At the close of our Book Fair, children of vols are allowed to pick out a book ($4.99 or less) -- some do this, others choose something for a teacher or give it to the Media Center -- and we also encourage customers to donate any books from previous Book Fairs that they're done with (provided they're in good shape) to the Media Center.

Everyone seems happy with this. Each year, we continue to make more $$$ & are able to give all of the other incentives (don't recall all of them, but it includes surpassing previous sales amts., scheduling the next fair, having a family night, etc.) to the Media Center. We add hundreds of books to our library each year--so we feel like we've accomplished a lot.

I have read the above posts and let me advise you that vouchers are for the schools not the volunteers. Volunteers should be helping at the bookfairs because they want to see the kids read and want to play a role in their children's education by volunteering to help in any way they can. Believe me, I have been a Co President for 4 years now and I do not get any pay. My volunteerism is that - volunteerism. Sure each school or PTO can give a little incentive to their volunteers to say thanks. There are many ways to go about doing that, however, the vouchers are part of the profit margin for the school and are in no way shape of form for Volunteers. Scholastic Bookfairs has different incentive programs for different parts of the country. Scholastic bookfairs has recently put together a Customer Advisory Board of which I am a member. They are trying to do more for the kids and trying to recognize what works and what doesn't. I am very pleased at how well they do want to listen.

All I can say at this point is the company is genuinely interested in what it's customers have to say. In the near future there will be more across the board "incentives" if you will.

Ok. that's all for now. I just could not keep quiet any longer as I read these posts.
P.S. I have chaired 12 bookfairs.

I'm a bit of a procrastinator so I'm posting my two cents just a bit later. Mom2m&a...I'm on the same page as you and your posting was anything but harsh. It was right on the money! Since when do parent volunteers think that they get to earn cash and prizes for their work? Are we not all there for the same reasons...to provide for the school and our children? I have chaired our middle school book fair through (IL) Scholastic for five years now and not once (with the exception of the buy 4 get 1 free) have we offered the volunteers any of the Scholastic profits. They are strictly for the school! The $5.00 incentive for teacher video previewing (which I understand Scholastic is discontinuing) has gone right back to that particular teacher's library. The $50.00 Family Night incentive goes into a student raffle held at the end of the week. The catalog voucher, which I understand is based on total sales and end payment to Scholastic in a timely fashion, goes to our LRC Director for purchases to benefit the library. The cash profit (which is what we choose to do) goes directly into the LRC fund for AR Reader books/tests and other library supplies deemed necessary by the LRC Director.
Once you start the "volunteer perks" on any committee, it can only become a "downhill run" from there. I am truly disheartened that more research wasn't done by the original committee through Scholastic. However, in reference to one of the above postings, you never know what the Scholastic Sales Rep is telling/offering you because their job is to "Sell, sell, sell."
On another note, (IL) Scholastic is doing some major incentive cut-backs. Please be aware that if you open your mouth or threaten use of a competitor company, they will cut you great incentive deals. The squeaky wheel gets the oil! Good Luck to all above!

I'm on the board of our PTO and chair of the Scholastic Book Fair. The way our fair works is that Scholastic gives us incentive dollars to use however we wish - as door prizes or teacher prizes, etc. I'm sorry, but to me it is completely unethical to use those funds for volunteers. And the voucher that you get after the book fair (to be used in the Scholastic IRC catalog) is meant to be used by the school - not the chairperson. Maybe the Scholastic sales rep tells people that it's ok to keep the incentives - after all the more you sell the more money Scholastic makes. With the cash option the school only makes 25% of the total sales. I just can't imagine anyone believing that it is ok to take these incentives. Volunteers are just that - volunteers. Keeping those incentives is compensation to your "employees" and technically should be declared on your tax form if you are a 501c3.

We had to change our bylaws last year to cover a similar situation. We found out that the chairperson of our family portrait night received a package of pictures worth over $300 and had her entire family photographed for free. We could have used that package as a silent auction prize or other give-away. So we changed our bylaws to reflect that no one can receive compensation of ANY kind.

It's just not ethical to keep anything like this. We have a terrible time finding volunteers, but the money that we raise for our school is desperately needed at the school and doesn't belong in volunteers pockets. I know it happens a lot - one of our past presidents told me a story about how she ran our Halloween carnival and afterward, when she was clearly burned out from the hard work, one of the other board members told her to take some of the proceeds and get herself a manicure! But just because it happens doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. Once you do it, it becomes harder and harder to draw the line on what is right and what is wrong.

Sorry this sounds so harsh, but this is a real hot button for me.

With our Scholastic Book Fairs we offer to staff and volunteers if you buy 4 books you get 1 free for equal or lesser value. The other incentive money goes to our teachers. Each class will create a poster (which is optional) for the Theme of the book fair which is used to promote and decorate the fair - we then have a drawing of all participating classes and the winner gets 20.00 in books for the classroom. All teachers who participate in the wishlist program are entered in a drawing to win 20.00 in books for the classroom. Teachers who show the author preview video to their class is allowed a free book from the fair(5.00 or less). All vouchers are used for the library or school-I would put a stop to anyone thinking the vouchers are for their personal use.

For our 5$ book fair vouchers, our director of the media center selected children he knew would benefit most from owning their own book. their names were "magically" drawn out of a hat. we have also given a percentage discount to our volunteers, which means they usually buy $150 in books instead of $125.