PTA survival guide

[WynkenBlynkenandNod]

Due to everyone leaving in September it looks like I am going to be Treasurer as of September unless there is an influx of enthusastic new parents. Person who has been stitched up volunteered to be Chair is in same boat. We just about have a Vice Chair if we can twist his arm. Our Secretary is staying and the current Treasurer will be still be on committee plus there's one other committee member around somewhere.

Really keen to make the next two years as painless as possible so would welcome advice from seasoned PTA people. With the cuts the PTA money is more important than ever but I'm well aware everyone is struggling financially at the moment and don't want to keep tapping them, would be good to come up with something to include the wider community more and how to get as many parents helping at things like the fair as possible . Any suggestions (including run screaming whilst you can) gratefully received, thank you !

We allocate all the jobs at PTA meetings so no-one person does all the jobs anyway. That reminds me, I must check the raffle tickets at school tomorrow.

We have paid the license for Film Night. We share it with the After School Club and make a FORTUNE! on film night.

Which film license version do you have, Collision? I seem to remember there was more than one purchase scheme, when we looked at the numbers we knew we'd have to run the film club very regularly and get X many volunteers & X many children every time ... it was a risk we couldn't take.

Another thing about our PTA is that they don't delegate well. I found myself going up to the chair afterwards and saying "I can see how I could take care of this for you" always after the meetings... it was like they couldn't see how to parcel out the jobs very well (all such meetings quite scatterbrained).

Definitely ask people for 30 minute slots on stalls at fairs.

I think if you ask a general 'can you help at the summer fair' lots of folks are a bit scared. Ask them if they could do between 12 and 12.30 or 12.30 and 1 and they ususally can't refuse.

Taking notes frantically here for next meeting, many thanks !

A 'temporary bar licence' only costs £21 by the way - you just need a temporary event notice from the council. Our school is quite sociable generally probably because we are a bunch of pissheads we live in a village and you kind of get to know people, whether you want to or not. Mums from DD1's class meet up for drinks every couple of months and go out for a Christmas meal, most mums come along.

Another new thing we tried which made a bit of cash was a friend of a friend kindly lent her time, and her house to do a couple of cake decorating classes- charged for attending but all money goes to PTA. Good for someone wanting to promote their new local business?

Speaking of cakes we have a cake sale every month or thereabouts, each year takes turns to bring in cakes. Then in summer every Friday we sell ice lollies bought in multipacks from supermarket at home time. 50p each. We're all about healthy eating :)

I think its good to really space things out well so that you're not tapping parents for money all the time. Also its good to keep a good balance between fundraising and social so some events are really more about fun for the kids, some more about fundraising. But we also don't just try and maximise profits totally and consider what parents would want/can afford to pay etc. I think there's an element of suck it and see really with regard to events - some things might go down really well at one school but are a complete flop at others. We got some brilliant ideas of fundraising by attending a free workshop run by the NCPTA - but yes, I was amazed at how successful some of the others events had been, that would just not or haven't worked at our school.

A couple of fundraising things which don't really involve parents parting with actual cash themselves but can be profitable are

Fabric recycling collections (Phil the bag, Bags 2 school) - collect old textiles PtB takes any condition - they provide bags for parents to fill etc, then on a day come and weigh it and pay per ton

Matched funding - various companies offer matched funding if the person helps organise an event (help can be minimal to qualify really)

We've also done football tickets - some football clubs have school community schemes where they'll offer schools a number of tickets at a reduced rate where part of the ticket price goes to the school. Some rugby clubs do the same.

oooh...liking the cake decorating classes