This Fundraising Was Easy (Well, Sorta)

As any of you who have read my blog for any length of time know, I am the PTO president at the preschool Little Miss attends (because I can't say no - seriously...).  And part of not being able to say no means that I ended up taking on way more roles than just the presidency.

After four years of this (I technically have nine hats this year), I'm a little bit burned out, but there are definitely things that make it all worthwhile.  I *love* seeing the difference we can make in the school.  Some of the performers we've brought in this year have been fantastic and really well received.  At our most recent event, a mom came over to hug each of the women who were working the event to thank us and tell us how grateful she was for all we do. 

And then there are the "big" events.  Granted, our eensy weensy budget means that our big fundraiser is a drop in the bucket compared to what most elementary schools around us make on their small events.  But for us, it's a big deal. 

We just completed our big event of the year, and we tried something new this year.  Part of our challenge is taht we have a morning preschool and afternoon preschool and do our events during the day so the kids can participate.  That leaves us with two choices: either do a silent auction and hope people will provide their bids in advance or make it all raffle and hope that lots and lots of people buy tickets.

We've tried a couple of different things and had various challenges:

Doing a silent auction at the event leaves morning (and working) parents frustrated that they didn't "get" to bid at the end.

Doing a "super" raffle for $5 tickets doesn't generate the same level of revenue per item as the silent auction had.

Last year, we looked at potentially doing an online auction for our more "special" items and keeping the remainder as a raffle.  We found a few sites that offer the service of creating online auctions for charities.  However, they charge a (for us) hefty upfront fee and also take a good portion of the proceeds (fifteen percent for one site I considered - briefly).  We'd heard that eBay also offered charity auctions, but we couldn't get a straight answer from them on what to do.  So last year, we stayed the course.

This year, I was convinced that I could figure out the eBay thing.  And I did.  Registering to be recognized as an official charity was actually pretty easy once I figured it out.  From there, we receive a credit for our listing fees, provided that all the proceeds from the auction benefit our recognized 501(c)3.

So we listed our special thirteen items.  And crossed our fingers (some of us - ahem, me - aren't so familiar with using eBay).

Today was the day when items started to close.  I kept hitting the refresh button, hoping to see a flurry of bidding at the end that would take our items from fire sale prices to we have a chance at helping to fund a new playground prices.  And for the most part, they did.

It was pretty cool watching the price on a play membership go from $40 this morning to the closing $147.50.  And in total, we have raised just over $1,100, which brings our fundraiser total to almost $4,500.  This is significantly higher than what we had last year - and most schools in our area are seeing fundraiser declines of twenty or more percent.

This?  This is a good feeling.  Even more cool was seeing some of the winning bids being from outside the school - people who otherwise wouldn't have been able to support us or potentially even know about us.  It's a total win-win situation, and we'll definitely be doing this again next year.  The chatter amongst the teachers and the parents has been very supportive, which is great.

We did learn a couple things though....

#1 Don't make the auctions end near the end of the school day.  Aim for mid-evening.  I'm not quite sure how to do this since eBay started the auctions after the verified them, but there has to be a way to ensure they end in the 6-9pm hour.  I have a feeling we would have had several items bid up if we'd done that.

#2 Encourage winning bidders that we know to send in checks instead of using PayPal.  As great as PayPal is in terms of convenience and speed of payment, they do take a percent of the proceeds which we can avoid by collecting payment directly.  The difference isn't huge, but for us, every penny counts.

My term is almost up, and this was my last major responsibility.  You have no idea how happy it makes me that it was a success - and hey, if anyone else is out there trying to figure out how to do a fundraiser with an online auction, let me know.  I'm planning to bring some of the info I learned to our next districtwide presidents' council meeting so they can take advantage of it, too.

I'm just going to suggest they make plans for the day and time the auctions are scheduled to end so that they don't end up staring at the screen watching the minutes ohhhhh so slowly tick down and demanding to the screen that the bids magically go up.

Not that I was doing that or anything. Nope, not me.

(And no, no one asked me nor paid me nor gave me anything to post about this.  I'm just thrilled that we raised probably $600 more than we would have had we not done the online auction.)



