I agree a phone tree is one of the best ways to get in touch with "sticky" issues- like teacher appreciation.
We put it in the school newsletter and let everybody know it is coming up-
Then the room parents usually contact all of the parents in their class to see if they want to acknowledge it in some way. One class even got together to buy the teacher a special kind of DVD player (instead of individual gifts).

We are thinking about adding a new chair to the board next year- Phone tree chair.
This person would get a committee (the room parents?) and contact them if they need to call parents about something.
:cool:

All our volunteers receive e-mail notices when something special like this comes up - works great for us - no notes to come home and get lost.

Our school sends a flyer home in the Weds packet asking for food donations (strictly voluntary- ie. Pasta Salad, Green Salad, Jello Molds, so no one has to "Cook": then a few selected PTA board members prepare the hot food)

Dont worry about pleasing everyone(if teachers spent less time compalining in sunny California, Arnold "TheGovernator" wouldnt be ticken 'em off)

Cant please everyone, from my experience phone trees are a great idea but hard for others to do.

I discussed room mothers with our principal when I was pres. At the time she didn't feel like it was a good idea. With a school as small as ours it is easy for feelings to get hurt. A little too easy sometimes.

The name of the food and who cooked it is a great idea. I too received infomation for a pot luck but the info I received just asked us to put our name on the container. It is probably a good idea to put what is in the dish due to food allergies.

Closetwriter, I too liked to pick who cooked. I had alot of people willing and knew all of them. I felt like if anyone got sick or whatever I would be the responsible one since I was the one in charge. Some stresses I do not miss at all.

I like the phone tree idea also. We do not have room parents which would make that alot easier. For those of you who do, how are they chosen and what are their responsibilities??

While I understand the sanitary issue, it has been requested that all dishes have a name and food name on them. We have our share of parents who feel like the "name game" is played on things like this and I don't want anyone to feel left out. I'm figuring that the ones who would take the time to prepare something are the ones we usually depend on anyways.

I definitely will be looking into the room mother deal. That would be great to call or send a note to a room parent and them handle each room. We've never had that since I've been here. Sounds GREAT!!

[ 04-21-2005, 07:12 AM: Message edited by: ptohyeah ]

I agree with the phone tree or word of mouth. A few years ago I started to send home information. After talking to several other parents we decided it was a good idea not to do that. Mainly for sanitary reasons. I started spreading the word early. I also had a sign up sheet by the check out list in the office. I realize some parents do work and are not available to come to school during the day, but I did not know any other way of doing it. I think I did it two years and it worked out pretty good. The teachers were VERY appreciative of what was brought in. I also had emails for parents that wanted to participate in such things and I did try emailing everyone.