CrewChief--I don't find the wording extreme at all--a little passionate, perhaps . To be honest I find some excitement refreshing -- not the same old/same old.

I think the point TerriK is making is being missed. Offering spiritwear to kids before they get to the school is not evil. That is not what she's freaking out about. The point is that there is obvious fundraising gone awry issues here, and this group seems intent on making a buck wherever possible.

I agree with you, CrewChief

make the spirit wear available to them and at a lower cost!

As I said:

If it's REALLY about a sense of belonging or being a part of the family you either sell the stuff at cost or just give it to them. No profit in any way should be made in a "welcome to our school" situation.

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You've NO idea how frustrating it is that you can't control the other group! Imagine some other group coming into your school and pushing their fundraisers off on you. It's bad enough you have to perform the necessary evil yourself to do things for the school--but then to have someone else come in and try to profit off you, while potentially taking money away from YOUR funding!

Again--this is NOT about trying to include others or being friendly -- unless you're trying to seduce someone to "the dark side," that is. [img]tongue.gif[/img] It's concerning control in two ways here. 1) As we all know the control we exert within our own realms as PTO leaders is tenuous and dependent on many factors. Do the job well and everyone is happy. Imagine someone not caring about you or your job and doing whatever they please because it suits THEIR needs. If they wreck things for you--Oh well. 2) Let's imagine you ARE a part of the group that's running around fundraising out the wazoo. You see the damage it's wreaking. You know if people would just listen to reason you COULD stop the train wreck from happening BUT "the powers that be" will NOT listen. It's infuriating!

What bums me out is that there's no one to go to for help. Obviously the principals won't step in, nor will the superintendent or board of ed. What is one to do when it's every one for themselves--how do you protect your group's best interests if people are allowed to do whatever they want?

Sorry CrewChief- I disagree with you. It's all about a Principal who is a BULLY and the PTA allowing her to do what she wants and how she wants. The PTA general membership voted on the fundraisers and how to spend the money. The Principal and the PTA are now having more fundraisers than was agreed upon and spending the money any way they see fit. They are NOT spending it on our children. If they were I don't think I'd have an issue. But to keep fundraising and fundraising and now hitting up some poor innocent new families, I find it utterly disgusting!

They are the laughing stock of all parent groups in our town. They should be ashamed of the way they are representing the group.

TerriK - your district seems to have issues that have nothing to do with fundraisers, PTA or PTO. I understand that you're frustrated but, WOW, some of the wording is extreme. I didn't expect that on PTO Today boards.

You can't control the other school or the PTA. All you can do is run your own group with integrity.

I agree with others that it isn't completely out of line for the other school to offer spirit wear to ALL incoming students regardless of where they're coming from. If you know your 5th graders are moving on to this other school, perhaps you can make the spirit wear available to them and at a lower cost! If you really want to impress the students/parents, offer the items at cost so it isn't a fundraiser at all. What better way to show them you care and send them off with a positive attitude.

Debbiee- to answer your question as to if I've ever run a fundraiser before- the answer is YES! in fact, more than my share of them. Not only have I run them but have been an officer for 6 years and PTA/PTO president for the past 3 1/2 years. So I do know a thing or two about it.

Tim- do I have stories about this group for you.I can really make your head spin and then explode with the crazy stories!

I guess what really makes me crazy with this entire situation is the fact that last year they did pass off one of their fundraisers at my school, again not running it by me or the Principal. It was for the school tool box kits. Our teachers do it as a servixe for our kids, the other school was doing it as a fundraiser. I was the one who received the phone calls from irate parents demanding to know why the K-5 boxs were so much cheaper than the 6th grade boxes. When I explained that the 6th grade boxes were a fundraiser from the other school they basically ripped my apart. Were our teachers raised the prices up to the nearest dollar, they other school raised there prices up nearly $10.

This turned a lot of parents off to the other school. Now, since they are PTA there are rules to follow. When I didn't follow the rules to the "T" at my school PTA was all over me. It really sucks to see that PTA picks who has to follow the rules and who they will bend the rules for.PTA always states that they are not to become fundraising factories, that is what PTO's are for. That's the funniest statement ever coming from them! In fact all the other schools in our town have gone PTO and combined we don't do as many fundraisers as this PTA does. And just what do the kids get for all this fundraising? They get a principal who threatens to put cameras in the bathrooms, keeps kids in rooms that are 38 degrees during the winter months and has had DFYS called in on them. But no fieldtrips, programs or anything fun. They just take the money and allow the principal to spend it any way she sees fit. Come on now, this really makes you all want to send your kids there doesn't it?

We're encouraging our middle school PTO to send home a flyer to our "graduating" elementary school 5th graders this spring so they can order spiritwear now. Otherwise, they have to wait at least 4 weeks after the start of school for merchandise delivery in the fall. I know our parents will appreciate the opportunity to buy the sportswear now, some will probably order a t-shirt as a "graduation" gift.

Parents can tell from the price if the markup looks like a fundraiser, but i don't think the flyer has to scream "this is a fundraiser for xyz middle school".

The issue with "too many" fundraisers is that every fundraiser takes some amount of volunteer labor to conduct. People will say, "Oh, you can just chose not to paricipate if you don't like the fundraiser." That's true, but you still have consumed some valuable volunteer resources by conducting the event in the first place. Plus you have the fundraiser burnout factor that builds up and taints your PTO/PTA when you've crossed that imaginary threshhold.

How people perceive your fundraisers is determined by how you market them. We sell spritiwear and make a profit, but the markup is modest and we don't market it as a fundraiser. No body minds. On the other hand, we conduct a major candy sale and make it clear that this is an important fundraiser so our customers understand the importance of the event to our budget. Everyone understands.

I wouldn't want to see a different fundraising flyer come home with my child each month, no doubt. So just run your group as you see fit and keep the number of overt fundraisers low. And be glad you're not a member of the other group.

[ 04-23-2006, 01:18 AM: Message edited by: Critter ]

I think part of the bigger problem here is that she noted that this school came into their school and did this without speaking with the PTO of this school or the Principal. A group not connected to that school has no right to hand out anything through the school without the consent of the principal and should have at least had the common decency to have talked with this PTO about what they wanted to do.

Obviously there are bigger issues here and some less then nice feeling between these 2 groups. If a happier situation existed between both groups then maybe they would not mind so much. But again I think they were very out of line for doing this without having spoken to anyone and I can tell you that if someone did something like this in our school without asking permission from our principal he would be on a rampage.