Shawn gave you some great answers, but I would like to add a little to two of your questions.
Are time restrictions a turn off ie turn in forms by this date?
A cut off date is an absolute MUST. And you need to stick to it, even if it means that you lose a few dollars in sales. The sooner you can get your parents trained, the better off you will be. And if you let one person slide, the next time there will be one more, then one more, then one more...
What we do to get the money/orders in on time is to offer a "grand prize" drawing for those students who turn CORRECT money and orders in by a certain date. For example: if we want the orders by Friday, we tell the students that those who get their orders in by Wednesday will have their name go in a drawing for a $50 gift card to Toys R Us. It is a GREAT motivator!
We also offer weekly drawings of smaller prizes like $5 cash or logo items. For our catalog fundraiser, the students got to fill out a drawing slip when the first item was sold. After that, they could turn in a drawing slip for every 5 itmes sold. We required the parent to sign the slip, and only handed the prizes out when the orders were turned in and verified. Oakland Park Mom was right on...you have to keep the FUN in it.
If i launch a fundraiser at a meeting and pass out brochures and instructions with dates and stuff, is there a reason they wouldn't do it? Let's assume its decently priced products people would actually buy.
Send out a survey and ask the parents what they want to sell. Give them the list of fundraisers that you have found and give them space to write in any ideas that they might have. Once again, Oakland Park Mom was correct. The parents are really the ones who do the selling, so you might as well sell what the majority of the parents want.
HTH!