Mrs.Christie;145759 wrote: ...I understand (being a PTO president myself)....
Oh wait, with THAT piece of information I can answer your title question:
Am I crazy?
Answer: Yes!
Regardless of the content of the rest of your message.... anyone that takes on the role of president of a PTO/PTA group is certifiable. (As a former president, I consider myself in recovery.) Well intentioned, self-sacrificing, courageous, hard-working - lots of other adjectives, too. But most definitely "crazy"!
Now that you've saved yourself those pesky psychiatric fees to have it confirmed, you have more to spend on fundraisers!
I think my biggest fustration is that I just recieved the items for the first fundraiser last Thursday. Now we have another form on Friday. There wasnt even a week between them.
I understand (being a PTO president myself) that they need to do fundraisers to earn money for the school. I understand where the money goes that they raise as well. It just hard with all the things that have been thrown at us and the kids havent even been in school a month.
Thank you JHB. I have to agree maybe Jewels ment to be helpful but because of the choice of words I may have taken it the wrong way.
A downside to forums like this and other electronic communications is that you lose all the body language and verbal cues that go along with the words - leaving the intent open to misinterpretation.
I didn't read Jewels response to you as an attack. "Storming" might have been an unfortunate choice of words, but it probably would have been perceived differently if you'd had some voice cues to go along with it.
As I was reading your original post, I was feeling sympathetic because we've all been there - barraged by fundraisers. Even if the PTO has its act together and limits the number of its sales activities, then there's the school fundraiser (which may be separate), Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Little League (the list goes on and on ...) plus nieces and nephews and neighbors. It's exhausting just thinking about it.
I thought Jewels was reacting the same way. (But then that's my interpretation.)
But back to your question. Yes - it is all too much. If its one entity such as the PTO, you can certainly voice your concerns. But investigating why things are planned as they are will be a good idea first so you are fully clued in. And better yet, you can get involved and try to help them find more diverse ways to raise money than just sales fundraisers.
But when it's coming at you from multiple organizations, all you can do is find out more about the reasons behind each fundraiser and which ones you can afford to support. And remember, if you choose to simply give a donation - even $5 or $10, the organization gets 100% of those funds. That's often what my family did rather than buying all the stuff.
Our PTA is begging donations for an event in two weeks. We just ordered yearbooks last week. (2 x $54). Class ring yesterday ($350). Daughter's FIRST fundraiser (one of many) comes home next week. Son's form for soccer fundraiser is due Monday - they are selling cookie dough. $15 each and the coach wants each team member to sell minimum of 30! Junior class will is selling coupon books. Haven't heard what swim team is about to do. And that's only October! Believe me - I do sympathize.
If you viewed my response as an attack, I'd have to say that your emotions seem to be elevated out of perspective at the moment on this issue. Breathe. Take some time away from this board. Come back in a couple of days when you have cooled down and re-read my response and any others you may recieve in the interim. At that point, I don't think you'll see my response in quite the same way.
Jewels3;145751 wrote: Now you know that you can't assume that every school operates with just one fundraiser in the fall and one in the spring. With some, it's one after the other. If you aren't happy about it, you don't have to participate but you may first want to educate yourself on what the money raised is going towards before you go storming into a PTO meeting.
Thank you for your response/opinion. I do not apprecate feeling like I am being attacked because of my views on this. I was giving the background on what happened ,why I felt this way, and asking if this happens in other schools.
First of all, I did not say I was going to go storming into the meeting, I stated that I wanted to attend the meeting and vent my fustration. I can do this in a pleasant way.
Second of all, I did say in my post I was not happy about it and that I was not going to participate. That is why I was going to send a direct donation to the school. So you dont need to say if I am not happy about it I dont have to participate. I had already made that decision.
:o 