PS Need a fun outfit for the boy in your life?  Check out my Parigi Fashion giveaway.

I also have a family pizza party that I'm giving away here.

Get Off That Duff!

Ok, so "duff" is one of my favorite words that I don't hear very often. Well, except when I'm watching Ace of Cakes, of course!

It's relevant today though. I need to get off my duff. I posted last week about all the things that I can get done in three minutes. To my credit -- and today, I'm taking it! -- I have actually gotten most of them done.

I've done a load of laundry and am just waiting for the wee ones to wake up from naps to start the next one (the laundry machines are right outside their doors upstairs). The dishes are done. I got the work (as in paid stuff) work done that I needed to complete. I went through a couple boxes of the wee ones' toys and sorted out the ones they no longer use.

But I still have more to do. And I keep putting it off.

The wee ones' preschool has a very small PTO, and lucky me, I was coerced into being president. We do fundraisers throughout the year, as special needs schools tend to need lots of expensive equipment and preschoolers tend to be hard on the items in the classroom.

I'm gearing up for our largest fundraiser of the year which we hold in conjunction with Cinco de Mayo. That's not the problem. That's actually going pretty well, and I'll have the brochure for it complete next week to distribute for presale.

It's our passive fundraising that I'm having a problem with. Earlier this year, I discovered that my school is part of Campbell's Labels for Education. In fact, we had more than eleven thousand points banked -- from 2006!

I did a little digging and discovered that we just send in the labels that parents collect and we can earn all sorts of useful equipment. Plus, one of the elementary schools also collects the labels for us. We trade -- our Boxtops for Education for their Labels for Education.

So we come to today. I have two filled Target shopping bags with labels. Filled. Hundreds of labels. Hundreds.

I've discovered that I need to:
a) cut out the UPC code from each label
b) determine the point value of each UPC code and sort them by point value
c) count the point value of each type of label
d) put them into an paper bag with the point total on the outside
e) find a corrugated cardboard box and ship them off with a filled out point banking form

Let's start with step a, shall we? I'm a lefty. I have an issue with scissors. And I have hundreds of these. And I know I need to get these sent in. I want to put a big thank you to the parents with a count of how many labels we've submitted.

But then I look at those shopping bags. And I heave a big sigh. The job is too big. It's for the wee ones' school though. And if I just do a little bit each day, it won't be so bad, right?

Excuse me, I have some scissors I need to go find!

Mental Note: Find Childcare

Things have been pretty busy around here lately.

I usually work three days a week, but has anyone seen the economy lately? Pretty much anyone who's left with a job is working more and more hours. I worked six hours on my day off on Friday. And eleven hours on Monday. And so it goes.

Add the PTO president to the list. I have my usual duties -- and at a special needs preschool, we have our own challenges. Parents are usually only there for two years and in some cases less, before they move on to elementary school. Plus, they're new to the school system, dealing with special needs kids and frequently have even younger siblings at home. Our volunteer base is small, but with 300 kids, our needs are large.

I'm in the midst of planning our Cinco de Mayo event where we bring in Folkloric dancers, students perform songs and dances, we sell traditional foods, and we hold a silent auction and raffle for the parents and community. Gaining donations is the biggest piece of it, as without cool prizes, no one puts in raffle tickets! This year is a bigger challenge than ever because of the economy, but I'm really impressed with and appreciative of some people I know not connected with our school at all who are small businesspeople who have donated some items to us. I'm hoping this makes up the difference for us (and hey -- if you have an Etsy shop and have something you could donate to help our preschool, let me know!).

And then there are the other things I toss in those spare moments, the making it to the chiropractor twice a week, choir practice twice a week, trying to run three times a week, cooking dinner for the family, and so forth.

This isn't at all to say that I'm more busy than anyone else of course, but I'm trying to justify my mental lapses. So ummm make me feel better, here.

Yesterday afternoon, I had a Cinco de Mayo meeting to talk through the donations we've collected and need to collect, as well as to figure out how much food we think we'll sell on the day of the event.

My dad has been watching Little Miss while I'm at those meetings so she can nap. Because she needs to nap. When I called yesterday morning to confirm that my dad was getting her off the bus, he had no idea what I was talking about. And had other plans. As did my mom. As did the other SAHMs in my babysitting co-op. Whoops.

