PTO Today

We’ve seen our share of drives to bring in box tops, but this one has an unusual twist: A pair of middle schools in Westminster, Md., are locked in a collection competition in which the principal of the losing school must wear the winning school’s spiritwear and proclaim that the winning school “rocks.’’

Amy Gromada, principal of West Middle School

East Middle School and West Middle School, which share a typical school rivalry, began this contest on May 1 and have until May 31 to bring in the box tops. So far, East is maintaining a lead over West, reports Mary Bendel-Simso, box tops coordinator at West Middle. The schools must check in with each other on each Tuesday of the month to report their collections numbers.

Bendel-Simso is updating the tallies on a poster in the school lobby with two thermometers featured on it, one for each school.

Bendel-Simso says she came up with the East versus West

Christian Roemer, principal at East Middle School.

idea because she wanted to try a different approach to motivate families to send in their box tops. She of course knew the schools had a rivalry. But she also wanted to find an inexpensive or even no-cost box tops collections prize.

And, she was hoping for some pizazz—or more excitement than the typical pizza party thrown for the winners. When she broached the topic with West Middle’s principal, Amy Gromada, she received a unqualified yes.

“It’s always great to have them behind the idea,’’ she says.

We’ll keep you posted on the competition!

It’s official. There’ll be another chapter for Entertainment Promotions, the maker of the coupon book that filed for bankruptcy in March.

The interesting twist is that Entertainment Promotions will be back with the family who founded it 50 years ago. The company announced this week that it had been acquired by HSP-EPI Acquisitions, LLC, a group led by Lowell Potiker, the son of company founders Hughes and Sheila Potiker.

Entertainment Promotions also said it will release its 2014 Entertainment Books on schedule. It intends to rehire the majority of its workforce within the next few weeks.

Last month, the company announced it had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which typically means liquidation of assets to pay off creditors. It then announced the court had approved a plan for it to resume operations and bids would be accepted to purchase the company in April.

There’s good news if your group has been selling Entertainment books as a fundraising program. It looks like the company that has long sold those chunky coupon books is coming back.

Entertainment Promotions had filed a petition for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy last month.

As of now, the comapny is selling its 2013 Entertainment Book memberships online and its Spring Entertainment fundraising programs have resumed. The company states that contracts entered into prior to its bankruptcy petition date are valid and it will honor its obligations.

Here’s how that’s possible: The company’s Chapter 7 trustee, who is appointed by the U.S. Department of Justice, was given the go-ahead by the Delaware Bankruptcy Court to resume operations through late April, when it is expected that the company will be sold.

According to company statements, the Chapter 7 trustee received an offer of $11.3 million from HSP-EPI Acquisitions, LLC to purchase Entertainment Promotions. Among the members of this organization is Lowell Potiker, son of Hughes and Sheila Potiker, who founded Entertainment Promotions 50 years ago.

What’s more, the company reports there will be an auction for Entertainment Promotions on April 19 and it is expecting multiple bidders.

Last month, Entertainment Promotions had voluntarily filed for Chapter 7 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the District of Delaware. Typically, a Chapter 7 filing means a liquidation of the business, with assets sold to pay off creditors.

If you’ve worked a fundraiser with a cash-or-check-only policy, then you know your parent group could be even more successful if people were allowed to use credit cards.

Well, now we have a solution to that problem. PTO Today has teamed up with PayAnywhere to offer an easy-to-use mobile payment option to parent groups.

PayAnywhere is a free credit card processing app and secure credit card reader that attaches to a mobile phone and allows you to accept credit card payments with an easy swipe. You can use it at fundraisers, book fairs, auctions, or other school events.

To keep it simple, PayAnywhere has no setup or cancellations fees, plus groups do not have to meet a minimum monthly usage requirement. For each transaction, there’s a flat 2.69 percent fee.

Details on PayAnywhere are on our site here.

PayAnywhere supports Apple iOS, Android, and BlackBerry smartphones. Every transaction is encrypted to make sure that customer data is secure.

The company is offering customer support by email, phone, or live chat. You can also check out its online tutorials at PayAnywhere.com/support.

