I think we are building our community by offering these events and am glad to see it seems the norm to not charge. Thanks for the input!

We have never charged for any of our events and we offer about seven or eight a year. Our mission is to bring together families and school, ourt families are always so pleased . they truly see where some of the fund raising money goes, it does mean that we don't buy equipment, supplies and stuff like that for our school, but what we give is a fun aspect which sometimes is missing in schools. Before our PTO in 2001 our Pta did just did the opposite, they spent all their money on school supplies, things like that. Truth is we have watched our volunteer numbers and family morale soar, I believe the different approach has alot to do with it. When I became leader of our group one of the main complaints I heard was that no one knew where money was going, make sure your families can see that.

On our Family Fun Night, we charge for pizza/drink $3.00, ice cream sundaes $1.00, popcorn $1.00, bake sale by donation, what ever we do to our principal $1.00, 50/50 $1.00 a ticket or $5.00 an arm length, & to have photo taken with the snake $1.00. The games are free. The kids can play as many times as they want & everyone gets a prize.We usually break even & that's fine with us since we do this as a thank you for the students & their families for all their hard work selling pies during our fundraiser. We try to keep costs down for the families. This yr. instead of pizza, we're going to do a potluck.

[ 02-18-2006, 07:15 AM: Message edited by: Renee S ]

Admission to our movie nights is free, but we allowed the 5th graders to man and sell concessions to help pay for camp. People didn't seem to mind at all. At least noone complained to me.

This year, for the first time, we offered 4 free events. We did charge for concessions at Movie Night, but admission was free. People have been pleasantly surprised and grateful. The only complaint I heard was from a lone parent who was convinced there would be an uproar over the PTO offering a free event since tickets were limited due to capacity constraints. She thought it was unfair to exclude some people if the PTO is paying for it. Out of nearly 600 families, she was the only one who complained. I took that to mean our families like the free events. I hope we can accomodate them in our budget again next year.

Does anyone charge for admission or food at your Family events? We hold 8 events a year and do not charge for anything. People seem suprised by that and it has been suggested by a few of our chairs that we start. We usually offer water,popcorn, cookies and door prizes at each event. Iwould appreciate how other PTO/PTA's handle "charging".
Thanks!