As a regular joe working the book fair, we weren't even told about "our" rewards! (Which is just as well, I suppose). We were told the book fair earned $X00.00 in vouchers, which we use to buy books for the school when we have our second "buy-one-get one-free" book fair at the end of the school year. It seems the fairest way of handling the situation.
I've been a volunteer a few times at our Scholastic Book fair and never gotten any kind of reward. When I was a PTA president, I never heard of anything. I know we give our teachers a lot of free books based on the sales but rewarding the book sale volunteers - that's new to me.
On the other hand, I have given market day volunteers small gifts at Christmas and on the last sale of the year, but I pay for them out of my own pocket. Most committees are once and done things but Market Day is physical labor for 9 sales and I really appreciate the help. I never thought about how that would be slighting any other committees - in fact, we've kidded that maybe the way to get people to sign up for less popular committees would be to bribe them with food as a reward.
As a grunt volunteer, I don't know what the options were for our Scholastic bookfair. I do know the end result.
The volunteers recieved the buy 4 and get 1 free option. It was a nice incentive that also upped the sales. To me, it seemed more like a marketing ploy than special treatment. You know - get the captive audience to think about buying.
I have to say as a volunteer, I don't really mind hearing that another group got a *little* incentive but I'd like it better to hear that all the possible benefits went to the school. That's what we're there for, after all.
Thank you for the info--it really is helpful. You are right in that it might be even more helpful to ask Scholastic directly about this stuff. The chairpeople we have really are great gals though and they do a bang-up job. I don't in any way want to make them feel awkward asking Scholastic, but perhaps there has been a miscommunication from the rep we use, or a miscommunication in the past that has traveled down year after year (we did have a different chairperson handling the book fair three years ago and apparently a few interpersonal conflicts). We typically take cash as profit and clear about $3000-4000 in income. The last fair was a buy one get one free, though, so we didn't take cash income--the $300 voucher must have been based on what we sold in some way though.
Anyway, thanks for all the help. Again, I'm still open to what others do with the $5 vouchers as without trying to hurt anyone's feelings, I'm just not sure how I feel about all this.
You know I really dislike know it alls, and that is actually how I sounded in the post above. I am sorry. I understand in different states things might work in different ways and I took it upon myself to set you straight when I had no right. When I took over the book fairs at our schools, the previous chairperson was using these incentive prizes for herself and her friends. I attend the chairperson meetings every year or so and they always stress that these incentives ar efor the kids. They even came up with an incentive just for volunteers last year. Buy 4 get the fifth book free. Check with your book fair rep. to find out how they want things done.
This will be my 6th year, my 10th book fair and I have never heard of rewards for volunteers. We too receive ten (10) $5.00 gift certificates, but these gift certificates are meant to be used as prizes for a student contest, (guess how many of something that goes with the theme, or a coloring contest). These prizes are in no way supposed to be given to volunteers. A volunteer is just that, a volunteer. I do remember a few years ago that they did send on page with the colosing paperwork that said something about the chairperson taking $20 in books from the fair as a thank you, but I always gave this to the teacher who had the most volunteers. This may be where the confusion came in. Check with you scholastic representative, he or she will set you guys straight on how the incentive giveaways are to be used.
The $300 voucher that your team received was probably part of the school's profit. I could be wrong, maybe your school sells so many books that they give your chairperson extra incentive prizes.
There are many options in taking your profit. Cash only, cash and books, vouchers for the catalog are a way of doubling your profit. If I were you, I would just look ever the profit sheets that the chairperson must fill out at the end of the fair and send in the the check. If you don't have copies, I am sure scholastic would send them to you.
