Yikes!!! I was going to look into it, BUT - $50 I can live with. 20% of sales? How do you total them? Who keeps track of the sales? That's too much effort for not enough cash. Sorry, I'll look elsewhere.
I think there is some confusion. This is not meant to be a craft fair, it is a Fall Festival being used as a Fundraiser. If your company, say for instance, Pampered Chef, were to set up a booth, they do offer their hostess a percentage in free merchandise. So if I were to have a pampered chef party at my house, I get usually 20% of my total sales in free merchandise. The school is acting as the hostess here. If your company does not offer this type of fundraiser/incentive, I don't think they would require you to donate 20% of your sales. This is what I am getting out of this all. So, if you make bows or wreaths, and want to sell them there, I don't think they would have you donate 20%. If you are a company and just want to use this as an advertisement, that would be fine. You do not need to sell things. I wish the PTA well on this and I hope all these negative post do not deter people from attending the Fall Festival. I think it should be a lot of fun for the family.
I do not take these as negative post but as trying to help her set things up correctly in order for her event to be successful. A Fall festival is generally a place of home crafts, games and food. So I think everyone really was surprised when they read the flyer that stated you had to give 20% of sales and was trying to tell her that is not the "Norm" that is all and then help her out too! At least that was my intentions....
Really? How do you get that when the brochure states: Fee Exhibitor: $50.00 plus 20% of sales collected at the Festival. I'm just trying to help out too. Wasn't intended to be negative or ugly.
The PTA at McGee's Middle is actually doing another fundraiser, even though the OP says this Fall Festival is the only one.....we (PTA) are also selling the 'Attraction Books' (coupons for Restaurants). This year there is a 'Triangle' one and a 'Johnston County' one. :mrgreen:
Please note change Thanks to everyonefor your suggestions with the Fall Festival. Please make note that we will not be charging the 20% fee. The booth rental will be $50. The school's website will be updated either Friday or Monday. Anyone that is interested in setting up please send in your application ASAP!!!! First come first serve. Thanks for helping us make our fundraiser a success!!!!!!!!
MLH I see your PTA fighting against a few things. 1. Poor decision to charge both a vendor rental fee and percentage of sales, and dropping the sales % part, long after several potential vendors decided they could not justify paying both. Late changes in the % policy long after any interested parties said no. 2. Bad timing to advertise an event so late in the game. 3. Too much back and forth discussion from ancillary voices. 4. No guidance to prospective vendors as to the numbers of attendees anticipated. And this needs to be as accurate as you can make it. That's the honest thing to do. We did do one festival where, I'm presuming because of the excitement and enthusiasm or else a spokesperson not knowing the facts, were told to expect 2000 attendees. There were about 200. I asked one of the organizers and they hemmed and hawed about it. Never again. You get to hose me once, not twice. As a business owner with limited discretionary funds for an unplanned vending site, I have to have an idea of the number of attendees expected, to see if I can justify vending there. In addition to the direct cost of my time and gasoline spent getting there and back, I have to figure in my opportunity cost for doing something else. Point blank, if my wares don't sell, your PTA is the only one that comes out ahead. We generally plan our vending sites a year in advance, and allocate the vendor fees appropriately. Believe me, as a parent of a JoCO student, and member of our school advisory, I am well aware of the financial needs of our school, and presume it to be that way for the rest. MLH...you might want to pass this on to the PTA. Pick a vending fee that is reasonable to the event. For one Festival, we paid 150, but had over ten thousand to visit. We had great sales, and rebooked for this years at the conclusion of last year's festival. And advertise the event to vendors ahead of a three to 4 week heads up notice. We're scheduling events for January and February this month. Good Luck for your festival.
I am sorry you feel this way however I feel our PTA has done a great job!!!!!! There has not been any bickering about our festival at all. We took off the 20% to be fair to all interested since everyone does not have fundraiser options with their company. Please know we have not given anyone any false hopes or information. If you have any questions please PM me and I can get you an answer. We can not plan a year ahead of time since our PTA board is elected at the end of school every year.
