Hi,
We adopted guidelines for retirement and memorial gifts into our bylaws. Unless there is a hardship issue, we donate a book to the school library in the person's name. Our librarian is wonderful, she finds out about the person retiring or who passed away, and picks a book that reflects that person. She puts a plate in the front of the book to memorialize the honoree, and it can be enjoyed by many children.
Carrie

We also budget so much money for gifts etc. When staff is sick (in hospital) we sennd flowers, retirements, we give gifts based on the teachers interests. The cost of a retirement gift does depend on how long a teacher has been in the school to a point. If we go over the budget, I can approve cost up to $100 and the executive board can approve up to $500.

In our budget that we present at the beginning of the year we have a "special occasion" section where it was voted upon to keep $200.00 in that account. If someone passes away or retires we usually send flowers or buy something usually for around $50.00. We also buy gifts if a teacher gets married or has a baby.By having the money already approved it cuts down on having to take votes or waiting until the next meeting to ask the general membership to approve. If we go over the $200.00 then we do have to have every purchase over $50.00 approved.

We've never had a set amount either, but we've never had more than one retire in the same year at our school where there would be the potential for hurt feelings. Our amounts have varied also. Alot has depended on the relationship between the particular teacher and our organization. We had a teacher who was very supportive of our PTA, chaired and worked on many committees, never missed a meeting, and in fact many of us didn't even realize how much she did until she was gone and it wasn't getting done anymore! So our gift cost $100. Since then most of our gifts have been around $30.00 because we've gone in with staff and bought a large gift/party for them. Our principal retired last year and we did give $100.00 for her party as well as $50.00 toward her big gift and then we had a lot of smaller "home made" gifts that we initiated and worked on with students. As far as memorials for deaths, we normally buy a nice hardcover book for our library and donate it in memory of the deceased. Of course there's an emblem placed inside the book - "In memory of..." . We have limited this to the staff persons spouse, children, or parents. We do not do it for inlaws. We had to draw the line somewhere and thats where we drew it. If it's some other relative we just give them a sympathy card. The only exception was the principal's mother. We sent flowers for the funeral and donated the book.

I'm new at the PTO co-president's position, and I am trying to feel my way through this position. Here is my problem: Our PTO has had a lot of retirements and requests for memorial gifts to be given. I feel that there should be some standard amount given and some guidelines for when memorial gifts sould be given. Do any of you have guidelines or how do you keep things fair and equal amoung the staff.

Do you think that it is inappropriate to say when a staff retires they are given a gift that is similiar to their years of service. ex, $25 for every 5 yrs of service in the district. We had 2 teachers retire with almost the same amount of years, one was given $100 at the end of last school year. The reading teacher retiring in Feb is being given $200.

Does your PTO give memorial gifts for staff members who had a parent-in-law pass?

Any advise or insite on these issues would be appreciated