So I brought her with me.

And she brought Snowy. And we spent the meeting with her tossing the teddy bear up in the air and screeching with laughter. And picking up the tambourines that had somehow been left in the room and banging them on desks. And running up to me with castanets and showing me how they can be earrings. And telling me to stand up when she clicked them together. And throwing the teddy bear at me. And knocking over my water bottle.

This meeting should have lasted no more than forty-five minutes to an hour. It was an hour and a half because of the three year old who so desperately needed a nap. I did bring her blankets with her hoping that she would lay down on a couch and rest. Yeah. I know better now.

March 31 is already on my dad's calendar. And I think I need to talk to the school about making sure she's in morning preschool again next year!

***************************

Oh. You came here to find out who won the Spring Fling contest?

Well, as I promised I put all the entries into a spreadsheet -- because I'm anal that way. I was impressed. I only had two people not follow the instructions and have their entries forfeited (yeah, I'm a stickler for the rules; what can I say?). Ninety-seven entries total, and:

True Random Number Generator

Min:
Max:
Result:
86

Ok, if someone can tell me how to make it all pretty in my post like I see elsewhere, please let me know. this was the best I could do!

#86 in my list was MEGAN from INfertile Myrtle! She's a new follower, and I hope she (and the rest of you) stick around. Thanks for playing!

When You Have Too Much Time On Your Hands

I mentioned this spring that I was somehow finagled into doing the PTO presidency for Mister Man's (and now Little Miss's) preschool. Yeah, between working three days a week and the two wee ones and everything else, it just slides right in.

One of the responsibilities of the president is actually a fun one. We have a presidents' council of all the PTO presidents in our district (yes, that makes 18 of us with the co-presidents and superintendent and other board reps). The council meets every first and third Wednesday of the month for lunch and to discuss what's going on in the various schools and the issues.

Today was actually our second meeting (and I'm learning what types of food and how much I need to bring when it's my turn), and all I have to say is W.O.W.

The first hour and fifteen minutes were taken up discussing milk in the school cafeterias. In fact, because this was brought up as a fairly contentious issue at the first meeting, one of the school nurses and a local pediatrician who helped to design our wellness policy attended the meeting to educate us.

The basis of the issue is that there is no longer chocolate milk offered as part of the hot lunch.

I'll wait for everyone to put down their pitchforks and torches.

Apparently, the schools used to offer white, strawberry and chocolate milk to students until this year. Unfortunately, no one communicated this, so parents discovered the change when their children came home up in arms about the lack of chocolate milk. Except that apparently at least one of the middle schools still offers strawberry milk and apple juice. Go figure.

Some of the statistics that the pediatrician supplied are really eye-opening. They've taken data from the required physicals for students and compiled information showing that two years ago 26.9% of students are overweight or obese and last year 27.1% were. The national average is 25% for children. This is not a good trend.

According to the pediatrician who spoke, when she sees a child who has had a major weight gain, she reviews a variety of factors and frequently is finding that parents are watching the food and exercise but that beverages are not being paid attention to.

White milk has 11g of sugar per serving. Chocolate milk has 28g. Strawberry milk has even more. And juice, not surprisingly is far worse. The interesting thing that I learned (really, is the above a surprise to anyone?) is that there is something in the cocoa bean -- used for chocolate, duh -- that interferes with the GI tract's ability to absorb calcium and iron. So much of the point of drinking milk is wasted when it's chocolate. That I had never heard before.

The school district strongly feels that it's important to model good nutrition for the one meal a day that they have the children. And that now means no chocolate milk. I do sort of get it. Yeah, kids will want to drink chocolate milk but if the school doesn't offer it and consistently doesn't offer it and gives white milk, eventually the children will learn to drink white milk, right?

OK, unless you're Mister Man who hates white milk. But now I'm reevaluating my adding of Ovaltine to his milk and trying to figure out how to wean him onto white milk (fortunately, I've always used just a bit).

Needless to say, there was only one mom who was in support of the chocolate milk ban.

The other PTO presidents just went off on the poor pediatrician who I'm pretty sure will never address the council again, nor will she accept any of these parents' kids as patients.

