MenzyMom is right on track again!! But I'm going through a fundraiser that was on the school calendar back in November for April BUT the PE Dept has decided to have their Jump for heart campain the SAME time! UGH!! The event gal at school is red! In my situation there is no talking to the gym teacher as somewhere somehow I was named enemy #1 and therefore I can say nothing or do nothing. I have mentioned tothe Principal and Asst. Principal the teachers aditude, so for whatever that's worth.....
I do agree communiation is the key ingredent here that helps the world go round...a little smoother anyway!
OH! and it might not be a bad suggestion for her to hook up with the local TV stations as cash and equiptment sponsors. If she could find one or two sponsors for her station (banks and car dealerships are great for this), then you would leave them alone and let her have them. She would then have to agree not to run any fund-raising activities without going through you first.
Use the "Don't Rock The Boat" principal in your favor. Explain that your fund raiser brings in X amount more than the librarians, and that it benefits the whole school, that it is accountable down to the last dime, etc. Then explain that you cannot run yours if she runs hers before or at the same time. If your principal is like most people (present company excepted...lol...), you will see that greed (for lack of a better word) will take over. The school wants and needs the bigger money maker, the one that will benefit it most.
As for a long term solution that everyone maybe able to live with: Of course, COMMUNICATION is the best way to go. However, that is never as easy as it sounds when you are dealing with some individuals. I suggest this: Divide your donations. For Example, she gets to use the boxtop money, the ink cartridge money, the swanson chicken money, your campbell soup labels, (your smaller money-makers) and you get to run the actual fund-raisers (carnivals, gift wrap, Target, etc.). Local cash donations are sought after by you, but divided (as needed) with her. While I am very Pro-Library, it sounds as though the library is not getting her funds. From now on, offer to meet her half way with library funding requests. That should show her she has to at least be fair.
Good Luck! :eek:
First, I want to say I just found this site and I'm so glad! I will be coordinator of our elementary school's Parent Faculty Association next year.
Here's my concern: The PFA holds 2 major fundraisers each year; one in the fall, and a carnival in the spring. Several other school groups such as the cheerleaders, student council, etc. have fundraisers during the year. We have a student news broadcasting group (headed up by the librarian) that also holds one or more fundraisers. The librarian also directs money raised from book fairs and proceeds from a carnival run by a church that meets in our school to this group and/or to other library needs. Here's the rub: she never gives us an accounting of how much money she's made from these other sources and where it's going; but she does come to us for funding, most recently for AR books and tests. We voted to give it to her.
Now I have found out that she has scheduled a fundraiser for the tv group first thing next fall when we return to school. This will interfere with the PFA's fall fundraiser even if we wait til hers is done to start ours (people who have participated in the first one might not want to buy more "stuff" in the second one!). Also, this past year, her fundraiser info to parents did NOT say what this fundraiser was for; I think most parents just assumed it was a general school fundraiser or perhaps would benefit the library (as in books).
Has anyone else had problems competing with other school groups that are also doing fundraising? How have your handled it? Does your parent group then give these groups more money from your fundraisers? Do you ask teachers seeking funding to account for other funds they have?
Our principal is the "don't rock the boat" type; and our librarian is a powerful long-time school district employee. I don't want to create a mess here, but it just seems to me that if she has this money from these other fundraisers, she should spend it on library needs first (books!) and then on the "extras" for the tv studio.
