<p>My thoughts: your daughter will be disappointed if she doesn’t get to do cheer. However, she will be able to enjoy the next four years with her mom, all those special times spent baking cookies, or shopping, or whatever you enjoy doing together. Then she will be gone. Off to college. Never again to recapture those special bonding moments, all those fun times, the quiet times, the special moments you spent together.</p>
<p>Can you have her at least wait a year to try out? There are so many activities to get involved in during high school. Maybe she’ll find a niche or two somewhere else?</p>
<p>When much is required of the adults and the kids are constrained, it’s a signal flag that parental ego may be interfering with program goals. Sad, but true, in my experience.</p>
<p>This has been our experience at our local high school’s band program. With hard economic times, more families haven’t been paying their band fees. Since some costs are fixed, that means that band fees must be raised for those who can and will pay. I know there are some families who think, “Do only suckers pay their band fees?”</p>
<p>These trying economic times have and will continue to lead to a retrenchment of the band program. And I think that it will be a good thing. Do the kids really need to go to a band competition every week during competition season? Do they need to go to competitions to Hawaii or NYC or Vancouver BC? </p>
<p>Maybe this is a good time to simplify the program…</p>
<p>Many years ago, one of mine went to a school with a PTA who had decided to respect the very busy lives of parents. They hosted a 'No Frills" fundraiser which precluded dues, car washes and giftwrap, chocolates, fruit, pizza, wreath, cookie dough, etc. sales. They asked parents to submit checks which reflected what they might contribute via the above mentioned activities. They indicated that they would repeat the solicitation electronically as a reminder for those who wanted to spread their ‘fundraising’ over time, but did not expect full participation with each reminder.
I brought this idea to another school’s booster organization and was amazed at the positive remarks from the organization leadership and parents alike.
Many folks were happy to donate large amounts from personal or their business accounts for tax benefits or for gaining back personal time.</p>
<p>Yesterday Husband had a chat with a freshman cheer mom. He asked about fundraising. She said, “Yes, we do a lot, but it is totally fair.”
“Fair?” he aked.
“Yes, fair. We don’t allow any buyouts like some of the other organizations.”</p>
<p>As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been in a lot of booster clubs, drill team being the most intense so far. My goal has always been to never be the biggest slug in the group, but to never chair anything. The other moms know I practice law full time, I do what I can and I don’t think I have any enemies. Right now I’m reviewing a contract for the group (pro bono, of course) and that’s worth more than if I sell 200 poinsettias. If D cheers, I guess I’ll try the same approach and see what happens.</p>
<p>I can consider myself really lucky! I’d rather stand on the pool’s edge under pouring rain than go door to door selling wrapping paper! My D’s teams had “membership fees” which covered most of the expenses, but the parents were required to pitch in their time to run the meets and games. One team had a cash “buyout” option (to get out of the timing and concession stand obligations), but the $$ bar was set pretty high. Only a few microsofties were willing to part with that large $$ amount.</p>
<p>Oh, Missypie, as an earlier poster said, you ARE between a rock and a hard place. I was just like you, I would inquire about the profit margin on something the kids were expected to sell, and then write the check. We are not wealthy, but my philosophy has always been that I did not want to ask someone else to feel obligated to buy something so my child could go to a camp or a swim meet or take a trip abroad. If the selling benefited my child, it was our families responsibility. If that meant I needed to take on more work or my child needed to work (walk a dog @ age 7), so be it. If my DD’s were raising money for a charity - that was different, but I am very uncomfortable pressing (however gently) my friends, neighbors, co-workers, and grandparents into buying something they don’t want. </p>
<p>I didn’t mind fundraisers like car washes that required the kids to put in their time and effort and the customers were people who drove by and decided they wanted the service. </p>
<p>To me, being fair, is stating up-front what it will cost to participate. It is NOT fair to tell me how I will pay my bills. </p>
<p>Now excuse me while I go ask my friends to buy some homemade soup from me so I can go to Italy this summer.</p>
<p>Sounds good to me. My take on fundraising is this. I have five kids, and I am burned out. When my oldest was little, I helped him sell a lot of things – for choir, boy scouts, swim team, etc. Now I’m older, more tired, have more money, and I am much happier writing checks. Yes, I am a slacker. I don’t prohibit my younger two kids from joining anything, but I do try to steer them away from activities that seem to involve a constant frenzy of volunteering/fundraising.</p>
