Sunday, June 03, 2007

Rant: Fundraisers

This is an addendum to the I'm Tired Rant.

Why I don’t think it is my job to create, administrate or organize fundraisers:

  1. Because I don’t benefit AT ALL from it.

  2. The parents and children don’t really participate as they should.

  3. I have to spend too much time begging people to participate AND AGAIN, I DON’T BENEFIT FROM IT.

  4. It is my summer vacation and I would be working a second job during it instead of enjoying my well earned vacation.

  5. It is time consuming and again I don’t get paid or benefit from it.

  6. My child is not participating in it—wait a minute, I don’t have ANY children

  7. Apparently, my life is supposed to revolve around school b/c I’m single and don’t have any children

  8. It requires time babysitting the students as they execute whatever fundraiser it is AND they are NOT my children.

Why parents think it is my job to create, administrate and organize fundraisers?

  1. Because I sponsor the sport.
  2. Because they don’t have time for it. Nevermind, how valuable my time is.

  3. Because I collect $530 to sponsor the sport PER SEMESTER, despite the fact that I attend all practices, games and meetings, which equals less than minimum wage for me

  4. Because I have summers off and they go to work everyday

  5. Because the sport costs too much and the sponsor needs to find a way to offset some of the costs

  6. Because I am the person in charge of the account & the lack of funds in it.

I love cheer & I love the kids. But I am absolutely tired of people not being proactive and expecting me to do EVERYTHING!!! My job is to make sure the sport takes place and that the kids have what they need. Not to fundraise b/c they can’t afford it. I really wish that people were more considerate.

Why am I really pissed? What led to this post? My cheerleaders are running the summer concession stand to earn money to pay for the many expenses. The concession stand is a service we are offering for summer school and summer camp, that we agreed too over a month ago. It must be open and because I am the sponsor I must find someone to run it. Tomorrow, all of the cheerleaders go to group gymnastics. I must attend with them. I asked parents for volunteers, even their other teen children who are doing nothing for the summer. Not ONE PERSON responded or offered to help find someone. So here, I am on a Sunday afternoon before it opens calling all of my friends and family to get someone to do it AND you know what? I have to pay them!

Do you see why we don’t have more car washes, bake sales or donation drives? Because it all falls on my shoulders to organize have manpower for it. AND I DON'T BENEFIT !!! Every time they ask me about fundraisers, I have told them to talk to their parents. This is definitely going to be true about future stuff.

A parent contacted me about the summer clinic that we normally do. I am NOT doing it. It is TOO much work to do by myself and then there about 50 kids running around the school and I am the only one there. It is TOO MUCH and that’s illegal.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hear you on this one:
Apparently, my life is supposed to revolve around school b/c I’m single and don’t have any children.

It's so frustrating.

HappyChyck said...

Oh! I really hate fund raising! I'll do anything I can to avoid it. In your situation, though, students and their parents should be expected to step up to the plate to raise that money. Is each cheerleader charged a certain amount that she is expected to earn throughout the year? I've seen that happen in several schools. Unfortunately, the school foots the bill until the cheerleader pays it off, but then the cheerleader does not collect a diploma or transcripts until debts are paid. Quite motivating. Unfortunately, it's also an activity where students who cannot afford to pay to play should not go out for the sport.

I've been there done that...and extra curricular activities and duties are truly things that people expect of you if you are single. The interesting thing is that these are usually newer teachers who often have enough on their plates just TEACHING! Now that I have many years experience, I probably could handle the extra duties better than I did when I was younger, but actually, I'm quite worn out from years of teaching being my only life. I applaud you for taking your stand now.

Anonymous said...

I am VERY pessimistic today (very unlike me), so maybe I shouldn't be commenting on this. But here's what I say.
You are not doing this job for free.
Your contract has limits. I don't think they extend into the summer. Check on that. And then use it.
Set the boundaries. People walk all the hell over you if you don't.
Sometimes people just suck.