mum24 makes good points.

also "We always have our luncheons at a nice restaurant, and the school pays for it.'

are you at a public school? i have never heard of a school paying for a luncheon for its volunteers.
whom do they invite, how do they choose, are they able to invite all who helped? how many were invited , who did the inviting, the principal or the PTO? we have about 100 active volunteers, that would be one big restaurant bill at our school!

Without knowing all the details, it would seem lots of money (ie a 'nice' restaurant) went to something that maybe could have been used for the kids...i dont know maybe your school has lots of extra cash, ours sure doesnt!! seems most public schools have PTOs get monies to fill in the gaps or shortcuts from their own underfunded budgets.

the thank you we get from the principal or super has always been great mention in the school paper/newsletter and at meetings or a personal thank you card.

at our school, it has ALWAYS been the pto that hosts and pays for , the volunteer end of year coffee/brkfst or pot luck luncheon at an officers house.

but in any event, IF the principal or vice arranged for the luncheon, and agreed to pay for it, why didnt the restaurant just send her the bill? she didnt have to be present in order to pay, if in fact that was the arrangement.

it does sound like there was a bit of confusion or miscommunication going on, i mean, why did you have to hear it from a volunteer and not first hand, that the principal wouldnt attend but the vice would? seems like, going forward, you need to have direct and clear communications with your principal, from what little has been posted.

If it's a new principal, are you sure she knew this was something that the school traditionally pays for? I ask because you say that the principal and vice principal were invited---I would have thought that if they were the ones that were supposed to pay for it, they would have been the ones doing the inviting!

You also mention that the new principal was invited to the last PTO meeting by the former principal...why not by the PTO?

Obviously I don't know the woman, but it seems more like she's clueless about how some PTO things work, not that she's intentionally snubbing you.

I was told by one of the volunteers that attended the luncheon that our principal had to attend a meeting and that our vice principal would be able to attend. She never showed. I'm the PTO President, and I should have been told what was going on. They were both invited, and as far as I knew, they were both attending.

We always have our luncheons at a nice restaurant, and the school pays for it. I think it is very rude that we had to pay for our own volunteer luncheon. This is just another example of how we are not appreciated. This has been going on all year since our new principal started. She didn't make a good first impression either. She was invited to our last PTO meeting by our wonderful former principal, and she sat there and fell asleep. She is very unorganized, and she doesn't have the support of her staff or teachers.

I have worked very hard for our school, and I absolutely LOVE being a volunteer. We are all thinking about quitting. She has upset our entire school with all of the changes she is making for the upcoming school year. Several teachers have left or retired. No one smiles anymore. It is just not a good place to be anymore. I am simply disgusted.

I wouldnt jump to any conclusioins. Go ask what happened.
Probably a simple reason. Did they get into a car accident, car breakdown, run out of gas? Did they have the wrong address, wrong time, did someone misinform them, did an emergency come up at school (or in their personal life, they have those too) and they couldnt contact you in time ? Or.....did they simply FORGET???? it does happen!!

Ask them and you may be pleasantly surpirsed it had NOTHING to do with lack of appreciation.

Oh MT--how terrible...I would ABSOLUTELY speak to the principal about that immediately. The perceptions it has already created will do irreparable damage to your group and their morale. While you don't know the reasons (or maybe you do) you need to clear the air or it will be with you from here on out. Let us know what happens...d

Oh boy this would piss me off big time...tell us more!