* Kids are throwing away the milk
* Kids are drinking apple juice in some places
* The white milk at school tastes funny compared to milk from a jug
* It isn't organic and we have students going through puberty in first grade so milk shouldn't be served at all
* The milk is sitting out and isn't cold enough

We spent an hour and fifteen minutes discussing the chocolate milk uprising. Seriously. An hour and fifteen minutes.

On the plus side, if this is the biggest problem that parents and PTOs have right now, life is pretty good.

On the downside, that meant I had no time to talk to the PTOs about having some of them sponsor classrooms in our building to bring more books into them. The preschool PTO's entire budget is generally about 5-15% of the elementary, middle and high school's individual fundraisers. It's pretty sad, but we're working on it. Lucky for us, they've been generous in the past, including buying six adaptive bikes two years ago.

But hey, the next time you think your life is rough, just remember that in schools in my area, chocolate milk is verboten.

When Is Enough Too Much?

I ask this because I’m being pressured to help out with something that’s a great cause that I’m already involved in that will dissolve if I don’t do more. It’s one of those things where I’d love to help, but is doing the right thing in the big picture also the right thing for me and my family?

To wit, no one has volunteered to be the PTO president for my son’s school for next year. Without a president, even with all other positions filled, the PTO will dissolve. Without the PTO, there is no fundraising, which means that low income students can’t go on field trips, teachers don’t get their wish list items fulfilled, etc. All of those are a big deal given the population of special needs and at-risk kids that we’re dealing with here.

I’ve been involved in the PTO both this year and last year, and I’ve taken on more responsibility this year. I’m essentially chairing the fundraiser we’re doing this coming Monday (note: I’m out of town Thursday afternoon until Sunday night) which should be our largest of the year. I’m also the PTO shopper, which means I track, budget and buy the items that the teachers ask for from trampolines (placed that order for 8 today after negotiating with a vendor for 2 weeks) to listening centers to yarn to Model Magic dough and everything in between. I’m also chairing and coordinating the teacher appreciation week, which is also next week – arranging donations, writing up the letter to parents, etc. Plus, I created and organized a good chunk of our Fall Festival this year in place of a field trip to the pumpkin patch.

I’m a good project manager, I pay attention to detail, and I follow through. That makes me an ideal candidate for PTO president, apparently. Plus, the PTO is fairly small, and you don’t want to have someone new to the PTO be the president. With most children in this school for two or fewer years, a big chunk of the PTO is moving on to kindergarten next year (side note: Mister Man will do a third year of preschool we’ve decided). The few who are staying on are pretty much all stay at home moms but don’t have the organization skills to do it – plus, they’ve also said no.

I said no the first go-around because:
1) I work three days a week
2) I have two small children
3) I also volunteer at Little Miss’ preschool
4) I do yoga/go running/do things for myself that take up time
5) My husband is a schoolteacher, Scholastic Bowl coach, baseball and basketball PA announcer and isn’t home much, leaving me less time to do things
6) The PTO presidents’ council meets on Wednesdays, which is a day I’m in the office and can’t make the meetings
7) I had already volunteered to do the PTO shopping and teacher appreciation again, along with writing the newsletter.

I look at how busy I am now, and adding the PTO presidency to my load seems stupid. The current president keeps reassuring me that she’ll be there for backup and she’ll attend all the Presidents’ Council meetings for me. This PTO is larger and more “stacked” than it has been in the three years she was involved in it. There are volunteers for all the board and other positions, meaning that less would fall to me. And the argument goes on for how it won’t be that hard. All I have to do is run the monthly meeting and keep in touch with the principal.

I know it won’t be that easy. That’s why I said no the first time. But then I go back, and if I don’t do it, the PTO simply won’t exist, and I would really hate to be the cause of that. The PTO is critical to the success of the kids at school even from the standpoint of providing funds to do a RIF (Reading is Fundamental) program or two during the course of the year. And without the PTO, there are so many valuable tools that the teachers can’t afford to buy themselves, nor can the parents all purchase on their own.

You can tell that I’m wavering towards doing it, right? But what will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back? Am I going to make the right decision if I agree to be president next year?