<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by laurib: Would it be appropiate to have the PTO pay for an appreciation dinner for the 10 or so key workers in the PTO. We have 6 board members and 4 or 5 parents who all give and give and give of themselves. We are all at burnout and I think that it would be nice for us to have a night off. We are thinking of a family pizza and soda dinner down at the lake. We figure the cost to be about $100 - $150, and the funding would come from the general fund not allocated funds. Am I way off base with my thinking. We have never done anything to say thank you other than to say it, to the key people involved before and I have been a board member for 4 years now.<hr></blockquote>
I think that I did not convey my thoughts very well and did not explain enough. We do thank all of our volunteers, from the big blocks of time to the plate of cookies volunteers, in written form, our monthly newsletter has a Kudos section, and during Open House, we, along with the Principal give out volunteer pins to anyone who has done something at or for the school.
The dinner I was talking about was intended to be a thank you to the people and their families who put in so many hours that we won't keep track of it in the log book, just everyone elses. We wanted to thank the kids of these parents for allowing Mom and or Dad to be away from their families to run an event for the entire school. (My first grader is always complaining that I am hardly ever in his classroom helping, it is because I am always running something for other students.) He doesn't think that is fair and I don't blame him. This pizza and soda dinner will let our kids know that what Mom has been doing all year long is very important.
We are going to go ahead with it, but we are going to announce it as the last meeting of the year. We always supply snacks, so this time we will just be spending a little more than usual.
I think by "recruiting and rewarding volunteers" is the only way to retain current and gain new volunteers. Once a year, you should reward and recognize your hardworking volunteers for their committment and excellence. If you're maximizing all of your fundraising opportunities (there so many!) then you shouldn't have a problem with paying $100, or so, each year. Good Luck!
I, too, brought up the idea of a Volunteer Appreciation gathering but was shot down by my members. I'm the president of our HSA. The principal took on the project and had her teachers and staff bring in food. The school sponsored a Volunteer Reception and sent invites home with all the students. We are a private K-8 school with only 200 students. As families we sign a contract to volunteer at least 35 hours over the course of the year to receive a $100 credit on tuition. I felt it was important to recognize and publicly thank the volunteers. Our bylaws state that the HSA can't spend HSA money to benefit HSA board members. Anyway, the reception was nice and I haven't heard of any hard feelings yet.
The President of PTA makes certificates for everyone to recognize their efforts and presents them at the last meeting. We recognize ALL volunteers and teachers whether they carry an official membership card or not. Problem is no one recognizes the Pres. This year a took a small collect from the people she is recognizing and will present her with a gift certificate. Then I asked the art teacher if the kids could right a thank you. Well the staff got really into this and each child is going to make a piece of a puzzle and present the puzzle. Then I got worried that the rest of the board would get upset since they would not get this special recognition so--I decided gift certificate for Pres and the kids puzzle will be presented to the whole board.
Our teachers and staff host a luncheon for the PTO board members and chairpersons. This is by invitation only and is paid for and hosted entirely by the teachers. We receive a thank you gift and are the recipients of speechs by the teachers and principal. It's very personal and much appreciated by us. As for the many parents who volunteer on occasion at various events, our chairpeople send out thank yous and present each and every one of them with a gift and/end-of-year party that has been donated by our vendors. All volunteers are thanked by name in our school newsletter.
Our school is grateful for our volunteers and our volunteers are thankful they recognize our efforts.
