A couple of thoughts here. First, on something like the teacher appreciation lunch, we usually publish a note in our bulletin a few weeks earlier asking for volunteers to cover the class. (Actually, our form asks if they want to prepare a dish, set up, clean up, serve, or cover a classroom...it's just another job for that day!) Then, we just have to call room parents where we have holes.
Secondly, we do have a phone tree that is set up as part of our emergency procedures. In that case, the principal calls the 2 room parent coordinators (K-2 and 3-5), they call a room parent for each class (4 per grade), and the room parents have already planned how they are going to call their class list.
Finally, when I'm crunched, I have asked someone in the grade if they could call the other room parents in the grade(rooms parents are easily identifiable in our school directory), and I have never been told no. If they are asked, people are usually more than willing to help!
I'm afraid I don't have the exact number of members. We offer family memberships at $3.00 per family. However, we have "Blue" and "Gold" levels where you join for say a donation of up t $49 and the next level is over $50. We have about 83% participation and have collected $8,000+ in dues thus far.
We do have two board members that oversee the homeroom coordinators. Ideally, I could have called and split the list with them, but it was late on a Sunday afternoon and decided to do it myself.
I like the idea of having a grade level contact person and will consider how we could make it work for us. A phone tree is probably a bit too complex for our needs, especially if you do end up having to skip around and then sit around!
I have been involved in several different phone trees. They only work in the very best scenerio. That is if everyone is home! If the person you need to call is not home and you skip to the next and they are not home all of a sudden you are sitting by your phone all night or the phone chain will end. Suddenly that one harmless phone call has become quite a hassle. I would recommend to split the home room mom list up. All of our elementaries have a Home Room Rep Chair. It is her job to keep all the room moms in the know. If the number of rooms is large I would have the Chair enlist help with the phone calls. Works for us!
Wow, 125 Board Members! And, I thought ours was large. That's really incredible. How many members do you have?
Yes, the callers in our case are other board members. However, we do have something else that might be of interest for you. In a situation where we need to contact a lot of parents, we have a tree system of sorts. We don't have it diagrammed.
We have a Grade Parent Coordintor for each grade (K-5), and these 6 people are Board Members. So, if we need something from a whole grade, we would call the Grade Parent and she would call the room parents in her grade who would each call parents in their class.
Thanks for your input. Are the volunteers people who hold other positions on your board or is it their assigned board position? We have over 125 board members with three vice presidents, a secretary and treasurer. There isn't an actual board postion for phone calls. The solution may be to divide the calling between the executive board members, or at least the VP's.
I have never seen an actual "phone tree" and would still be interested reviewing one. Probably too late to start one now, but could possibly recommend for next year's board.
We don't use an actual "tree" but do spread out the work a bit. We have about 30 people on our Board, so when it's time for reminder calls, I'll enlist 2 or 3 other volunteers to split the work.
I keep our phone information in a spreadsheet (Excel). And we all have copies of this list. One of the columns off to the side is labeled "Group". Underneath, I just divide it up and have "A" by 7 or 8 names, "B" by a set, and so on. Those who are helping me call get assigned a set.
This keeps everything in one document, so it's easier for me to maintain.
