SAM2 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you're heavily involved in school activities that are comparable to school board service (e.g., organizing an event rather than just cheering at the baseball game), I suspect you'll quickly get accepted (and even forced) into leadership roles at the school. I'm sure plenty of willing/useful parents aren't asked to serve on school boards, but I suspect the people asked to serve on the school board are going to be the parents that are most willing and most useful (in some combination).

All that said, I'm sure every school is different, so maybe some of them are less democratic than others in school board participation.

Your school is definitely not my school if it is so easy for someone to volunteer and get accepted at your school. Coming from a public school where I was very active in the PTA, I thought I could volunteer at my child's private school and contribute as I always had at the public school. Was I wrong! An e-mail soliciting volunteers would come out, and even if I happened to reead and reply to it just after in pinged in by inbox, I'd a week later be told that all the positions for the volunteer activity were taken, and "would you mind baking instead?" It never fails. A lot of cronyism goes on. Don't any newcomers ever think about encroaching on the most popular volunteer positions, i.e. the ones that allow the uber-moms to cackle together as at a hen party. I am relegated to baking in my kitchen and delivering the goods through the back door, never to decorate the premises, hostess at the door, or serve at the event itself.

So, please tell me, how am I ever to become "heavily involved in school activities" as you say? I do not aspire to the Bpoard of Trustees, just to volunteering outside of my kitchen once in a while. I've been at this school for two years and still have not broken out of the kitchen.

Your school is definitely not my school if it is so easy for someone to volunteer and get accepted at your school .... So, please tell me, how am I ever to become "heavily involved in school activities" as you say? I do not aspire to the Bpoard of Trustees, just to volunteering outside of my kitchen once in a while. I've been at this school for two years and still have not broken out of the kitchen.

SAM2 wrote:

Your school is definitely not my school if it is so easy for someone to volunteer and get accepted at your school .... So, please tell me, how am I ever to become "heavily involved in school activities" as you say? I do not aspire to the Bpoard of Trustees, just to volunteering outside of my kitchen once in a while. I've been at this school for two years and still have not broken out of the kitchen.

I guess we are at different schools, because I just respond to those same emails and had no problem getting heavily involved immediately. And I'm pretty much a nobody, so I don't think I'm getting any benefits of cronyism or hen-cackling. If I were you, I'd try volunteering with a different group at school -- for example, if you don't want to bake, try volunteering with the soccer team rather than the cupcake committee. I don't know your school, but I'd imagine the same group of parents can't control every possible school event. (Yikes if they do!) Best of luck to you.

Anonymous wrote:At my school parents are not involved in volunteering for sports at all-- they are big boys. There is no "cupcake" committee to speak of. No, indeed I volunteer for each of the two or three major school-wide fundraisers that are held at different times during the year, and there are lots (at least 20 or so!) of different positions to choose from.

SAM2 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At my school parents are not involved in volunteering for sports at all-- they are big boys. There is no "cupcake" committee to speak of. No, indeed I volunteer for each of the two or three major school-wide fundraisers that are held at different times during the year, and there are lots (at least 20 or so!) of different positions to choose from.

I apologize for being unclear -- I was referring to the soccer team and the cupcake committee as tongue-in-cheek examples of very different groups, not as actual activities. If you're getting rebuffed by the fundraiser crowd, isn't there some other volunteer activity at the school besides fundraisers?