Pto (Pta) Fundraiser for 500 Kids on Military Base | SAT Month Event

[Sheila]

I just booked the Parent Teacher Organization here on the military base to do a November (SAT month) Fundraiser with 500 kids participating! I'm so excited!!!

 

[pamperedbecky]

That's awesome!! Congrats!! How are you going to handle it with catalogs and things like that??

 

[Sheila]

They will get a flyer with a mini catalog! LOLThe flyer details the potential earnings based on the per-child average of $10, $20, $40, $60, $80 & $100 levels. Then I put in a booking benefit and a New Consultant benefit for the PTO too.

 

[Sheila]

Oh, and of course how to order online ... And how important it is to spread the word to family/friends in the US and on military bases around the world! I also stressed how the military prohibits us from accepting mail for others, and that there will be NO sorting and NO delivery for the children or their families!

 

[Sheila]

Hubby thinks I should bite the bullet and give full catalogs for the extra exposure since we are new here. So, as long as I'm investing in advertising, I'm going to go ahead and put a business card with magnet backing in each packet!

 

[akaskydebil]

Where are you getting your magnet biz cards from? I've been looking into them but haven't decided.

 

[Sheila]

I've bought them from Merrill in the past. Hadn't thought about looking for backings elsewhere.

 

[pamperedbecky]

I've bought them from Merrill in the past. Hadn't thought about looking for backings elsewhere.

I know Office Max or Office Depot probably has them too. I don't know how easily you can order online from them and if they or Merrill ship to you faster out there.

 

[Sheila]

Well, now the PTO President says she wants to "go green" and encourage the families to utilize the online system. She does NOT want a catalog per student. We are only to send home a flyer with the link and leave it up to the parents to shop online. I can take 50 catalogs, max to the PTO's storefront (located in the school) and people can come & check out a catalog & return it when they are done. Otherwise, no catalogs will be sent home with the kids! That's scary!!!

 

[Sheila]

Guess I'll wait & send out Thank You cards to all the customers of the fundraiser with a magnet business card! LOL

 

[ChefBeckyD]

Well, now the PTO President says she wants to "go green" and encourage the families to utilize the online system. She does NOT want a catalog per student. We are only to send home a flyer with the link and leave it up to the parents to shop online. I can take 50 catalogs, max to the PTO's storefront (located in the school) and people can come & check out a catalog & return it when they are done. Otherwise, no catalogs will be sent home with the kids! That's scary!!!

See if you can renegotiate at least a mini catalog!

 

[pamperedbecky]

Guess I'll wait & send out Thank You cards to all the customers of the fundraiser with a magnet business card! LOL

That's a good idea. Or let her know the mini catalogs are a good option - at least that would be something. Hopefully you can renegotiate that like Becky D said!

 

[Sheila]

Really. I don't think she realizes the importance of impulse shopping. And busy working Moms are more apt to flip through a catalog in hand than to get online to look at the product line. My contact is the fundraising chairperson. I haven't spoken with thi PTO president yet, but I need to.

 

[Sheila]

***Update***They have decided to allow a catalog per child. They have also decided to include the pre-K kids increasing the numbers to 600. And ... they want to do this twice a year!!!

 

[baychef]

Well, now the PTO President says she wants to "go green"

Glad she changed her mind. Tell her you would like to go green too...green in her fundraiser account!!!!:money:

Also, I would let her know they can either return or recycle the catalogs too.

 

[Sheila]

Yes, I'm planning to put a label on the front of every catalog recommending that they "go green" and return reusable catalogs to the PTO storefront vs. throwing it out.

 

[christinaspc]

I am doing a fundraiser with my local PTA and they are having 250 students collecting orders and what I did was get a yellow envelop and put a catalog and 5 outside order forms and cover letter and I have done the same thing for other groups not as large but it has gone over very well. Good luck with your fundraiser mine is in november as well.

 

[Sheila]

The packet was what I wanted to do to! Great minds think alike, huh? I was thinking about 1 catalog, the letter explaining how it works, 1 outside order form on the back (to conserve paper - letting them make copies as needed) and a magnet business card.

 

[Sheila]

*** UPDATE ***

It was a flop!

The PTO Committee is the most unorganized group of women that I've EVER met! The one that I was talking to originally is the fundraiser chairperson. She took forever getting approval with the president. They finally agreed to the full sized catalogs and I ordered them immediately. By the time they arrived, we were 1 week into the 2 week event. Of course, the PTO had not done ANYTHING to advertise.

Before the catalogs arrived, I told the FR person that I was going to print the flyers & she said okay. After I printed 600 flyers, she told me that they had 3 other fundraisers going on and all closing on the 18th (our close date) and wanted to know if we could change the date. Um, NO! She actually wanted me to white out the date on 600 flyers & re-write it! Since it was printed on pretty GREEN paper, I told her no and why.

The DODDS (military) school district had a bunch of days off for the kids when the catalogs did come in. I was trying to coordinate a time to get them to the school. FR contact told me 8AM Mon, so I arranged to have hubby off work to watch the kids so I could deliver 600 full sized catalogs. Sun night, FR contact says that Pres can't meet me on Mon morn & it would be "sometime Mon afternoon"! Um, not good enough. I'd have to bring the kids with me. She didn't have a phone # or e-mail address for the Pres. So I finally get a name & realize that our hubby's work together. My hubby called her hubby & got us connected. We arrange to meet at 8AM on Mon morning as originally planned.

