Finally able to take a breather (man, the beginning of the school year is BUSY for us!). Thought I'd follow up on my original post.
We ended up doing a Potluck Dinner. Pre-registration was available for printed namebadges and activity bags for the kids. Committee member badges were a different color. I had T-shirts made up for the board members.
We made international welcome banners for the cafeteria as well as banners that showed what the families did for the school last year, whether they were PTA members or not (i.e. Box Tops collections paid for xyz, Jog-A-Thon fundraiser paid for all PTA-sponsored field trips, buses, yada, yada), etc.
Tablecloths were art paper; crayons, coloring pages with our new website address on them, membership forms, clearance forms, reasons to get involved flyers were in the activity bags. Had a banner my kids had started and had all the kids attending sign their first names. Hung that banner in the cafeteria for another couple weeks until after our Annual Open House.
Food tables marked (i.e. appetizers, main dishes, etc.). Used it as an example during the emceeing as how easy it was to volunteer. If they were able to place their dish on the correct table, they'd just learned 40% of what is needed for Market Day Inventory. If they didn't think they had time to volunteer, they'd made time to come out with a dish and help make it a successful event. Volunteering was as simple as each of us pitching in a little where we could.
First game was based on a picture of our school mascot placed on each table. If it had a T on it, the teacher sitting closest to the mascot had to come up, P - parent, then each of the grades for students. All picked card stock marked with letters and had to spell out their "words" (Potluck Tastes Awesome)...then the 3 capital letters had to stay up (P-T-A)...those 3 tables got to get in line for food first.
Had mixer questions designed to get people talking to one another (i.e. look for a red badge and ask them what their favorite school event is, find someone with a pink paper [kindergarten parent] and find out what makes them proudest of their child, etc.) Prizes were involved.
Lessons learned...mixer questions earlier - lots of people left after eating. LOL!
Feedback on the event was very positive. Even with the PTA providing the turkey and ham, in addition to the banners, badges, bags, crayons and art paper, we were able to do it all for under $450.
Looks like we'll be doing it again next year.
Vivian