We do an Ice Cream Social/ Back to School night the 3rd week after school starts every year for our school. We budget $200 for it. We KNOW that it will be approved in the budget because it is tradition. But in your case, I would recommend doing it as a Back To School night event and not a PTA Meeting. Sometime in the future consider it as a meeting. When doing your budget, put on it "Family Night Events" and an amount. That would be your line item. On ours we are specific because we know what it is used for. But last year we did have $500 budgeted for a Family Event but never used it because we never made up the money. (we did VERY poor last year with a really political PTA President who wouldnt allow others to volunteer).
We also want to do a Back to School Bash and Ice Cream Social in September as a way to introduce the PTA and encourage membership. I like the idea of the ice cream cups to keep the lines down. We also need to hold a brief general meeting to vote on the budget but I don't want to put that on the flyer (afraid parents wouldn't want to come!) Any ideas on how to make this evening a success would be much appreciated. We have never done a Back to School event and membership was down last year...
For the past 6 years our school which is K-5 has held an ice cream social for all incoming Kindergarten students and their families. We have a local family restaurant donate the ice cream, sprinkles and whipped cream. The PTO sponsors this evening and provides all paper products needed. We give water bottles with our school name on them to all students and hire a school bus for an hour so that all students have an opportunity to take a ride on a bus with Mom or Dad before the big day. The Kindergarten teachers are on hand to meet the families for the first time and provide tours of their classrooms. This is conducted the week prior to school starting. It also provides the children with an opportunity to make new friends - have a familiar face before the first day. We provide a package to all parents with information on our PTO and how we provide for the children. They are given PTO dates with an invitation to attend and some words of encouragement (we all know what its like to be the new kid on the block - even when your a Mom or Dad). If you cannot find local businesses to contribute - check your local BJ's Clubs or Costco for ice cream supplies. If planned right its a fun evening that can be inexpensive to boot. Enjoy!
Our school just held our Open House/Ice Cream social, sponsored by the PTO. It was a huge success and we were able to enroll new members & sell our spirit wear. The original plan was to buy the ice cream from our local wholesale companies..Costco or Sam's Club, however, we indeed up getting a better deal directly from the ice cream company. We purchased individual cups of ice cream which eliminated the hassle of scooping. You may check with your local creamery for a great deal or a wholesale food distributor in your area if one is available to you. You can also check with local grocers in your area for donations of cookies to go along with your ice cream. We received a donation of 350 cookies from a local hotel.
We have a new superintendent at our school and she is showing alot of interest in getting to know the community better. That being said, we also would like to increase our parent involvement with PTO. So for our first meeting, we are going to try an ICE CREAM SOCIAL/MEET & GREET NEW SUPERINTENDENT and hold a brief PTO meeting prior to this. My big concern is we don't know how much Ice Cream we should buy. Last year at our first meeting we had 35 in attendance. This was a GOOD show. We have approximately 700 students but with this being our first year with an ice cream social I really don't know how to figure for how much Ice cream and beverages we should have. Any ideas would certainly be appreciated. Our social is the third week of Sept. so we have a little time to plan. I was also thinking of having our volunteer bakers bake some brownies and cookies to be available that evening also.
This year our school is having an ice cream social before the school year. We have contracted with an independent ice cream truck vendor to provide ice cream novelties. We will sell tickets and use the tickets as currency with the vendor. In the past, volunteers complained that the wait to receive ice cream in a school w/ >800 students was too long and it was too hard to scoop ice cream for everyone.
