What should we do?

A message from President Barb Peterson: 

I often find myself thinking of the time I will have come January and February to accomplish tasks that get pushed aside as the year comes to an end. Yet I take one look at my calendar and discover that for that very reason, the schedule for these months fills up so quickly!

The same is true with PTA issues. Several things need to be addressed. Three items were discussed briefly at our January PTA meeting that I would like to communicate here for those of you who were unable to attend.

Executive Committee nominations

The time has come for two offices of the Executive Committee to be vacated. Under our bylaws, Executive Committee officers may hold office for up to two consecutive years. For next school year, we will need to elect a new president and treasurer.

We will form a nominating committee in February to search for individuals interested and qualified to serve in these roles. If you are interested in serving on either the nominating committee or in either position, please contact Barb Peterson (andy.peterson@sbcglobal.net) or Judy Nagel-Conley (jln0522@aol.com).

Fall Fundraiser

Second, we're at a bit of a crossroads with the Fall Fundraiser, which has been a very successful product sale for a number of years. The sale coordinators from this year are stepping down, so it seems like a good time to pause and think about what we'd like to do.

In recent memory, students have been asked to sell wrapping paper each September. In 2010, a new vendor gave us the opportunity to sell cookie dough, jewelry and other items in addition to wrapping paper. The sale topped projections, generating about $12,000 in revenue — about half of the PTA's projected income for the current school year.

The sale traditionally comes early in the school year, when parents are hit with a variety of school and activity fees and when students involved in scouts, sports and other activities are asked to sell products as well.

With that in mind, the PTA is discussing the possibility of a change to ease "sales fatigue" but would need to replace the sale with a fundraiser that would generate enough money to continue to support such a large portion of the PTA's operations.

The Executive Committee has suggested considering a fun run, which has been

successful for other PTAs in our district. This type of fundraiser would include every student in a run/walk that would take place during school hours. Students would be encouraged to ask supporters to sponsor them for their participation. This would enable every student to be part of a fun fundraising activity and would eliminate the need to ask people to purchase things that they might not otherwise buy. It also encourages healthy behaviors among the entire student body.

We would like to know what you think of the product sale and the fun run idea. If you are interested in heading up a product sale, or if you have a vision for bringing a fun run-type of fundraiser to Brookdale, please contact Judy Nagel-Conley or another member of the Executive Committee. To move forward with either option (we plan to go with one or the other, not both), we do need a chairperson (or two).

Art Awareness

Our third issue relates to the Art Awareness program. We need to decide how to manage this program, in which volunteers visit each classroom monthly to introduce students to famous art and artists.

Several years ago, a committee recruited, organized and supported the volunteers. Recently, the job has fallen to a single coordinator and become a bit overwhelming. For 2010-11, classroom coordinators were asked to help recruit and schedule the volunteers.

Moving forward, the PTA Executive Committee sees three options:

1. Continue to have the classroom coordinators assist with recruiting and scheduling volunteers, making it clear that classroom coordinators would not have to fill in if volunteers are unavailable.

2. Create a committee of five to seven people to oversee Art Awareness. The committee could assign each member to take responsibility for managing volunteers for a grade level or develop its own system for managing the program.

3. Discontinue Art Awareness.

At this point, we need your feedback:

· What do you think of the program in general?

· If you are or have been a classroom coordinator, how do you feel about having the responsibility for scheduling volunteers for Art Awareness?

· If you'd like to see Art Awareness continue, what ideas do you have for managing the recruitment, scheduling and support of volunteers?

Perhaps there are options we have not considered. If you have any thoughts about this issue that you would like to offer, please let us know.

We will need to decide how to move forward on these topics in the next few months. To proceed most successfully, we would like as much feedback as possible.

We hope to see you Feb. 17 at our next PTA meeting!