Comments on: National PTA’s movie night program. Some Questions

By: Lisa

Lisa — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 21:39:25 +0000

We did our own school movie night and tied it in with a parent workshop night. Staff volunteered to supervise kids while the kids watched a popular movie, and parents attended 3- 30 minute workshops selected from a variety of topics offered. The movie license was $75 for a one-time showing license and very easy to obtain through a movie licensing company. The night was a great success!

I think another family movie night might be in the works for this spring – but I we’ll probably plan our own so that we don’t have to charge our families to attend the event.

By: Lori

Lori — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:44:54 +0000

I have to say that I am SO GLAD that you have this article. I haven’t been able to find much information on the PTA website. My Principal wants to do it, but our student population is such that we would never be able to get the students to pre-register let alone pay a fee to attend. These movies are old. Everyone who wants to see them, has. I am normally a huge proponent of PTA, but I have to say that I am very disappointed in this program.

I’m going to get with the Principal and let her know about the PTO program. I think that is the route we will most likely go. We need to do what is best for the students, parents, and school.

By: tish

tish — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 00:54:06 +0000

Our school held the Fall movie night thru PTA. My school’s PTA sponsored the event, and Student Council sold goodies. It was great. Again, we tried to sell the gift cards ($20) and had zero response. We wanted to try this again for the Spring, and due to the “guidelines” will probably say no to PTA for this event. I am actually going to research the PTO movie night package, it sounds nicer.

By: Jeannette

Jeannette — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 03:18:39 +0000

When I got the email I was excited because we had done the fall and like Laura we didn’t push the gift cards. We had an awesome turn out and parents were excited that it was a free event. However, once I went to the website and read the guidelines for this one it was a disappointment.

They want us to charge $5 and give them a “free” $5 gift card. There’s nothing free in that.

Our PTA has the philosophy that we don’t charge admittance for any of our events. We are here to provide activities so our students and families interact with each other.

By: Debbie

Debbie — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 04:08:34 +0000

For a non-PTA school, the minimum is 50 attendees. Whew…$250 going to the PTA when we could just pony up $75 for the one time license and still come out ahead even if we served free popcorn and orange drink. Ya, right. Just another reason we are a “used to be PTA”.

By: Laura

Laura — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:10:20 +0000

I am a PTA member. The National PTA Movie Night Live that was held in the fall was different. Local PTAs did not have to “underwrite” the event for National. They were asked to sell gift cards ($20) at the event and received the DVD “Kung Fu Panda” free with the kit. We did not charge for the event. We invited everyone to bring their own dinner, picnic blankets and soccer chairs. We raffled the DVD off at the end of the show and did not push the gift cards. The little guy that won the DVD was ecstatic and could not believe that he didn’t have to take it back to the store. The gift cards were mailed back to HP. We are not having the “Bolt” event b/c my analysis is the same as yours. What a scam for National PTA. PTO is making more and more sense for my school.

By: Jan Powell

Jan Powell — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:17:36 +0000

We too hosted a PTA movie night in the Fall. We called it “Free Family Fun” and even gave away free popcorn. It was GREAT! Everyone had a good time and were excited for the next movie night. We had a good turnout but sold only one gift card.

I must say, PTA did a great job for the Fall movie night. They did all the leg work and made it extremely easy to set up. We were disappointed about the the changes for this second movie night. We also want to keep this a free event.

By: Denise Mobley

Denise Mobley — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 13:29:14 +0000

The PTA offered their first movie night in the Fall. Really, this is an opportunity to promote their new on-live movie store with family friendly movies. We did it, and it was great! We had well over 200 attendees. There was no charge, from the PTA or us. It was a great family activity.

All the PTA asked was that we promote the store and attempt to sell gift cards. We did this – no takers. ZERO. If any other schools had this or a similar experience, my guess is they had to charge this time to try to make some money, or something, related to the store.

However, this time, when we saw the $5 fee, we decided to do something different. We want this to be a free event; so little is these days.

By: Critter

Critter — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 04:06:39 +0000

When we did our first PTOToday-inspired movie night about 5 years ago, we had about 150 people. We charged only for the food, but asked folks to register in advance so we could plan seating and concessions. It was a huge success and cost us basically nothing except the license fee. We had a nice big screen, a decent sound-system, but it was still in a gym, not a movie theater. I would never charge anyone $5 to come to our movie night, kids OR parents. That’s too much and defeats the point of offering a free family fun event. And if our parent group did charge $5 a head, I woudl be furious if the money was given to another organizaiton unless the event was billed as a fundraiser for a charity.

Regarding the availability of Twilight: that is not a movie for elementary school kids. Some PG-13 movies might be ok, but not that one. I wonder how many middle-schoolers would prefer to see it in their gym where no one would sit still long enough to actualy watch the movie vs the theater or someone’s home.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 02:08:31 +0000

Ok, so is it acceptable to have the PTA/PTO sponsor the $125 and give away gift cards at events throughout the year? If so, this would be a fantastic chance to get a huge draw on a pretty new release. If not, it seems like what is for sale here is a mailing list of your members and if that’s the case it’s an aggressive marketing ploy.