I show up at the school & she flips. She never agreed to the full sized catalogs & is mad. Great.

She decided to accept them, but announced that she needed something in writing stating how this was supposed to work. She's leaving on a fieldtrip, so she can't pass out the catalogs to the teachers today. She'll have to work on it tomorrow. I volunteered to do it. She refused. She said she would need to divide them out into stacks of 20. I have them in bags of 50 & groups of 10! Easy enough, we can do the stacks super fast. No. She wants to re-count the catalogs. She wants me to meet her tomorrow at 10AM with the "contract".

I return the next morning, 1 year old & 3 year old in tow, and learn that the principal has now decided that he can't let her pass out the catalogs & flyers through the teachers & kids to the parents. She says that she still wants to do the fundraiser, but has to come up with another plan. PTO conferences are the next day. She wants to hand them directly the parents all day long. She goes to ask the principal if that will work & comes back upset that the principal is gone & the VP wants to know if we cleared this through the base legal office. I left & went to legal - getting their blessing. I called her & told her it was okay.

3 online orders, no updates & no response to inquiry.

Friday night rolls around & FR contact is at a show - adamant that she got an e-mail that they did pass out the catalogs to the parents. WooHoo! Wish they had included me on that loop so I wasn't stressing so much about no contact/no response!!!

Monday rolls around & I talk to Pres again to see how it's going since no more online orders have come in. She says that FR contact was wrong, the catalogs never went out. But that they had advertised on the base TV channel so orders should start coming in. Um really? You advertised on TV without asking or getting a logo from me??? I watch TV like crazy. No ad.

Thurs night deadline hits. I call Pres to see what she wants to do with only $115.50 in orders. She wants to sleep on it.

Fri, authorization to go ahead & submit the sales as individual orders.

Then while chatting with someone that I met at the show on Fri night, I learn that SHE is the marketing person for the PTO! She said she didn't receive the okay for the TV ad until Sun & didn't see the point of putting it up for 4 days.

I'm so freaking fed up with them. They all want to do another one, in Jan while the catalogs are still good. I've told them that we already have the expense done, so I'm willing to give it a go ... but we all need to sit down in ONE meeting & work out the details. They will have to keep me in the loop next time so that I can help them make their fundraiser a success. This unorganized crap and misleading info is for the birds!!!

They want to do these twice a year with the new seasons. If they don't follow instructions in Jan, they are out of luck. This will be their LAST one with me.

All 3 know that I've invested over $400 in catalogs, printer ink & paper for the flyers. I told the marketing girl that I'd have preferred to donate the $400 than throw it away on catalogs that were not passed out & are just sitting in their office.

 

[ChefBeckyD]

Oh, Sheila, I'm so sorry! That is more than frustrating. I was getting all hot under the collar for you just reading it!

To me, that is more than just unorganized. It was a total lack of respect for your time and effort. I sure hope they can get their act together for January - and I'm glad (I think) that at least if they can do that it won't all be a waste of your time, and expenses.

 

[pamperedlinda]

I'd be P.O.d too! I agree with Becky - very disrespectful. There is no reason that you should not be in the loop with this fundraiser.

 

[baychef]

If I was at home I would get my little smilies of one slapping the other in the face...that is what I would like to do. Sheila, I hope that they show you a great turn out the next time around. You so deserve it after all of that work and especially expense. I would be fuming.

 

[Sheila]

I'm just amazed at all the red tape on this base. It's crazy! I didn't have ANY of these types of issues on Okinawa - at ANY of the multiple bases there.

MWR (Morale, Welfare & Recreation) is a big organization here. It's the office who basically runs everything that you would consider fun - movie theater, sporting events, pool, local tours, craft classes, etc. The head honcho of the MWR got caught earlier this year. He had embezzled THOUSANDS of dollars out of the fund over the course of a few years. The base has been suffering from the lack of funds & activities. Since then, it's literally like no one can do anything around here without jumping through hoops. Everyone is afraid that they are going to overstep their bounds and get into trouble with the military & the base commander. I think if they are not doing anything illegal, immoral, dangerous or destructive, they should be left alone! Making everyone pay the price for this one man's theft and abuse of his position is crazy. I hope this crap doesn't last the whole 3 years that I'm here. I'm hoping the novelty of his crimes wear off soon!!!

 

[Jolie_Paradoxe]

Wow, I am so sorry! Totally unacceptable behavior! Hope the Jan is MUCH better and that you make out like a bandit!

 

[baychef]

Ok Sheila..here it is

 

[Sheila]

LOL that's funny!!!

 

[christinaspc]

Hi Sheila I just finally got back on her after a while and reading this and sorry to hear yours went a flop I just wrapped up mine and there are still few orders trickling in but they are at 2300 in sales and they wanna do it again next year. Sorry to hear yours didn't go but I thought you might be wondering how mine turned out lol

 

[Sheila]

Thanks Christina. Glad to hear yours went well!