Reply to PTAs: I don't want to donate money to facilitate adults socializing with their friends

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Reply to "PTAs: I don't want to donate money to facilitate adults socializing with their friends"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Yes OP, community is totally worthless and in no way a meaningful part of raising children [/quote]

Once more with feeling … the PTA is for the kids. You can find community volunteering for what the kids and school need. [/quote]

It’s actually not just for kids.
[/quote]

Kids are the whole point of school. [/quote]

Any strong PTA needs to get adults to volunteer and/or donate and anyone who has ever been tasked to motivate people to do either knows that you need to tap into whatever intrinsic motivation you can find. For PTA, that includes building community and making people families feel included. The kids don't donate the money and can't volunteer to do most things adults are capable of. You need to motivate the adults to do it. And the easiest way is to build community among the kids AND adults. [/quote]

Look it is inappropriate to focus the PTA on the needs of certain parents to have social outlets. A strong PTA  is created by being inclusive and well organized not cliquish and seemingly focused on adult socializing. If the families in your school cannot create community by doing things like organizing field trips and discussing curriculum then that is a bigger problem. [/quote]

Yeah I wasn't claiming the PTA should be focused on the needs of certain parents to have social outlets. But anyone soliciting volunteers for school fundraisers or other activities will have more success if they make the adults feel welcome and included. I'm agnostic on whether a PTA should foot the bill for some snacks at an event to solicit volunteers. When I'm the one doing the soliciting of volunteers, I host and pay for the snacks/drinks myself. But I do try to add something to the activity to help build the community and make people want to continue volunteering. [/quote]

These events are not to solicit volunteers. They aren't focused on any actual school-focused activities. They are just parent social outings.[/quote]

After clarification from OP, as there is no fundraising or specific volunteer raising agenda, I actually agree that this might be inappropriate. I was one of the PPs arguing that these were likely fundraisers or volunteer/information sessions but if not then it's not great. [/quote]

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