I am the new PTA pres. this year and this will be the first time that our school will be having a Family Fun Day. My husband ihas built most of the games and we will have a dunking booth (which several teachers have volunteered to go in) jumping house , another teacher has volunteered to bring her horses. I had a meeting after school for any teacher that was will to help out and to my amazement about 25 teachers came. They came up with having two liter tuesday and the first class that had 100% participation would recieve 2 tickets for each studentin class. We receive enough cokes to use for concessions and to use for a ring toss game. If they would of thought about this sooner they also came up with frito friday, weiner wednesday. Hope some of these ideas help
Our PTO handles every aspect of our Fun Fair which includes the concession stand. We TRY to go to all of the local stores and ask for a donation (we usally get enough pop between the 3 major food chains). However, if the expense of the pop is not in your budget I would tell the person to submit the request in writing to your next board meeting. Which I know is easier said than done. It seems that at the end of this year everyone and their brother is asking for a little here and a little there. It seems our staff thinks that the president has the athority to do what ever when ever-- as president I am trying with the help of my tres. (we both will be back next year) that there are rules that must be followed. So, I would tell this person that for what ever reason (oversite?) the pop expense is not in the budget and it will have to be voted on whether or not PTO will pay for the pop.
That sounds exactly like what I have gotten my self into with our school carnival...3 years ago they never had a big carnival...there were some small homemade games, a few raffle items and they served cookies, drinks, etc.
Then I coordinated my first carnival event. I wanted real midway games and striped booths. We had bounce houses, real mini golf, spin art, duck ponds, fish ponds, cotton candy, hot dogs, etc. etc. etc. It has gotten so huge that we can't hardly handle the capacity. The raffle is amazing and people come from all schools in the area and comment that it is the best community event we do - we never real plan to make a lot of money on the event as we keep prices very very low ($.50 for a corn dog, $.50 bottle of pop, $5.00 for 25 game tickets) So my point is that many people tell me that they can't go back to the old way now and that I will be doing the carnival until all my 3 kids are in jr. high...I keep telling people I take good notes and could train someone to do this...but I seem to be locked in...I do love it but am afraid if no one else steps forward to do it after me the "tradition" will go away and we won't have this type of carnival for the kids anymore....I guess time will tell...perhaps I should just say the word "no" sometime...worth a try - how hard could it be to say??? [img]smile.gif[/img]
[img]smile.gif[/img] Well, if you've done it THREE times, then that would be an entrenched tradition. Your BBQ has become a sacred cow, and what tangled image that metaphor creates! [img]smile.gif[/img]
Three years ago I helped a friend with the planning of Appreciation Week and we decided to have a BBQ on Friday during lunch. This year I am the chairperson and was really debating the whole idea when one of our male teachers told me "How can you break the tradition that YOU started! We are depending on you Tina for BBQ on Friday!" .....what are they going to do next year???? [img]tongue.gif[/img]
How do traditions get started? Check out this true story...
My co-President received an e-mail from the chair of the carnival committee. She explained that it was traditional for the PTA President to obtain the pop for the school carnival. Now, they have been working on the carnival since January, so why they chose mid-April to inform us of this tradition for the May 3rd carnival is beyond me. This is not the first time this year that somebody has sprung one of these presidential duties on us, but at least this time there was enough time for us to say "WHAT?"
As I usually do when hit with an unexpected item, I called the immediate past President. I explained to her what we had been told, and asked her what she could tell me about this. I wasn't even sure if they were asking us to go to Sams Club, or hit up the local bottlers for donations, or what.
It turns out that the last two years, a particular active parent has volunteered to coordinate the cafeteria during the carnival. This parent has a good friend who is also active, and that friend agreed to assist this parent by getting the pop. Now, it just happens that this parent was also co-President of the PTA, and her friend was the other co-President of the PTA.
So, while it was true that the last two years the pop had been picked up by the President, this was coincidence and not design.
There is an old saying that once you've done something twice, it has become a tradition. My question was "what is the tradition?" Is the tradition for the PTA President to pick up the pop? Or is the tradition for this particular parent to pick up the pop?
