Our head room parents and room parents are only responsible for the winter party and the end-of-year party. Some of the heads are parents who do lots of other things, but there are quite a few who do not have time to do much else, but want to do the party thing since it is only a twice a year commitment. It works great for us. The vice-president oversees this part of our program. The PTO provides each head room parent with $50 and it is to be used for both parties.
We have a position on our executive board for Homeroom Parent Chair and she/he solicit volunteers for homeroom parents, 1 or 2 per class Preschool - 5th grade and then also coordinates the Booster Club for our 6th-12th grades. Each homeroom parent coordinates the holiday parties and by this I mean arrange for every parent in the room to plan and do one of them. This allows every parent in the classroom to have a turn if they want it. We have broken our staff appreciation lunches into four with each one hosted by a school level: Preschool-2nd/3rd-5th/MS/HS. The hrp's or booster parents coordinate these under the guidance of the Staff Appreciation Chair. We have found that this way the same people aren't doing everything (except for those of us who have children in every level!) The HRP's also contact volunteers to work shifts at our Fall Carnival.
Wow! They really do a lot! But we couldn't work without them! :cool:
Our room parents take care of the 2 classroom parties (winter & V-day), a school-wide end of year party & the class basket for the auction fundraiser. They ask parents for donations of goods to be used for the parties & class baskets. The PTO does not provide money to the classroom for parties, etc.
Thank-you for the ideas. I was kind of thinking along the those same lines as far as "responsibilities" of the Room Moms.
I am always trying to come up with ways to get more parents involved instead of always the same few. I am hoping that making some of these changes in what the Room Moms do will help.
Thanks again! I'll keep checking for any more ideas!
Our room parents organize the parties, do the yearbook pages for the classroom, and get volunteers from their class for the spring carnival. Our sign up sheets also have areas for parents to sign up who wish to help with any of these events.
We have two committee co-chairs that organize the room reps, you never know if you'll have a dad. There is no limit to how many each class has but only 4 can help at each of our 3 parties. The chairs man a table used a sign in the reps and provide name badges on the days of the parties for crowd control and security.
On a daily basis we have a whole network of moms and dads that come in to specifically help their child's teacher. They might pass out stuff to take home, help the kids read privately, test them on spelling or math minutes. These daily people help out and communicate strictly with the teacher and must enter through the office like any visitor, but we don't manage them. However, they are typically our room reps. You'll never guess who are field trip chaperones usually are?
We give each class $30 for room parties. We found that asking over and over is more trouble then it worth and we are already hitting them up for Fall fundraisers and volunteering at that time anyway. We buy all the paper goods also. If you plan ahead you can hit the close outs and get the stuff early and in bulk. It's all part of the budget.
We usually go to room moms first when it comes to things like getting the word out and helping at field day. We communicate to the teachers through the principal and teacher reps.
Our only issue is some room reps like to organize the teachers gifts and send out letters asking for a donation for a collective gift. Sounds nice and thoughtful right? No, for some reason other parents always call and complain. Some actually complain that teachers get paid and they don't need a gift. So Staff appreciation is a separate thing and all staff members receive equal items. :confused:
All of this is explained at a training meeting at the beginning of the year. We also have Great Art show & tell and a publishing center that gets moms and dads interacting with the classrooms and their own kids.
