Hi All!!
I had a feeling our school was different! I did mention to the Media Specialist aobut helping more with the bookfair and acting more as a co-chair or assisant and ( hey Pearlie..) she hit the nail on the head! He was not real happy but not really offended but I also just finished serving the staff lunch (Friday was Parent Conf).

What concerned me the most is he is looking for the cash return only (or that's the impression I get) and not looking at more books etc. I was thinking if that's the case then a different type of money maker is in need and the PTO has a few ideas for those too since we vow our fundrasiers don't require the kids to sell anything.

I also got from our conversation, he doesn't care what we did in the past, he wants help but on his terms, and it all has to be done by 4:00 (daycare) which will not change. He did mention going through Borders, still not clear on that one, but my thought is if the teachers send home Scholastic book orders, parents love 'em, parents main issue with the last bookfair was timing or lack of......I just heard the dryer, what better way to clear up this thought cloud than to fold some towels!! HA!!

Thanks everyone!!! I will talk with him again but next time I will focus on the volunteer base, seems to be an easier pill to swallow!

mykidsmom,

Our Media Specialist also runs our Scholastic Bookfairs with the help of teachers and our PTO volunteers.

I would think that your Media Specialist might be somewhat offended if you suggested the PTO take over this event. Maybe the MS would be concerned that if the PTO took over the bookfairs, that down the road, a decision would be made that would shift the profits away from the media center. Maybe just letting the MS know that you would be interested in better coordinating the volunteers for the MS would be all that is needed to remedy the situation.

We all have family situations occasionally, and it may be that such a situation will never occur again. If your PTO was able to have sufficient volunteers lined up to work, another family situation with your MS shouldn't have such a drastic effect on book sales and hours of operation again.

I just completed our Scholastic Book Fair...it was a GREAT success! You do need an organized chairperson, and it's a wonderful time to ask Dads to help out (lifting, carrying tables, etc.) Here are my thoughts about the fair:
#1--is it a HUGE money maker? NO--but it does bring in a "decent" amount for the time that the fair actually runs.
#2--It's so much fun to watch the kids come through and actually be excited about reading! It's better than video games, etc.

We run our fair twice a year, during parent teacher conferences. Our EarlyAct club sells refreshments, and we set up tables for parents to sit at, sip their coffee, and glance through the books...kindof like Starbucks! Parent teacher conferences is a great time to have it...if the parents get a good report, 9 times out of 10, they'll purchase a book for their child. Our PTA gives the teachers $10 worth of books when they come in and spend $10 for their classroom libraries...it builds up the libraries nicely. Also, there's the teacher's "wish list" posted on a board for parents to see and contribute towards. Every single one of our teachers recieved every book on their list!!! At the end of the week, we made approximately $750--our total sales were $2900 for 4 days.

This discussion about using someone other then scholastic has come up before and there were mixed responses. You have people like myself who love them and other people like yourself that have all kinds of problems with them.

The problems you describe above are not ones my school ever deals with. We do two book fairs a year and the books are always different. Our sales are very successful and we make a really good amount of money and we are a smaller school (300 kids).

I have come to the conclusion that the problems may lie in the Rep you have to work with. Unfortunately I do not know if there is anything you can do to change that as I do not know if they have multiple reps for each area.

I know they send our chairperson a kit and she calls our rep and tells them for the most part what she wants and specifically gets large amounts of books she knows will be big sellers.

My only advice to you would be to have your chairperson talk to your scholastic rep and let them know what your complaints are and see what they can do for you in terms of making things better for your book fairs.

There is only one other company I know of that does book fairs which is Usborne and I really do not know too much about them or their program.

Do any of you use a different resource for your book fairs besides Scholastic? We are beginning to feel that they keep offering the same books. This year we took the cash rather than books from our bookfair profit as our librarians felt overloaded on Scholastic Books. Plus our volunteers felt it was a lot of work, heavy lifting for a small return on investment.

Any ideas?

Our PTO has always run our book fair. Before talking to the Admin. I would speak to the media specialist first. Tell him that the PTO would be happy to run the book fair for him and still give the media center the proceeds. If he is overwhelmed he will probably be greatful and give it to you and thank you. If you go the Admin. first without speaking to the media specialist you might step on his toes and offend him...so I say talk to the media guy first and if he is all for it then speak to the Admin.