That is a great idea!!! I would love to adopt a needy family through the school. I will make the suggestion next year........We never do anything free at our school. Everything is a fundraiser even Family Fun Night. We do a fundraiser every month plus the usual box tops, ink cartridges and stuff like that.

I wanted a grand idea on how we could spend the money for all the kids. I didn't want to just give it all over to the teachers to do with whatever they choose. That is mostly what we did though.

wowwowwowwow, your principal lets you do a fundraiser every month, we can only do 2 a year.the big ones . and we cant get the princapipal to let us do a kick off.PART OF me wishs we had all that money,but with money comes problems.as for something new, why not give back to the world,adopt a needy family.child can learn alot this way.just an idea.good luck next year.

Hey............ I forgot to mention that one board member did quit tonight over how we decided to spend the money

Thank you so much for all your help. We have always made this much money yearly. This year it was actually over $22,000. We have our teachers make wish lists for supplies and such.

So we decided to give each teacher $300 and those that made wish list an extra $400. We gave 10% for new playground.

We do pay for lots of supplies for the copy room and all that. I just wanted an idea on something new for the money. We left $4,000 in the account for next year.

I just don't like spending the money on supplies for the teachers. I would like something MORE FUN!!!

We also decided to take 2 of the fundraisers out for next year, (We did one fundraiser a month this school year).

Thanks for all the replies. I get sad on how we spend the money!!

Since our June meeting is always our surplus spending meeting, our members always come with wish lists in hand. I go around the room and give each member time to make their suggestions. Once everyone has had a chance to talk, we go back and start cutting the list back until we have the final cut and can begin allocation voting. This way everyone feels like they had a chance to make suggestions.

In the past we've used excess fund to purchase a laminating film, AV equipment, new chairs for the teachers' lounges, computer printers for every classroom, consumables for a new science curriculum, playground and PE equipment, folders and planners and so on.

This year we're trying a radical ( ) new plan and will try to fund all of next year's activities first (instead of carrying over the minimum $1500 and basically starting from scratch each year).

I agree with Tim. Investing in a program such as PTO Today offers would be wise. It's too late for my (I'm moving on....) but I'm highly suggesting it to my successor.

And Critter is right. Spending meetings can sometimes get heated. A surplus should be an exciting thing but keep in mind that each member is coming in with their own ideas on how to spend it. As long as discussions stay on topic and everyone has a chance to weigh in before the vote, it should go pretty smoothly.

We usually have around 15 members present so it doesn't take up too much time. But everyone knows the spending meeting is just going to be two hours long.

This year, I tried to ease into the spending meeting by starting discussions in the April meeting, continueing into the May meeting (which is tonight) and finally, making the decisions in the June meeting. Maybe (hopefully) that'll cut the time down.

pagentmom, I don't envy you. Money decisions can get pretty personal and maybe even defensive and nasty. I hope your group is cohesive and in agreement on the expenditure plan so you're not in this meeting all night!

Just curious...is this unexpected surplus? Did you already spend this year's budget on your normal PTO activities? Would you consider just holding on to this money so you don't have to do any fundraising next year?