The P&C donates at least $25 000 a year to the school to cover things ranging from the Early Literacy program and purchasing of library books, through staff development programs and on to photocopying supplies and provision of soap for the kids’ bathrooms.

On top of that we also raise money for bigger projects such as providing air-conditioning for classrooms, refurbishing the canteen (it’s getting a complete kitchen make-over this year) and even major building works.

So you can see why we do it!

You should make a nuisance of yourself and ask where the fundraising money goes

And yes, the selling to solicitors thing just boggles my brain. So very wrong.

If I cared enough I would join our PTA and either put a stop to fund raising or take part in deciding which fund raisers we’ll do.

This is our first year with school so I guess I was just surprised and annoyed.

(I’m especially offended they would ask me to sell my family’s private information to solicitors. That’s just wrong.)

Also so many of them seemed to be about 10 cents or 50 cents and just an annoying waste. Your carnival seems like a way better alternative to penny pitching people a little at a time.

It has also occurred to me that they never said what they need funds for. Nor did they explain why their regular budget doesn’t cover such expenses.

Other than the Family Fun Day we don’t do too many fund raisers (generally 2 in each of the 4 terms) and any we do are opt in only so if there’s something that doesn’t appeal you just ignore it. We sold Hot Cross Buns for Easter from the local bakery (owned by a family at the school), we’ll be selling sunscreen from the Cancer Council in the lead up to summer, we run a Christmas Markets where we rent out stall space and parent involvement is minimal and the parent craft group sells gifts to the kids for Mothers and Fathers Day (I made 90 pairs of earrings for this year’s Mothers Day stall).

I used to HATE the way the pre-school sent home a box of fund raising chocolate with my kid whether I wanted it or not. We almost always ended up just buying it all ourselves because I refused to go door to door, I didn’t work and hubby’s work had him traveling all the time so he couldn’t take them in to the office either.

I’ve been a member of the P&C (Parents and Citizens association) for 5 years now, I like being able to nudge decision making in my preferred direction

I just declined participating in most of it.