it was so blatant this time.

The Raffle should have been drawn by different children in front of the whole school and the Chair should've stepped in after two top prizes were won.

You can't help who wins but you can do such draws openly and gracefully decline further prizes.

Surely everyone running the Tombola stall knows to keep the best few tickets in their pocket until half way through!

If that's the worst you've ever seen you've led a very charmed life! It's certainly not unusual to do that, see my previous post, and I don't feel remotely guilty.

Be brave- perhaps join with a few other parents, and report it!

I would be making a complaint. There are rules about holding raffles. Sounds like fraud imho. Don't let them get away with it

Not sure what a tombola is but I'm guessing it's the same as something we have.

I've worked on these loads of times and nobody has ever done this.

Couldn’t it simply be the PTA buy more tickets?

That's not really how a tombola is meant to be though.
The prizes are generally meant to be of similar value.
At least in all the tombola's I have known.

They're supposed to be similar, but ours are all from donations, so you would have a bottle of Lambrini next to some quality champagne, or 1kg chocolate bar next to a Freddo.

We don't keep any tickets back though!

I would have thought a raffle should be done infront of the audience. Seems a bit off to me it was done when no one was around, suspicious...

We used to have a similar thing, chocolate bingo at our primary school, with a raffle. One year our family won at least 3 or 4 prizes, it was so embarrassing I was going to give one back! And the kids were like no way mum, we can eat it.

So you think the school staff are all in on this too? And have given it the thumbs up?

How do you know so much about everyone's movements? Were you sat opposite school watching?

I was chair of the pta for years. It was the most soul sucking, thankless and stressful task. You absolutely cannot do right for doing wrong with everyone (in my case also with the school as much as the parents, your partner and your own dc). The accusations of clique behaviour when there are only the same 3 parents spending hours building the school wildlife area/setting up and clearing up the fete or painting the bloody fence does mean you are friendly with them, yes.

My child won 2 big prizes at different school fayre. Both times another parent had to kindly taken them round the stalls because I, as usual, couldn't, due to manning the bbq or similar. On both occasions I only found out they had entered the 'guess the weight of the cake' 'guess the jelly beans in the jar' type things, when they were presented with their winnings.

My name also very very often came out on the 100 club prizes because I sold about 75% of the numbers to my friends/family/neighbours. I have won many a raffle (rancid dusty wine) because I buy so many flipping tickets. I won a 'colour hamper' that was made up in large part of stuff I sent in!

Who knows what is going on in your situation- it sounds mad/made up. But don't use it as a vehicle to encourage others to pick holes in pta endeavours.

Everyone wonders why more people don't help. Maybe because they don't want to he the 'most slagged off' by all the other parents?

It sounds likely to be a fix. They could have shortened their odds by buying significantly more tickets than the general population, but even then it would be very lucky for all four to come in. Of course, you'd need to know the numbers to calculate the statistical probability.

School PTAs are usually registered charities. You could always report them to the Charities Commission.

Legally they are actually breaking the law!