Goals and Roles: Summer 2023

By the end of Summer Term 2023, we need a new Chair, Treasurer, Secretary and 2-3 Committee members. Here’s more information about what the PTA does and what the roles involve

Goals

We raise money and build community. We run events that bring people together and raise money to pay for things the kids wouldn’t normally have. We aim to raise around £10,000+ a year. We work with the Senior Leadership Team at Rushmore to decide where the money should go. In the last couple of years, the money the community has raised has bought…

The equipment on the hill in the Reception playground; a table tennis table and lots of bats and balls; a greenhouse to grow seedlings; new sound systems for the school halls; annual magazine subscriptions for the Library; leavers’ presents for the Yr6s; the new flood lights in the Stadium; 60 laptops; video equipment to record concerts; climbers to grow up the Chatsworth Road fence; the Little Libraries in the playgrounds and just last week, four new glockenspiels.

How? We run events. In pre-Covid times, we’d have a couple of big events every year (like the Winter and Summer Fairs), as well as smaller events like the cake & uniform sales, and seasonal events like the Halloween Carving Competition.

In Covid times, we had to make things more remote – and do events like the Winter Raffle and Wreaths and online photo competitions. We’re started to get back to normal with smaller events and this year, we’ve also raised a money via the Rushmore Hackney Half-Marathon Team.

Roles

Everything we do is planned and staffed by parents and carers who volunteer, with invaluable help from the staff. In theory, everyone in school is a member of the PTA – there’s no formal sign-up and everyone is welcome. But there are different ways people get involved. In terms of time / levels of commitment:

Chair, Secretary, Treasurer
Committee Members

Then there are:

Reps (one in every class)
People who regularly or occasionally volunteer
Members of the school community who get involved in events

The Chair, Secretary and Treasurer are posts with specific responsibilities and are Trustees of the Charity, so have legal responsibilities in running the organisation. Everything is divided up across the committee. Our Treasurer Nienke is staying in post. The job description of Treasurer is here for reference but we’re not looking for a replacement.

Job Descriptions

Chair

Job: Co-ordinate the activity of the PTA. Help decide what the PTA should be doing and then make sure it happens.

Responsibilities:

Liaise with School; work with the Senior Leadership Team to support what they are trying to achieve & see how we can pay for it
Set agendas, manage meetings, ensure different voices are heard.
Delegate/ assign tasks and support people to do them
Make sure what we do is properly documented/ recorded
Work closely with the Treasurer and sign off termly & annual accounts
Ensure the PTA is registered with regulatory bodies, has got the right documentation etc
Actively reach out to wider community: reps, governors and wider community
Signatory on the bank account
Trustee of the charity

Suits someone: organised, likes talking to people, not scared of spreadsheets. It needs a mixture of practical and strategic skills, as you getting events done but also leading a small voluntary organisation.

Time commitment: at least 10 hours a month, more when there are lots of things on.

A lot of the Chair’s work is practical and about getting stuff done at school – but there is also a fair amount of admin running a small charity, so you need to get to grips with that too.

Secretary

Job: Help the PTA run efficiently and be in charge of communicating with the school community.

Responsibilities:

Work with the chair to prepare for and run meetings
Do minutes, circulate and chase up outstanding items
Manage communication with the Reps & PTA mailing list
Manage the PTA email
Be the “person who knows” about communicating through school/ texts/ etc
Manage the PTA Dropbox/ files
Maintain the PTA's records, including minutes, member contact details and legal documents
Be friendly and approachable round school
Trustee of the charity

Suits someone: good with words; organised, good with spreadsheets, good with people; likes thinking ahead.

Time Commitment: at least 10 hours a month, more when there are lots of things on.

Treasurer

Job: to manage and control PTA funds

Responsibilities:

Report finances at PTA meetings
Maintain up-to-date records of all the PTA's financial activity
Ensure money is kept safely before and during events, and bank takings afterwards
Organise floats for fundraising events
Report income and expenditure information after events
Set procedures for making payments and claiming expenses and ensure they're followed
Manage finances on a day-to-day basis, including making payments, completing banking transactions and issuing invoices and receipts
Complete the Charity Commission annual return
Meet the chair once a term to go through last term’s accounts
Meet the chair once a year for an annual overview
Trustee of the charity

Time Commitment: the Treasurer can be a more “hands-off” role, though it works best when they’re fully part of the PTA but it can be about 5 hours a month for the “book-keeping” side, more if you want to be more involved.

Suits someone: methodical; good with money; good at details.

Committee Members

We’re looking for 2- 3 people to be on the Committee. They do a lot for the PTA but don’t have a legal role. They might be involved in running specific events or always involved in the big events we do so the role is flexible – and can be shaped round what interests you. Committee members:

Are committed & interested in the PTA
Attend meetings and have ideas about what to do
Plan and run events/ help plan and run events
Friendly and approachable around school
Help get things done.

Some take on specific responsibilities… eg:

Oversee/ write contributions to School’s newsletter
Run calendar of events
Be the “person who knows” about publicity for events, including flyers, posters and raffle tickets etc
Run the sponsorship relationship with Estate Agents
Run specific events: eg: the Hackney Half team or the Winter Raffle
Cake Monitor (!) helps each year run its cake sale
Gardening/ Eco person – we’ve tried to boost gardening/ greening at the school
2^nd Hand Uniform Boss (we have someone in place for this)

How it fits together

The current people in post also do the majority of organising the events – but this doesn’t NEED to be done by us– it’s just the way it works out at the moment.

Traditionally, we can find volunteers on the day for big events, but we have problems finding people to organise things. This is slowly changing. For example, the core PTA hasn’t had the capacity to run the Summer Fair this year. A new group of people have stepped forward to run it. We’re liaising and supporting them a bit, but they’re doing all the hard work.

This might be a good model to replicate in the future if people don’t want to get fully involved in the PTA but do want to help at some events.

As the PTA is starting with a new committee, it might be a good time to think about how the committee is organised and to fit the roles to suit people’s strengths, not just repeat the way it’s always been done.

Want to get involved?

If you might be interested in any of the roles, please email via the rushmorepta@outlook.com