We have a special needs school but run a very active Community Outreach Youth Club. On Thursdays the kids meet and plan dfferent activites for the school to particpate in (spirit week activities, car washes etc.) They also collect donations during the month of November to give to homeless animals at the kill pet shelters to help extend the animal lives. Once a year they perform an orginal musical production in the community nursing homes and hospitals. These students are the life blood of our small school being they give so much back to the community. There is no cost to attend; and they fund raise through their spirit week (a dollar per student is paid to pay for the activity of the day .....pj day, hat day,accent day, jersey day, backwards/mixup day, etc)
Isabel,
I would say clubs are definitely worth it. Parents volunteer to do the classes so it is pure profit. More than anything it puts our pto in a good light by giving back. I would say start off with just like 3 to see if you get enrollment. We live in an area where there isn't a ton going on for kids so ours are very popular. good luck!
Our group is tossing around the idea of starting up clubs. We'd like to hear from other schools whether it is worth it. Do you do it to raise money or just offer fun things for kids to do? Did you have any trouble getting parents to volunteer to run the clubs or do you pay them a portion of the proceeds? Any info is appreciated.
For the Lego Club, we charged $20/kid for a 4-week club...and we took 60 kids/session for 2 sessions. We had the Legos and snacks for all of the clubs (except for Drama & Science) donated to keep costs down.
The Zumba, Tae Kwon Do, Drama, and Science clubs ran differently since we brought in vendors who ran the clubs.
Zumbatomic cost us $300 for a 4-week club, and we charged $25/kid. We took 30 kids/session for 2 sessions. The second session, we added a 2nd class since it was so popular.
The Tae Kwon Do teacher does a 50/50 split with us for the fee...she charges $30/kid...she takes $15 and gives us $15. We took 30 kids/session for 2 sessions.
Drama and Science were run by a teacher and were more expensive, so we didn't make as much on them. The drama club cost us $32/kid, and we charged $35/kid...she took 45 kids. Science club cost us $39/kid and we charged $42/kid...she took 60 kids. She provided all of the supplies and snacks for that class.
All of the clubs filled very quickly, since we worked hard to keep the costs down. We run the clubs in the winter, when there isn't as much competition with sports. We did run into problems with school cancellations due to snow days, but the instructors were great about rescheduling.
We use an on-line signup and payment system for clubs...no checks, cash, or paperwork comes into the school. It is also a more fair system for the popular clubs...when they're full, you can't sign up anymore. You can also print out the rosters for the instructors, the front office, and the volunteers.
Hope this helps, let me know if you have more questions!
Lisa
Thanks lisa. If you don't mind me asking, what type of costs did you charge? We were originally thinking of not charging, and didn't think of it as a profit idea for the PTO. Were they low-fees to join/participate?
