CBrooks -
I'll plead guilty to this being a real (overdone? yes!) sticking point for me, and I tend to simplify the debate ("just dump campbell's) to emphasize my point.
I'd say this:
If there are a couple of kindly grandmothers who've been snipping soup labels for twenty years and just love it, etc. -- great. It obviously hurts no one for it to continue.
Same thing if you just keep getting labels in and somebody really wants to send them in. Fine.
But I feel really strongly (apparently you've noticed) that you're doing involvement a disservice if your group publicly supports the Campbell's program in any way. You're saying (in my rather harsh opinion) how little you value the time and attention of your general parents. As a parent group you have a limited (often *very* limited) number of things you can ask of your general parents before they shut you off. That's how Campbell's can do harm. If one of your "limited number" is Campbell's, then what much more important thing is getting dropped off the list? I know that your group doesn't have to limit the list. You can have 92 things on your list. But the fact is that parents will limit the list in their own heads.
And as for the spirit and tradition and camaraderie, I'm a huge fan of such things. But the school in the article (
www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/7669803.htm
) is a great example. Couldn't they have had the same spirit and camaraderie around a reading goal ("If the kids read 5000 books, Mr. Jones will get the duct tape treatment"), rather than a goal of collecting $20 of Campbell's labels?
My grammar school in the 70s also did Campbell's, and we did have fun with the class rivalries and a rotating trophy. Today, there are way better options for the same effect.
I love this debate, and would love to hear more...
Tim
PS -- Lighten up? I'll try. I'm usually the one using that line on others.