Entertainment Publications, LLC, which most of us know as the company that sold the chunky Entertainment coupon books, surprised many parent groups last week when it filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

The company is owned by MH Equity Partners, an Indianapolis-based investment firm that according to a March 14 report in the Indianapolis Business Journal has had its own financial difficulties. The Journal reported that MH Equity’s portfolio has lost nearly 70 percent of its value, and a rift developed that resulted in the dismissal of one of its two founding partners.

Entertainment Publications’ Chapter 7 voluntary petition was filed on March 12 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the District of Delaware.  A Chapter 7 filing means a liquidation of the business, with assets sold to pay off creditors. Entertainment Publications referred questions to an attorney, who could not be reached for comment.

The company’s website indicates that the coupon books are still available for sale. (See screenshot of Entertainment Publications’ homepage, right.) However, it’s not yet clear what recourse will be available to PTOs or PTAs with pending orders.

When news of the shutdown broke last week, we heard from one group leader who told us his group would be out $3,000 because of the sudden closure. Another parent group leader reported on our Facebook page discussion that she had received an email from the company to set up a meeting on the same day it officially filed for bankruptcy. Yet another leader said she tried to contact her rep by email last week and received a bounce-back.

When the company filed for Chapter 7, it did so with a motion to extend the deadline to file related schedules and information to the court.

In the meantime, the court has set a meeting with Entertainment Publications’ creditors for April 8. The company submitted a 65-page list of creditors with its bankruptcy filing.

The Entertainment Book company was founded in 1962. In recent months, it had been working with partners to go digital with its coupon offerings.

Fun runs have long been a staple for many parent groups. Now groups are getting even more creative with these runs to help them appeal to more people and raise even more funds for their schools. Here are some examples:

Color Their World
The Swans Creek Elementary PTA in Southbridge, Va., wanted to capitalize on the popularity of color runs, in which runners get “splashed” with multicolored, cornstarch-based powder while running a 5K. So the PTA gave runners the option of running a color lap at the end of its fall fun run. During this lap, parent volunteers tossed the powder onto the runners as they passed a series of color stations. Runners got free sunglasses to shield their eyes. As they completed the color lap, they were transformed into walking rainbows.

Zombie Chase
The PTA at James A. Garfield Elementary in Collingswood, N.J., asked its fun run participants to run for their lives when zombies suddenly appeared to chase them along the route. The group even added a hearse from a local funeral home and parked it at the finish line to add to the spooky atmosphere. The Zombie Chase 5K was held close to Halloween and a trick-or-treat walk was offered after the event.

Family Fitness
Even without zombies or a color lap, a PTA 5K in Lexington, Ky., drew an estimated 1,275 participants. A main draw for families was a free eight-week training program offered through the YMCA. Thirty-eight PTAs participated in the event organized by the 16th District PTA. Participating PTAs were required to create a healthy lifestyles committee. The hope is that the run will become a way to showcase healthy habits that will continue long after the run is over, says Liza Holland, president of the 16th District PTA.

Last week, I asked if a parent group can fundraise too much, and I suggested that the answer is definitely yes.

The follow-up question, though, has been “What counts as a fundraiser?” You might not be surprised to find that I have some thoughts on that, too.

The best way to think about it is that as a parent group, you are always either asking your school community for a favor (money, support, time), or you are serving your community (events, communication, appreciation, spirit, growing involvement). And your goal should be to do a lot more of the latter than the former. That’s the recipe for vital, growing groups.

So when you’re deciding if something counts as a fundraiser, ask yourself if you’re asking or serving. Obviously, a gift wrap sale is an ask. You’re asking a parent to buy through you something they might or might not be able to buy somewhere else. But clipping a label or a box top is also an ask. As is asking for donations to your auction or for parents to eat at Applebee’s on a Tuesday night (even if you call it “Spirit Night”). Even asking parents to pay for popcorn at movie night is, yes, an ask.

As a leader, you can see the huge differences between a catalog sale and selling popcorn at the movie. But your parents just see it as you in their wallet again. The fewer times you can dip into that wallet, the better.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on what defines too much fundraising. Join the discussion on our message boards or on our Facebook page.

I completely understand the temptation for parent groups to fundraise all the time. We all want to do as much as we can for our school and our kids. And we hate to turn down offers of help or opportunities to bring in dollars for our school.

