I am going to have to say that I think having just something for chairpeople is not the way to go since there are so many other people who volunteer as well. There will be a lot of hurt feelings for sure.
For the first time ever, we are doing a volunteer appreciation event. We are doing a volunteer appreciation "Dessert Fest" tomorrow evening for all the people both parents and teachers who helped out in any way this year with our HSA. We mailed out 85 invitations and have about 55 or so coming. We had a vote on this last year at a general meeting and put a budget of $300 for the evening.
We had classes do up thank you poems that we are posting up on the walls,and the art teacher had some classes do thank you art posters. I think they will be a big hit, especially since they are from the kids.
I believe that saying thank you by a little dessert or something to all your helpers in reality does help the kids. . By doing this you show appreciation to everyone who helps out the kids during the year. It is like a ripple affect. Who knows, you may get more people coming forward to help out because there is a true appreciation. (That is not to say that people will come forward just to get invited to an appreciation event.)
Our PTO is debating over whether money should be spent on an appreciation dinner for chair people. At the end of the school year we have dinner at a restaraunt that all of the chair people are invited to. It ends up costing about $250. There are a few parents that are totally opposed to the spending of any money on something other than the children. I would love to hear what other PTO/A's to show appreciation and if we are way off base by using the money for something like this.
