See, we've had great success with the Tyson program (could be we are in Tyson country!!). We put all our boxtops and label programs in the same contest. Classes receive incentives (donut parties, snow fight parties). Tyson is 24 points, Boxtops are 10 points, Best Choice is 3 points, and when we had Campbell's, they were one point. We usually hold three contests a year. One ends a couple of weeks after school starts, one ends late Jan, early Feb, and the third ends early May.

The thing I do regret is not explaining to everyone the reason we were dropping the program. We came off seeming a little unappreciative.

Plain and simple, the Campbell's program stinks. It is a lot of effort for nothing. (Ditto with tysons.) We dropped it about two years ago and instead put that school wide competition / fun / energy into boxtops. Since dumping Campbells, we've well exceeded our boxtops goals. I agree with Tim, there is just so much you can ask people to remember. The school mentioned in the article payed more for the duct tape than they collected in labels. And while the stunt was cute and I'm sure it was a great motivator for the students, he could have just as easily been selling strips of duct tape for a dollar (50 cents, whatever), or throwing himself on the wall for canned goods collected.

CBrooks -

I'll plead guilty to this being a real (overdone? yes!) sticking point for me, and I tend to simplify the debate ("just dump campbell's) to emphasize my point.

I'd say this:

If there are a couple of kindly grandmothers who've been snipping soup labels for twenty years and just love it, etc. -- great. It obviously hurts no one for it to continue.

Same thing if you just keep getting labels in and somebody really wants to send them in. Fine.

But I feel really strongly (apparently you've noticed) that you're doing involvement a disservice if your group publicly supports the Campbell's program in any way. You're saying (in my rather harsh opinion) how little you value the time and attention of your general parents. As a parent group you have a limited (often *very* limited) number of things you can ask of your general parents before they shut you off. That's how Campbell's can do harm. If one of your "limited number" is Campbell's, then what much more important thing is getting dropped off the list? I know that your group doesn't have to limit the list. You can have 92 things on your list. But the fact is that parents will limit the list in their own heads.

And as for the spirit and tradition and camaraderie, I'm a huge fan of such things. But the school in the article ( www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/7669803.htm ) is a great example. Couldn't they have had the same spirit and camaraderie around a reading goal ("If the kids read 5000 books, Mr. Jones will get the duct tape treatment"), rather than a goal of collecting $20 of Campbell's labels?

My grammar school in the 70s also did Campbell's, and we did have fun with the class rivalries and a rotating trophy. Today, there are way better options for the same effect.

I love this debate, and would love to hear more...

Tim

PS -- Lighten up? I'll try. I'm usually the one using that line on others.

I have to agree with C Brooks somewhat as far as a team effort type thing but as far as rewards it seems like a huge waste of time. Our pta had done it for years, once they disbanded it was handed to me...i looked it over and told the principal that i didnt see it as a good use of time, tried it one year.This year we dropped it, we still have labels come in but we send them to another school in our town.We have a very strong policy against putting classes against each other so that hurts sometimes when it comes to projects like this.we also can not offer incentives on grade levels or anything like that so some of the ideas other schools do we couldn't. To just depend on reminders in newsletters just didnt cut the cake..i think after a year we got a bucket of markers.

Well said. We also do not do this program, but when we discontinued it, there were quite a few folks disappointed. We had several grandmothers that cut and counted for us and they felt in this way they were helping.

I know that the argument would be that their time could be put to better use, but they couldn't come to school and it takes time to get other things together to take to them to do at home. That's not as easy as a lot of folks like to think. That takes someone at the school coordinating those kind of things. The labels were never a pressing thing, there were no real deadlines and they got real satisfaction from helping with them.

It is not always about the money.

[ 01-10-2004, 04:52 PM: Message edited by: PottsvilleMom ]

OK Tim, you ask for our opinions so here is mine:
Lighten up! Yes you can look at this program to be like a dog chasing it's tail. I know there is a lot involved in this program and little reward from the company. We do not use this program. It doesn't work for us, but when I was in elementary my school started this. It was probably around 1982, I assume it was just getting off the ground and my little school had never had anything like this. We were excited. We were told that there were prizes for the school but what really got us going was the race we got to have to see who got the most labels. I don't even remember the reward we got for getting the most, I remember everyone working together though. I think that is why alot of schools still participate. My elementary school- with it's new name and new building and all the new fundraisers they now participate in still do this. It's a tradition, it's fun for the kids, they don't know it's all that work for nothing. They know this is something they have always done. It is also a way for busy parents to get involved.

My point is sometimes tradition and team work is much more important than a box of crayons after a years worth of cutting and sorting. When I first found out how this program worked I thought anyone was crazy for doing it. Then after some reflection I saw why. I still feel it is a bad program if you are just doing it for the material rewards, but my attitude is a little different now.