UPDATE

My VP and I had a meeting with our principal and vice principal. We started the meeting by asking (nicely, conversational) if everything was all right with them concerning us; did they have any problems, feel that communication was a problem. They looked at us like,"what are you talking about?" They then asked WHY we were asking, and I explained that we were getting a bad vibe: it was hard to get a meeting with them, our phone calls took forever to be returned, we were seeing little active encouragement to us or the students/parents to help support us--in short we were worried that we were being placed in Purgatory. They apologized--explained they were extraordinarily busy, and that they themselves were going through growing pains, as are we. While my VP and I more concerned about their busy-ness (as parents we feel they are micromanaging and as a result other issues in our school are falling through the cracks), I was happy to see that it wasn't a personal issue.

They said the only problem the knew about was the denial of our walk-a-thon. We explained WHY we were insistant on having it when we wanted it, she stuck to her, "too much going on," so we dropped it, and said we would figure out when to have it next year. Personally I felt it was a "line in the sand" test, and I wasn't about to make it a fight.

I then moved on to say that while we're doing fine, we did have some issues that we needed more help with. I went through me list of 4 items: flyer approval bottlenecking, more proactive encouragement from teachers and staff, leeway with our fundraising for next year since we couldn't have the walk-a-thon when we needed it (we will need to throw some "nickel and dime" things in the mix like a couple of catalog sales), and permission to hand out our group's newsletter. I suggested giving her any and all proposed flyers to OK now, that way we wouldn't have to get them approved when we needed them. They were both agreeable, and only requested that they saw our proposed catalog sales to make sure they wouldn't "compete" with the already established groups.

All in all I feel better. I got what I felt the group needed (though I know my fundraising chair is having major problems with the outcome--she's like a dog with a bone concerning this walk-a-thon), and the principal and vice are claiming no problems.

I talked to the parent who put together a grant proposal for us, and I felt she made a very good point. She sat me down and said, "I've got to be honest with you. You guys need to better define yourselves to her. YOU know what your intentions are,how hard you're working, how organized you are and what your goals are. All she knows is that you want to build a playground. You may have stated what your intentions and plans for the group in the future are, but you haven't actually acted on them or proven yourselves. You need to start putting more down in black and white that you're group is MORE than just fundraising. Right now you're probably just one more thing she has to deal with; in the greater scheme of things you're just a drop in the bucket. I think you should just keep doing what you're doing, and eventually you'll be taken more seiously. Don't forget--this group is NEW and UNTRIED. She's going to be hestitant to throw herself behind something that may not pan out." I expalined though that in order to prove ourselves, we really need her support. My grant-writer said, "so let her know." I did, and at least for now it looks like we're back on track! Dealing with my fundraising chair is another posting though....