How much should I as room mom harass parents for $?
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Anonymous
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Please don't kill me, I'm learning the ropes here!
New Kindergarten room parent in a wealthy district (probably matters for this discussion). School "recommends" parents commit $25 to class fund for parties and teacher gifts. Sent an email (friendly) with a deadline (before party supplies had to be bought for first party) and one reminder - $ request was in the same email as Halloween details etc, so it wasn't a "GIVE ME YOUR MONEY!" email. 7 out of 21 families haven't given anything. I know a bunch of these families and there's no way this is a financial issue for the majority. If I have to cover the teacher gift I will, but at what point do you just say eff it and stop asking? I don't want to harass people, but it's also like, come on now! Thanks for any thoughts. |
Anonymous
| I would probably send one more email and then drop it after that. You can only do so much to get people to give you money. |
Anonymous
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When you're asking people for money, you want to make it as easy as possible and remind them through different mediums (not everyone is great on school emails, as so many are sent out each week). What our room parent did last year was send a clearly labeled email (not a notice that is sandwiched in with other crap) letting people know what the class fund is, what it is used for, and that the funds were about to be collected soon so that they could anticipate it. Then, she sent home a brightly-colored paper letter in the take home folder with an attached envelope. She got nearly everyone to contribute the requested $40. It was also a wealthy district.
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Anonymous
Send the GIVE ME YOU MONEY email. If you don't, you run the risk of people ignoring it. |
Anonymous
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It's possible some parents prefer to do their own givings for the teacher and don't want to do a group gift.
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Anonymous
| Room parent had teacher stick in an envelope in the Friday folder. Easy. |
Anonymous
| A paper notice with a stapled envelope is the best tactic. Signed, mom of 3 who has been room mom 4 times (and hopefully never again!) |
Anonymous
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Wow! Only 7 families didn't contribute, that's great.
Having been a room parent before, I can tell you that if I even approached 50% participation I would have been thrilled. Being a room mom was actually pretty costly. I ended up contributing a lot out of pocket. |
Anonymous
This! Fellow room mom here. We also use SignUpGenius. If you can get people to sign up that way, it's easier to collect donations. |
Anonymous
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Parent in a wealthy district here.
1. I have no idea why people don't pay up. 2. That said, I'm glad our school doesn't do it this way. We use signup genius for class parties (one person sends drinks, another sends the craft, another the pretzels, etc.) These sign ups fill extremely quickly but our parents are very involved. 3. Usually the gift is on your own. On the rare occasion there is a voluntary class gift, we always opt out because we want to give the teacher something directly. IMO this discourages freeloading, which happens even in wealthy districts. |
Anonymous
OP here - we do use sign up genius for volunteering and added a few things to bring (tablecloths, etc) but the money goes to buy the food and decorations, make the crafty stuff for the kids to do (other room parent handling this - I'm supposed to deal with the money and logistics which I'm clearly not doing that well 
I like the colored paper with envelope idea - can try that! But do I only give it to the people who didn't pay yet? This is more complicated than I anticipated.. |
Anonymous
I'm the PP whose room mom collected $40 from nearly every parent in the class at a North Arlington elementary. This sort of thing doesn't really apply to the wealthier districts. Plenty of parents give individual end of year and holiday gifts, but they still kick in to the class fund. If OP is in a place like McLean or wherever, there's absolutely no way 7 parents in the classroom are ideological enough about their $25 dollars to save it and put it towards an individual gift. There is, however, a high possibility that they weren't asked in the most effective manner (email alone is too easy to ignore), and that she made it too difficult for the more disorganized among them to remember (no envelope that will sit on their kitchen counter for a couple of days until they remember to cut the check). |
Anonymous
| I hate and won't donate for a "group gift". I've seen too much kitschy, cutesy stuff purchased and I have no say about (but they have my money to buy). I do gift cards and the teacher can buy whatever she wants. No amount of emails, letters, or prestamped self-addressed envelopes would change my mind. |
Anonymous
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I agree - if you stick an envelope in every kids folder, it will get done more readily than not.
Despite the area being wealthy, I do know some parents hold out on this because they cannot be bothered, think there's a surplus of funds, various reasons. In the past I've heard from room parents who go slightly over the budget so there's extra left at the end (and people who haven't given are covered). So you might need $25 per head but you ask for $23 or $25 |
Anonymous
Sorry I meant $30 or $35 |