I have received a lot of feedback about the Family Stewardship Program. I have created the following Q & A with some of the comments.
Q: What was the final tally of votes on the referendum for the program?
A: The vote was almost 60% in favor of adopting the program.
Q: If I am on the Board or Chair a committee or serve as a Room Parent, do you still want me to track hours?
A: Yes, please! At least for the first few years, we are hoping to gauge where families with children of various ages are spending their time and how much time each event/committee requires. We appreciate your efforts to help us with this ongoing process.
Q: Can I count the hours I spent in the first half of the year on my tracking sheet?
A: For the remainder of this school year, we are simply interested in creating a habit of tracking hours (and seeing where you spend your time, per the previous question). There is no financial penalty for unserved hours. Beginning in June, you will hopefully keep your Stewardship Program hours in mind as you begin to volunteer for events for the 2014-15 school year.
NOTE: If you are willing to take the time to make some notes, just for our planning purposes, we would certainly appreciate it. Our committee chairs and the Board have a general idea of how many hours have been spent thus far, but your input would definitely help.
Q: If I make plans to volunteer for something and an emergency prevents me from being there (I was going to volunteer for lunch duty, but my child stayed home sick that day), can I still count that time?
A: No, if you do not actually do the time, it does not count on your tracking sheet. We understand that emergencies happen, especially for families with children, and if an extenuating circumstance arose, we would certainly address it at that time.
Q: I can’t print the form. It won’t come up on my computer – am I doing something wrong?
A: No, the form was created as a Word document, in the hopes that you might be able to type directly into the form – I’m not sure it is working that way. I have created a pdf format and uploaded it here. It is also available as a file on the Saint Mary’s Facebook Group.
Family Stewardship – tracking sheet
Q: Do I have to print the form? Isn’t there a way we could do this on the computer? Or online somehow?
A: We are working on that! We have a parent who has volunteered to develop a program or website that will allow tracking to be done via a link on the website. We hope to have the process in place by the beginning of June, for next year’s tracking!
Q: Is this all about the money?
A: No, absolutely not. It is about serving our St. Mary’s Family in such a way that the teachers receive assistance with projects and activities, the PTO has volunteers to plan events for our Family, and the school continues to thrive with full classes and happy staff! If your family chooses to “buy-out” rather than volunteer your time, that is fine. We have tried to make the options reasonable for all families.
If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to ask. Your participation in this program will help it become established. Thanks again for all your feedback! Please watch for updates on your February tracking sheets, as the month comes to an end.