I realize a few people see it as "dipping into their child's savings account" but even if the administration was paying $5 a head for it, I see it as the same thing. We buy for the schools what their budget will not allow them to buy for themselves. If they budgeted $300 a year to show us appreciation, they'd need $300 more from us.


Thank you all for giving me your opinions, whether they were the ones I wanted to hear or not . Those that force me to look at the other point of view make the discussion all the more worth while [img]smile.gif[/img]

Boy do we have a cheap school! Our PTA has no budget for volunteer appreciation but I know an avon rep so she gets me the little handcreams. I pay for them with my own money and put a "Thank you for Volunteering!" sticker on them and hand them out to all our volunteers.

I feel volunteers should be rewarded so I do it myself!

I believe in volunteer appreciation. I think that there are just other ways to do it. The last time I was pres, I had a 5th grade class design and put together Thank You cards to each and every volunteer in the school, regardless if they were in PTO or not.

The school 'hired' the gourmet cooking class at the high school to do an appreciation luncheon. It was wonderful. $5 a head got us a huge Mexican luncheon complete with dessert. Our group did not pay for this. It was the school's turn to Thank You to us, and we certainly did feel appreciated. We all received a nice gift as well.

I still feel that taking your selves out to dinner on the PTO money is like dipping into a child's savings account. I say appreciation is necessary, just find another way.

We have a very active PTO with many volunteers and a hugh budget. Our board is solidly behind parent and teacher appreciation. When it comes to board appreciation we have, in the past, usually each paid our own way for our year end dinner. This year the president took everyone out at her expense (nice if you can afford to do it).

Next year we are starting a new schoolwide recognition program and volunteers (teacher and parents alike) will be honored for time invested. Those at the top will be treated to a year end social, where no volunteer needs to work!

The PTO will be picking up the tab and I believe that it is a very appropriate way to spend PTO money. Keep your costs reasonable and think of it as advertising for next years volunteers.

Just a quick note on Volunteer Appreciation--Our PTO is not allowed to do Appreciation, our district leaves it up to the Principal and teachers and for several years they had done certificates, a program, and a pot luck (teachers bring the food) this year the volunteers were forgotten. There was no appreciation, and we parents got frustrated. We earned more money for the school this year than ever berfore, bought the school a marquee, did all the health screenings for the nurse, ran an open house dinner, and an end of year picnic at our expense. I hate to admit to this but we were soooo upset that when the last day of school picnic was over we left, and left the teachers to clean up the mess alone. I hate to do this to them, but we worked hard and took lots of gripping from them as to what all went wrong, and with no thanks ever, we left!!! So I think appreciation is more powerful than some realize. I know I would have stayed and cleaned up if one would have even said THANK YOU!!

There is another thread going that has similiar responses but different ideas.
www.ptotoday.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=9;t=000581
I am very big on appreciating volunteers. My post on that thread explains what and why, I did for PTA leaders as a council.
I think it's a valuable investment to appreciate your volunteers. It renews their energy and it will pay off for your children. If your volunteers moral is low, it will show in their accomplishments.
If you have the budget to do so, show them how much they mean to your PTA/PTO. One of the longtime poster on this forum (may have been Critter of mykidsmom) said something in an e-mail to me awhile back. Income doesn't include the value of the volunteer hours that were put in but it should. They are worth so much.