PTFA Dilema

[couldtryharder]

So our PTFA, of which I am part, has organised a dinner dance type thing. I wasn't on the sub committee for it and to be honest, it's not the kind of event I'd necessarily attend. However, I do feel that I should support it and go along and who knows, it might be a fun evening. It's £25 a ticket so £50 in total for my husband and I. This gives us a welcome drink, some chips for the casino and a three course meal & disco. They have asked for people to volunteer to run/man the casino tables. I'm a bit concerned about this as I think it's unfair to ask someone to pay £25 for a night out and then they have to spend most of the night 'working' on the casino tables. Do you think it out of order to suggest that anyone who volunteers to work should pay a reduced fee? Say £15? Don't want to cause a big fuss about it (some of our committee members are a bit sensitive shall we say) but don't want to feel like I've been ripped off money wise and had to help out again because it's always the same people.

No reason why you (or anyone else) should be a croupier for the whole evening. Why not have a rota, say, half an hour at a time? We do this at PTA events and it works pretty well - providing everyone who says they'll help actually turns up!

I think rota of a half hour slot and pay the full whack, or you do the entire night on duty, get the meal and only pay £10 or £15 (or whatever the cost price of the meal actually is). But a rota would be fairer.

£50 is a big amount to ask a couple to pay to support the school, plus babysitting etc - the committee have to be flexible about it. People will show up to these things out of duty if it's not much money - but duty/wanting to support won't count for anything if it's just too expensive.

And it's taken me about 100 years to work this out, but just because you're on the PTA it doesn't mean you have to attend every event. If you say no, it's surprisingly OK :).

You would need to have a plan B, though, in case of a shortage of staff. Because it's really unacceptable to offer volunteers half hour slots and then on the night say, you know what? We really need you to do the whole night because nobody else volunteered.

In short, I think it's a bad idea. If you want people to work, then don't charge them an entrance fee. It's fairer that way.

It'd have to be some meal to have a cost price of £15. I suppose it all depends what we mean by cost.

The rota does seem the fairest way, but it's going to be hard to find the 8 they need, let alone 16. People just don't want to volunteer for things. Knowing that makes me think I'm being tight be not wanting to volunteer if paying full price. And I've had a bit of an event run in with these ladies before and I don't know how they'll take it . It's all so flippin' difficult. I'll have to ask them to volunteer back for the Summer Fair at the end of next month and don't want it thrown in my face. But you don't pay to attend the Summer Fair so I guess it's not really a fair comparison.

Is the casino absolutely crucial to the event? Tbh, if you're likely to have a problem getting volunteers you might need to rethink things a bit. A raffle/auction with reasonably classy prizes might be a solution. IME local businesses/attractions are happy to donate prizes in return for a mention in the programme. It also has the advantage that you can hold the draw/auction after dinner (when people are feeling well fed, watered and generous).

Our school is about to have a £25 a head event. Wonder if it is the same school? Haven't heard of a casino to it though. I have to say, I have a very good track record of supporting everything, but I am really unsure about this. £50 PLUS babysitting PLUS something to wear (it is black tie) PLUS raffle tickets PLUS drinks on the night.

It is an awful lot of money for an event on a Thursday night in the school hall. (and I haven't even been asked to help!)

I agree that you shouldn't pay full whack if you are working for some of the time.
But ... I am guessing by the price tag that this is an affluent area Are the PTA assuming that people can afford it easily and so won't mind paying?