<p>Having said that, I feel your pain. The group is what it is, so there may not be any way to avoid having to buy a lot of plants (or whatever they’re selling!). I guess you gotta decide if the trade off is worth it. At least you know what you’re getting in to!</p>
<p>If it is really about cheer, and not about the school based social group, is there another option for cheer in your community? We have a related problem with our son’s soccer club, but anticipated it coming in. I will be limiting my son to school soccer if the “buy out” thing stops working.We do have an obligation to volunteer at the school, and while they offer “buy outs”, it’s a win-win when the hubs and some of his staff does all the sports physicals.</p>
<p>I use the term umbrella organization to describe a separate entity that coordinates the activities of smaller groups with similar interests and shares its resources with them.</p>
<p>An example at the local HS is Athletic Booster Club, which covers every competitive team sport (including Cheer and Drill) and also supports the schools athletic program with grants for needed equipment, field maintenance, supplies, etc. There is a similar organization for vocal and instrumental music, one for performing arts that encompasses the theater and dance groups, one for the science and technology clubs, and so on.</p>
<p>A major boon is that an umbrella organization will set up as one tax-exempt organization and file the annual tax report with the IRS and state. It can also pay all the independent contractors (trainers, choreographers, etc.) directly for the affiliated groups and handle all the associated filing and forms required with that. By their nature, volunteer-run HS organizations have a rapid turnover of board members, and a new treasurer may not have organized information or files to review to understand what filings have to be made and when. Keeping just one entitys tax-exempt status current and compliant saves much work and worry.</p>
<p>The First Booster Club in MCPS to support All extracurricular activitites!</p>
<p>The Walter Johnson Community believes that extra-curricular activities are an integral part of the educational experience and so emphatically supports all extra-curricular activities, not just sports.</p>
<p>The WJ Booster Club provides encouragement, assistance, and monetary support to any and all officially sanctioned school activities through enthusiastic participation of volunteer officers, parents, school faculty and staff, and the broader Montgomery County community.</p>
<p>Our goal is to promote good citizenship, sportsmanship and a well-rounded student population</p>
<p>Encouragement and assistance are provided through our Commissioner Program with monetary support available via our Funding Request Process.</p>
<p>Necessary funds are procured from Membership and Fundraising efforts.</p>
<p>Participation is encouraged by attendance at our Meetings and through our Volunteer Program.</p>
<p>It seems to be a tradition here in NJ for the local sports teams (mainly girls) to beg at the door of super markets on weekends. I always tell them I’d rather pay them to do real work like a car wash than to give in to begging.</p>
<p>Another wrinkle in fundraising is that more and more workplaces hereabouts won’t allow people to sell fundraising items at work. At my office, we’re allowed to put up an appeal written by the child outside our office door, but we cannot request that colleagues take part. No office email, no flyers posted next to the coffee machine, nada. </p>
<p>If one of our kids had an EC with a fundraising obligation, and no buyout option, it would be totally unfair to us.</p>
<p>I’m OK with “activity” fundraisers like carwashes, within reason. My D is a dancer, and their best fundraisers were dance shows. The girls had to show up and perform, we parents had to get them there and work the event, and boom – done, profits split equally among participants. No arm-twisting loved ones into buying useless merchandise, no pounding the pavement for sales, no jealousy/competition. We had a wealthy family that sometimes opted out; no problem, it was up to them if they needed the funds. </p>
<p>But it seems fundraising committees are always run by people who just LOVE to sell, and can’t understand that there are those of us who HATE to sell. I can’t tell you how many times I heard at D’s dance studio: “Oh it’s easy, you just ask your family, your friends, co-workers. I just went around my neighborhood last Saturday and got $500 in sales!” Ugh!! Besides the fact that I’m not allowed to sell at work, and I don’t relish imposing on my family/friends/neighbors, there’s also the unspoken, but very real, Reciprocation Rule: If you buy my D’s poinsettias in November, you have the right to expect me to buy your D’s Easter candy in March. It’s hard to see much overall benefit there.</p>
<p>I’m sorry, missypie, but if dance had required year-round fundraising, especially selling, D would have had to find another activity. I just don’t have what it takes to do that.</p>