Had our Council Leader Appreciation Luncheon today and it went off very well! Outback Steakhouse sold the food at cost ($5.00 person) and the staff donated their time to work it. This included a buffet with steak, chicken, salad and garlic mashed potatoes and servers serving not alcoholic drinks.
I had goodie bags with a first aid kit, free ice cream cone from ColdStone, free sandwich from Subway, pen keychain, tissues and a full bag of snickers- all donated. Council also purchased candles and toolkits for the bags. Everyone felt very good about it and I have been getting warm thank you's all day.
These are the leaders that set up the Teacher Appreciation, Volunteer Appreciation, and basically all the work that committees won't or can't pull off. (Many of you are board members, you know what I mean!)
You could tell it had been a long time since many of them had felt "appreciated" and moral is now really high! It was well worth the investment in our leaders and it will pay off in enthusiasm at the schools.

Sure it cost us some money but we do many other great things with our budget. Sure they are volunteers but everyone needs to feel appreciated every now and again.

Here's what our group did: The remaining board members kicked in a little bit of cash to buy gift cards (from scrip, of course) for the outgoing board members. We put the gift cards inside of a thank you card that we all signed and wrote personal notes in.

Wow Tina, thanks for all the great ideas. Good luck with your BBQ. I'm in the middle of planning the end of the year Fun Day. We never stop, do we?

Here's a couple ideas....
Massage students have to earn minutes for their class, see if one (or more) would be willing to volunteer their time to offer your Board membrs a massage

As far as donations go (I'm about "donated" out for this year ) look into the unusual. Hallmark stores, beauty salon, barber shops, movie tickets, playhouses, dinner theater... if you have an Entertainment Book open it up and I got several ideas that way. OH golf courses!! Does your church have a gift shop? Always nice inexpensive gifts can be found....a key chain of the patron staint of volunteers or a cute something with the saying "Please drive only as fast as your guardian angel can fly" A Partylite mom, Mary Kay, Stamp'n up, Tupperware, etc would be people to ask for samples. My friend did Pamper Chef for years and had all kinds of cookbooks she was thrilled to get rid of! You know stuff like that you can put a gift bag together.

Another route, will the Women's Guild at church (we have several at ours so not sure what yours would be) help put together a afternoon tea? This may be a nice way to thank ALL the hard work from EVERYONE.

Michelle, I could be here all afternoon but I have a Staff BBQ to plan for next Friday click on my e-mail if I can help more

Tina...a "recovering" Catholic and absent minded password forgeter!

One of the things we do for our exiting officers is give a small token gift of appreciation or flowers. There is nothing wrong with this in our view. The officers work very hard during the years in our group. As you all know, those of you who are currently and formerly on Executive Boards, there are many countless hours of behind the scenes work that is performed by these board members. While I did not sign up to "receive my flowers" at the last meeting, I will gratefully receive them as a sign of thanks for my contribution for 5 years on the Board!
I might even have time for my own family now!!!

Maybe I'm misinterpreting your post but I wasn't suggesting buying something for myself or financially rewarding the board members. I just thought it would be nice (in addition to always thanking them publicly) to give them some type of treat. I've actually found star keychains which fit in with the theme of our school so I will probably get each one of those.
Thanks.