We use out Open House as a small fundraising opportunity.
A couple of weeks before we send home a flier requesting themed donations per grade level. For example, the first grade theme may be kitchen and cooking, the 3rd grade may be sports and athletics and the 4th grade might be movies and media, or something like that.
A couple of nights before we take all of the collected donations and create baskets. We usually end up with twenty to thirty different baskets, though some may be similar.
We then sell raffle tickets that the kids/parents/staff can put into a raffle box per each basket. These are all displayed in the school auditorium. At the end of the evening we pick the winners and call those who have gone home.
This year we are including a bake sale as well. We also sell the apparel and school spirit items.
I don't use the Open House as a "meet the PTO" or "get involved" forum as we already do that at our Back to School Ice Cream Social held the day before school starts.
We will have signups for volunteers and we are selling the stretchy bookcovers this year, replacing our Merchant card fundraiser( don't EVEN get me started why we aren't doing it anymore!) Hopefully we will sell lots of them because we have lots of them to sell!!
By sending all your info home in a packet on the 1st day it clears you up to be able to meet and greet at back to school night. It would eb okay to have info out for volunteering or maybe evetn calendars but I think just talking with parents helps them to get to know you and your group. Plus you want them to know you will not be too pushy or overwhelming so they won't be afraid to committ to a little volunteer time.
Last year we made signs printed in color with graphics of every event we will host over the school year and used them to decorate behind/around on the wall at our PTO table. The parents and kids can look forward to their favorites that way.