But for a variety of reasons you absolutely can fundraise too much. As a leader, you need to help your group resist the temptation.

Here’s my full column on the issue.

The biggest problem with fundraising too much is that it actually reduces your fundraising effectiveness. Yes, you can raise less money by trying to raise more money. The key is to have fewer fundraisers but run those few really, really well.

Too much fundraising also chases away your best volunteers. Very few parents are sitting home dying to hit up their friends for money. If that’s the main function of your group, then many parents will shy away.

We have many resources on this topic. Check these out:

30 Tips for a Winning Sales Fundraiser

Save Your Sagging Fundraiser

Ideas for Great Fundraisers

We’ve got some great news about our Ultimate Donation List, one of the hottest threads on our Message Boards: Now we have a vendor search function for just this thread so our community can search for specific vendors.

This should be a really helpful tool because this thread is a big one—and it is chock full of information about national and local vendors and how to best seek donations from them for school auctions and other events.

When you go onto the Ultimate Donation thread, you’ll find the new search box called Search Ultimate Donation List in the upper right corner of the page. Just type in a vendor name and you’ll get a drop down list of related vendor names and you can make a selection. You can then highlight your selection, click “Go’’ and you’ll get a list of posts related to that vendor.

The Ultimate Donation list was started a few years ago so parent group leaders could share information about donations. It has evolved into a really useful tool for a lot of folks, thanks to the contributions of parent group leaders. Many will provide their own strategies of dealing with vendors, tips on what to include in donation requests, and their own inside info on what vendors are helpful and which ones are best to avoid.

It’s especially helpful to parents who are new to auctions or other PTO events that call for solicitations. So, if you are not sure where to begin, the Ultimate Donation List can give you a great jump start.

Judging by sales numbers, at least, the iPad is now the technology to have in schools. Apple sold more than one million to the U.S. education market in the third quarter of its current fiscal year alone. Many PTOs and PTAs are taking out their checkbooks for these hand-held devices, so, should you?

These tablets definitely add to a classroom with their array of educational apps and easy to use video, photo, and music functions. But it’s still important for parent groups get answers to some key questions before they proceed.

What will the school do with them?
“You want to make sure you don’t fall into the trap where there’s no plan in place of how it’s going to be used,’’ says Eric Sheninger, principal at New Milford High School in New Milford, N.J. and a social media blogger and author.

Instead of getting dazzled by the iPad’s potential, check with your administration and talk to the school’s technology specialist to figure out if there is a need for iPads. Ask how they envision these tablets being used in the classroom and look for specifics in their answers.

Who will take care of them?
Find out if your school’s technology team has the bandwidth, as techies say, to handle supporting a new device. The iPad may be known for ease-of-use, but there are bound to be technical issues, even on small matters such as charging the battery, for which students and teachers will need help.

Where’s the money coming from?
Evaluate how to best fund an iPad purchase, keeping in mind they aren’t cheap and Apple doesn’t haggle, although it does provide educational discounts. Currently, iPads range from $400 to more than $800 per device.

Karen Weaver, a board member of the PTA at Redding Elementary in Redding, Conn., says her group held a dedicated fundraising effort last year that included a challenge grant. She and her husband matched the first $1,000 raised with an in-kind donation. Also, the local education foundation donated $500.

The PTA also did a companion Spirit Wear fundraiser, creating an “exclusive’’ Redding tie-dyed T-shirt, that raised $3,000 for the iPad fund. In total, the group raised $9,000 and purchased 22 iPads.

 Who should make the purchase?
Parent groups should check with their school or district, because many have specific guidelines on technology purchases. In some school districts, technology purchases are required to go through the central office.

In the case of the Redding PTA, it opted to make the purchases through Apple’s education group and received a 5% discount on each bundle of 10 it purchased.

Other parent groups find donating money for iPad purchases makes more sense. That’s how the District 67 PTA in Morton Grove, Ill., handled it. This parent group, which represents both the Hynes Elementary and Golf Middle Schools, donated $23,000 last year for iPads.

It decided to donate the money rather than make the purchase because the school would get a better deal by not paying sales tax, says Chris Hoffman, PTA president.  “Also, we decided it made more sense for the technology person to order it,’’ Hoffman adds. “We might not have known exactly what to order.’’