I am person who can't say 'no' (got me into a few scrapes in my youth I can tell you) so consquently wound up with the Chair of Pre-School role. I am so not signed up to it and am doing them a disservice I think. What now?

[handlemecarefully]

I resent every single second I spend on Pre-school stuff. Perhaps I am fundamentally selfish but I would rather be doing something nice for me during what little snatches of 'spare time' I can find. I don't want to do the role, and accordingly quite honestly I am putting in a poor effort re leadership, direction, motivation etc. It's a bit of a rudderless ship currently.

Thing is nobody else wants to be the Chair.

Yet I am patently useless. I could be really good - (i.e have the abilities) but I don't have the ownership / inclination. Call it what you will.

I sort of feel that I should resign - but then....what would I give as my reason? If I was honest (i.e. listen guys - I don't give a monkey's about all this stuff) I could alienate a few people (and these are local mums, potential friends and at the very least mothers of my children's pre-school and school friends)

Moreover presumably the Pre-school would be in trouble with no Chair at all. I imagine it is a fundamental requirement of continuing registration.

Oh bugger. Can't think my way out of a paper bag atm.

now,what I'm wondering is what is it that you lot are busy doing .I don't do that much really.I have sent out loads of begging letters for a raffle,organised the crb checks,ummmm,oh organised the photographer,noit much else.What else should I be doing,I feel like I don't really know what I should be doing.The treasurer is great and gently asks me about things that I should be already doing ,like the raffle letters, but really I do the minimal which is crap really.

Losty's post has got me a bit worried,but I have just had the ofsted interview which made me read up on all the policies etc,so what else should I be worried about please?

here for 2 mins befofe bathtime.

I certainly enjoyed my time as chair. Well I did until things started to go wrong. But I hope that the situation I foud myself in does not happen to any of you. I cant go in to details, for legal reasons, but it was nothing to do with the children. It concerned the staff, who the committee (so, ultimatley the chair) was responbsible for, ie we line managed them, and also the running of the pre school.

Sorry another hurried post! I will try to get more time to post later. x

Our committee does everything, basically manages the whole preschool - staff wages, staff contracts, pays all the bills, health and safety, and this year planning a whole rebuild of the preschool - so liasing with LEA, planning applications, architects and builders. And the fundraising of course. The Chair has massive responsibility and does a hell of a lot of work. I just try to keep my head down, and do the accounts ( which are thankfully audited by a proper accountant! )

What I spend most of my time doing,and what I get so resentful about, is chasing things up.
I have spent approx 2 hrs today (during half term) chasing up staff ciover, course details, Ofsted reg re staff cover, funding, the list goes on. Much of it should have been checked by staff before this week, but ultimately we are responsible and so I chase it up.
That doesn't even start the separate list on fundrasing.

My real bug bear is that every decision takes so long - you think you have made them and then someone comes up with a reason why it has to be discussed again. But if you just make an executive decision that pisses people off. Think my problem is I don't really believe it can be run by a committee - not sure I believe committees ever do anything quickly or efficiently.

Our meetings are not advertised well. Saw another committee member in the doctors today and she asked if I had gone to the last meeting as she did;nt know it was on - I replied "No, neither did I"

The minutes from the previous meeting have the next date and location on and these were handined out at the actual meeting

ggirl - my current jobs are ordering t-shirts, begging letters for raffles/prizes, organising anniversary exhibition and dinner/dance, writing several policies, staff appraisals, parents evening (joint with supervisor), coffee mornings/cake sale/fancy dress day/book sale (each term), booking NVQ courses and applying for funding, Chairs' newsletter, an inventory & insurance is due, talking to an unhappy parent, negotiating fees assistance with suddenly-poor parent, sponsored sports day, Easter egg hunt/bonnet comp & party. And coming soon is the big annual fair, building some sun-shelter in the playground, leavers party, 'going to school' parents evening, summer outing and then it'll be AGM, working on accounts & next years forecast with my treasurer and getting ready for Christmas.

And I'm probably forgetting a lot of things. I have a three page 'to do' list for February.

Joy is me.

And writing agenda's & minutes and attending meetings, obviously!

Losty it would be deeply instructive if you could go into some detail (perhaps change any potentially identifying details such as names, dates and locations etc so that your example cannot be tracked to the real situation)...I'm very worried about the issue of liability and am struggling to understand what my 'exposure' could be

Message withdrawn

Norksbride - you do waaay more than me. Re the agenda and minutes do you not have a Pre-School secretary?

