PTA Events

[FrazzledPTAVC]

Hi,
I'm after some advice, has anyone organised a PTA Family event off site?
We are a very small school (with limited space) in a little village but are lucky to have a lovely family pub with a large garden within the village. The pub would like to support us in holding and funding a summer fete where the PTA can benefit from all the funds raised. We aim to at least double the monies raised in the previous year while promoting the school to the wider villages. It also means we can hold the event all day on a Saturday rather than a couple of hours on a Friday afternoon - when many parents cannot attend.

Any advice or feedback please, we're trying to do something different but are up against resistance to change......perhaps we should just accept the limitations of a smaller / less attended event and save some stress???

This summer we are doing something similar - using local village hall/recreation ground. We got the head teacher on side first and people are willing to give it a go. The strongest argument was the significant potential to increase monies raised.
When you say you are up against resistance - who is resisting and why?
One thing our head was concerned about was that the summer fair on site was a good opportunity for new and prospective parents to see the school - so we are organising a Friday afternoon summer party at the school as well (will be low key, tea and cakes, disco for the kids etc)
If you understand what their concerns are, might be easier to get around them
Good luck!

Our school held an event in the garden of a pub.

I wasn't involved in organising it but went along to the event itself. It was (as far as I could tell) a success.

Passing families stopped by because their children were attracted by the sight of the bouncy castle and a couple of small rides. The pub regulars spent money on some of the stalls, especially food from the barbecue outside.

If you give in to the "But this is the way we've always done it" crowd, you'll struggle to make any changes elsewhere.

One thing I learnt in my PTA years is that there is always resistance to change. And tbh when I left the PTA and discovered the next committee had had the barefaced audacity to do things differently I had a bit of a moment (to myself) - so I can sort of see why people get precious about it. But you need to resist the resistance to change - if the pub option would be better, just press on.

Not fairs, but we organise a couple of events a year that are not based at the school. They are brilliant for building a community. We have a lot of retired people around here who wouldn't visit the school itself but get involved off site. Your event sounds lovely. Where is the resistance coming from?

Hi
We're in a similar situation. Very small school but the village holds a big event every summer so we don't usually do our own thing. So this year we're having an event of some kind at the cricket club, tacked on to the end of sports day so people will hopefully be around ; we'd struggle to get people to turn up for a separate event on a different day.

What resistance are you facing (other than, as previous posters have mentioned, general resistance to any new ideas whatsoever)? If anything I'd say our off-site events are very popular. School love them because we're not in the way and they don't have to do as much work (big consideration in a small school with few staff) and there's a bar which helps...

Surely it's a win-win? School raises extra funds, the pub will do well out of it, and everyone has a nice time.

One thing I will say, as a PTA chair drowning in paperwork and complainers is to make sure your risk assessments and insurance are thorough as you won't come under the school "umbrella".

Good luck with it, and we'll done for your efforts; PTA-ing is hard work!