Thanks to all of you--you helped me get a handle on the Hospitality Comm. job description!!!

Our PTSO budgets around 8$ per meeting, which takes some creative planning. In addition to bringing refreshments to meetings and school functions, we send welcome letters to new families, have a new family breakfast on the first day of school, plan Teacher Appreciation lunches, and recognize staff birthdays, etc. The only problem is not getting carried away!

Prior to being the prez at our school, we didn't have a Hospitality Committee. There were no drinks, snacks or munchies. This is one of the first things I initiated. Never having had one before, I wasn't quite sure what their job should be, so here is what I did:

The Hospitality Chair is in charge of providing snacks and drinks for each meeting. A budget of $10 is provided for each meeting. Our Chair provided fruit snacks ($1.50 at Walmart) and punch ($.99 at the local grocery) for the baby-sitting area. She also provided, from the $10, drinks (usually 2 or 3 grocery store brand soda pops in 2 liter bottles for about $1 a bottle and small, individual Hostess/Little Debbie cakes from the bakery outlet in town, with a cost of about $3). Napkins and cups and stuff we usually have on hand from earlier events.

Our PTO also balked at the $10 budget. Several of our members work in grocery stores and offered to ask their managers if they would be willing to provide the snacks and drinks for our meetings. Two stores agreed and now they trade off. Our Chairperson is still responsible for the coordination of the committee. Our Chair is also responsible for making sure all new members/visitors are greeted if the prez/veep are unavailable (when you gotta go you gotta go...lol). He/She also sets up and cleans up (or sees that it is done by someone else) the snack area.

The only other thing that might be included in their duties at our school, might be to get and collect and then run the door prizes.

We have a Hospitality Committee which is responsible for snacks and coffee at our monthly meetings. In the past, all the supplies had to be donated, but we are proposing a $20 per meeting budget for next year. I'm curious if other PTO's fund their meeting snacks. It's a tiny portion of our overall budget (less than 1%),but we still have people who bristle at the idea of us spending ANY money on ourselves.

Our PTSO does have a Hospitality Coordinator and her responsibilities were the following:

1. Refreshments at our monthly meetings
2. Coordinating our Open House refreshments/dinner
3. Coordinating our Staff Day luncheon/dessert
4. Purchasing and getting food/drinks donated for the carnival

We love having someone to handle this part of our group. She is the best and worked very hard to provide a special touch to our monthly meetings...I think there are many parents out there that would have a special knack for this type of position.

We are gearing up for our first year and I was wondering what exactly the Hospitality Comm. would be responsible for. We have a separate Staff Appreciation Comm. Will Hospitality take care of snacks etc. at the meetings and those sort of things?? Any input would be great! Thanks!!