Also I leave financial forecasting and accounts wholly to the treasurer (but perhaps I shouldn't...bearing in mind my current accountability)

We also have a quite dynamic fund raising group....

Have decided to give notice to the Pre-School; tell them I am 'happy' to continue until the end of the calendar year and then will step down. Don't feel I can bail on them just yet for one reason or another, but at least there will be light at the end of the tunnel if I give them the date.

HMC, and others, I think Losty is referring to the fact that Committee Members are financially liable if the pre-school fails - rent, loans, staff redundancies, etc.

We have 6 months running costs in the bank at all times (as recommended by our accountant) so it's not something I need to worry about.

I had a quick look through my new insurance policy earlier this week and there is a cover option called 'Trustees/Officers'. I haven't read the details yet but it sounds like a sort of Limited Liability. Certainly worth looking into.

HMC - I'd delegate more if I could. I have a good treasurer but her workload is pretty big. We're going to give some of it to a bookkeeper.

The secretary is OK but never answers her emails. I have one committee member who always helps out with running events and fundraising and one that does lots of printing. The rest are pretty crap and if I do give them something to do, I spend so much time chasing it up because they haven't done it, that it would have been quicker to do it myself in the first place. And only 2 are staying on next year - and neither of them are any good!!!

I have heard something similar to this before regarding financial liability - but in all honesty I would be interested to see how that could be made to stick.

If a ordinary Joe mum, who happened to be Chair of her Pre-School, had her house repossessed and was made bankrupt because her Pre-School failed... and she was held liable for the severance payments for the Pre-School staff, this would make major news headlines (journos would love the pathos and injustice of it)...and I've never seen a case like this reported?

I shall review our insurance however

Another thought Norksbride - we're quite flush for cash atm so we are considering a salaried part time role (perhaps only 5 - 10 hours per week) for a Pre-School 'coordinator'.

She will basically organise us and remind us of our 'must do's'. She (or he) will also be useful in terms of maintaining continuity when Pre-School committee members change.

I recently let the Pre-School down. I took over as Chair from September but was wholly unaware that Ofsted should formally be notifed of my new chairmanship. We were recently 'Ofsted-ed' and the inspector informed me that we were in breach of our registration because I hadn't done this.

We reckon a good coordinator would provide the glue and permanence to the committee; to ensure that similar oversights don't happen in future.

HMC cat me

Thanks, if you don't mind I will do just that losty. Cheers!

norks-you do loads more than me aswell.

I do have to do the staff appraisals ,must get on with that.Also you are doing parents evenings which we don't do.Do you mean like school ones?
I also have a new policy to write up ,so thanks for reminding me.
See I feel really inadequate now.

I do know that our insurance covers personal liability as it was an issue a few yrs ago and was dealt with.Phew!

Message withdrawn

Parents evenings - not like school. We have the bulk of new parents in together - usually Autumn term but it's been a slack year, discuss how pre-school works, what committee does, what the curriculum for the term is, what events are coming up etc and then staff & me swan about with glasses of wine talking to parents about their specific worries/questions.

Parents can make appointments with supervisor or key workers to discuss social/academic progress and go through profiles etc anytime.

The school leavers evening tells parents how to get their child ready for school, how the local schools operate, that gingham dresses really do sell out in June, what's on the lunch menu etc. We also link up children/parents with others going to the same schools. This one is quite fun!

Orinoco - you're right, committee only liable if proved to be negligent. However, if you've watched your finances dwindle away to nothing, even whilst desperately fund-raising, you'll be judged as negligent. ie. you should have wound things up when you still had enough money to pay off the staff and other debts. Some courts are a lot more lenient, particularly if they're sympathetic to voluntarily-run charities.

HMC - did you get my email?

Only really read OP post but I bottled out of Treasurer role after 8 weeks in January. The outgoing Treasurer was best friends with the chairperson and it felt like it was their 'show' with me doing all of the grunt work! Final straw was when they told be that I had to get the bookeeper to 'hide' the staff xmas bonuses so that they didn't pay tax.
Still feel a teeny bit gulity but invented hectic work commitments for hubby & a slightly ill mother so could not commit adequate time to the role or attend commitee meetings.
Best thing I did though. No more worrying about have I done this, that and the other? Are the wages right? When am I going to do the banking etc ?
My advice to OP - carry on until July if possible but spell out that you cannot and will not carry on next year. It was awful at pick up time for a couple of weeks but then the gossip moves on. Wouldn't you just like your life back?