The last couple of posts have been for the grandparents and aunts and uncles. I will never get over how absolutely cool it is to take a picture of a morning activity and be able to share it with my parents, sister, and in-laws that afternoon. Yes, if I were more efficient, it could be done even faster. Still cool though!
This has been a week....
Monday I took Princess to her well check. She did great, was declared "Well!" (for which I am eternally grateful!), and survived the torment of the chicken pox booster.
Tuesday I went to a meeting that I am still scratching my head about....
Background: Princess's school has a big Festival every fall. As with any big event, there is a LOT of planning involved.
Last year I was a Kindergarten parent, naive (to a certain extent) and ready, willing, and able to get involved.
I signed up to be a Room Parent (a.k.a. Princess's teacher's lackey) and helped Princess's teacher coordinate other parents into action. I did my share of cutting, stapling, and chaperoning but I also signed up other parents to do these things.
Princess's Kindergarten class was great! When we needed money to do something, there were volunteers to give money. When we needed people to chaperon, there were people to chaperon.
One of the biggest benefits of being a Room Parent?? You get to know things before they actually happen.
I was "in the know".
I think I did an OK job of passing this information on to the other parents in Princess's class, but it really was nice to know things before they were going to happen.
Back to the Present: This year I was asked (suckered) into being the Festival Liaison. This is the person who takes thoughts and ideas from the Festival Committee and gives them to all of the parents at the school. ALL of the parents, not just the Kindergarten parents or the First Grade parents, ALL of the parents.
There are 5-6 classes PER grade K-5!
What have I gotten myself into?
What I really want to do is be Princess's class Room Parent. I know how to do this. I never, EVER had to get in front of the entire group of the school's parents and tell them what to do.
I can do this though.
I was a project manager in an IT business unit before I quit to have kids.
Lord knows I know how to boss people around after having three kids.
But these are adults. Not kids. And I have to ask. Nicely.
Because this is the
biggest.
fund.
raiser.
of.
the.
year.
They made over $30,000 last year.
This is serious.
So, on Tuesday night I attended a meeting for the Festival.
...
...
It was, in a (hyphenated) word, "high-schoolish".
There were 7 ladies there.
There was gossip.
There was "I am so fat" talk.
There was "lots of crap I don't want to spend 2 hours listening to".
I am from the school of "If you have to have a meeting, let's meet and get this crap done with as soon as possible."
Time's a wastin'!
I really do not want to discuss your hairstylist and why you don't like her anymore....
STOP GOING TO HER if this is an issue!!
Maybe I am not cut out for this job after all....
There were exactly two things that needed to be decided.
They were decided in the first 5 minutes.
This could have been done over email.
Ahhhhhhhhhhh!
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4 comments:
AAAAAAH! You're scaring me! I just got suckered into the PTA, and this is exactly what I'm afraid it will be like.
Our PTA is very much like that too.I helped out with a few funtions. I had a very similar experience to yours. I unfortunately don't volunter anymore, but I do have more fun with my daughter at the school funtions!
I was in your exact shoes three years ago. Our PTA was really only made up of 7 moms who had been in charge for years and sadly it wasn't any fun at all! My first daughter was in Kindergarten and I was trying to get involved in her school and was so frustrated by all the gossiping that I asked when elections where held and just about got my head cut off. It wasn't easy, a line had now been drawn in the sand: them against me. I gathered a group of 20 parents and we had an election and that was 3 years ago. Our PTA today is a blast!! We have about 75 active members. We put a sticker on the kids and send them home reminding parents of PTA night. We invite the kids to play in the gym with a babysitter and the word has spread via our kids and we get new members every month!!! We made it fun and now because we can be seen having fun, finding good people to help is not one of our problems.
I would be happy to share some of our PTA secrets to help in your event. Just email me at Stacey@cedarvalleypublishing.com and I will send you my books: Let's Get Ready For Kindergarten! and Let's Get Ready For First Grade! to use as an auction item!
Good luck!
LOL LOL LOL.. I"m sorry to be LOL. but I have BTDT. When my Princess started school I was all set to be that mom helping the teacher and doing the whole PTA. Then I did it. UGH.. I couldn't get over the clicks that were in the PTA. It was sooooooooooo like high school.. What also made me crazy was that the president and vise pres of the PTA were always talking about how they need so much help and there just wasn't alot of parents who wanted to "Take part in there childrens school and help out" BUT then when parents like me offered to help and to do things, we were hear "Oh no we got that covered" It was like They wanted to do it all themself in order to complain about having to do it all themself. I gave up. I go to meetings when I can, I normally like to go to the 1st meeting because then I get a heads up about what will be going on though out the year.. but I don't go out of my way to go or offer them help anymore. BUT then again last year I had 3 in school(one was preschool) and all 3 were in different schools also and I couldn't be in 3 places at once plus care for the baby at home.. so I did what i could and didn't worry about the rest.
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