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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Here's your choice:
A parent volunteer or paid person to coordinate everything, take payments, manage insurance, building permits etc. OR you get a company like Flex to do all the work but they raise the prices because they need to get paid.

If you have someone willing to do the work, great. If not, Flex makes sense.

If the PTA is paying for someone to coordinate everything, then you do need to consider if it makes sense to use PTA dollars to subsidize activities that are pay-to-play and that don't benefit all the kids (if they choose not to sign up for activities.)[/quote]

This is not true (but maybe what FLEX wants you to think). I have organised after school classes for my PTA - the vendors handle all payments and flyers themselves, plus book all rooms with the county - PTAs are actually not allowed to book rooms w the county on behalf of after school programs.

All the PTA has to do is distribute vendor flyers and post on their website/social media about the classes to let parents know that the programs are offered.

As a PTA we also required all vendors to provide 1 need based scholarship for every class (need confirmed by school counselor).

The work is not much - the vendors all do what flex says it will do.

Also, FLEX does not actually do it's own background checks - just requires vendors to do their own and say they have been done.[/quote]

Thanks for this info, very helpful. Sounds like Flex is a scam. Most schools would have little difficulty finding a parent volunteer to coordinate.[/quote]

Our school didn't. [/quote]

I've coordinated after school activities for my PTA and also organized events. Being a coordinator takes no more time that organizing a family event at the school. Do you get volunteers to run any events at your school or does nothing happen in your PTA? It's really manageable and again, vendors are responsible for their own registration, room reservation, insurance, etc. If no one steps up to do things at the school that is a shame because it means each parent is paying an extra $60/child to attend classes which makes them more inaccessible for many students.[/quote]

Great points. Can the PTA offer a small stipend to the parent coordinator?[/quote]

I doubt it, but your PTA could check with the MDPTA for guidance. If an activities coordinator is paid what about all the work the PTA president does, or the treasurer, or the talent show organizer, etc??? Everyone will want to be paid, and I'm pretty sure in order to keep the PTA's non-profit status there are rules about volunteers vs. employees.[/quote]

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