Edison Elementary PTA Volunteer Guide 2020-21

ADVOCACY
Committee chair: Kate Rome

Community Service

The Edison Community Service Committee focuses on ways that the Edison community can help out around our city and county and on ways to increase family volunteering throughout the year. This includes bi-monthly information about how to volunteer in the area, supply drives for those in need, and a Fifth Grade Legacy Project.  Volunteers help organize our turkey drive and community service night and help identify other needs and projects.

• Chair: Kate Rome & Shelby Morita-Fowler
• Time commitment: 5-10 hours per year.  Much of the work can be done from home or after school hours.

Go Green

The Edison PTA Go Green Committee aims to reduce our impact on the environment by providing programs and education that encourage our students and the school district to reduce, reuse, and recycle in school and at home.

• Chair: Debi Ryan & Jeanine Sidran
• Time commitment: Flexible depending on your availability, with work that can be done during school hours or on your own.

Walk & Roll

Edison Walk & Roll encourages exercise, community, and safe walking and biking through our programs.  Volunteers help put on our assemblies and morning celebrations.

• Chair: Francesca Puccini & OPEN POSITION
• Time commitment: Flexible depending on your availability.

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DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
Committee Chair: Meleyna Nomura

Diversity and Inclusion Committee

Our hope is to empower all students at Edison to their fullest potential. Students can have success when all of their self is uplifted and included in classroom learning. Building positive identities and a respect for differences means weaving diversity and inclusion into the fabric of the school as well as the children’s everyday lives.  As a committee we do community building work, organize workshop opportunities for parents and teachers, and plan for multicultural night, assemblies and potlucks

• Chair: Meleyna Nomura
• Time Commitment: 2-4 hours a month or join our meetings when you can.  

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FAMILY ENGAGEMENT
Committee Chair: Lauren Klaffky

Dad's Club

We're about one thing and one thing only at Dads Club: community. Now and again we do awesome things for the kids and raise money for our school. All are welcome and we'd love to have you!

Historically, we’ve hosted Fall Festival, Edison Idol, the chili cook-off, Edison Night at The A’s, our flagship ”Day of The Dads” fundraiser and other fun community building events.

• Chairs: J.J. Navarro & Derek King
• Time commitment: depends on your role, up to 5-6 hours per event.

Hospitality

Help welcome parents, provide snacks, and otherwise welcome families at PTA meetings and other events.  General volunteer needs: Typically run by one or two people who can be at evening events before they start, provide and set up food/drinks, and stay through the event to clean-up.

• Chair: Kristen Curran and Deb Nelson
• Time Commitment: Flexible, up to 3 hours per event

Room Parents

The Room Parent committee coordinates communication between all the room parents. This includes recruiting parent volunteers for each classroom, hosting an orientation meeting at the beginning of the year, sending out teacher surveys, maintaining room parent assignments and files in Konstella, and working with other committees such as teacher appreciation, Go Green, safety, etc. General volunteer needs: Ongoing communication with PTA president and other committees, Konstella site maintenance, training at beginning of year, sending out teacher surveys, and helping to coordinate end of year picnic.

• Co-Chairs: Michelle Lager and OPEN POSITION
• Time commitment: 2-5 hours per month

Fifth Grade Promotion Committee

This position helps convene a small group to organize the Fifth Grade Promotion so fifth grade parents can enjoy the party.

• Chair: OPEN POSITION
• Time Commitment: 2-10 hours in May/June

Welcome Committee

Coordinate events for incoming Edison families, especially incoming Kindergarten families, so that they feel welcome and informed about life at Edison. Volunteer needs include organizing and helping with annual events: Kinder Playdates, Kinder Ice Cream Social, and First Day Coffee; meeting and orienting families that join Edison after typical fall start.

• Chair: Tabi Cagan
• Time Commitment: Varies depending on role

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FUNDRAISING
Committee Chair: Monica Bell Sloan

Spring Auction

Every March, the Edison PTA parent community comes together to celebrate our school, our kids, and our community at our annual spring auction & gala. This event is our biggest fundraising event of the year. It brings in over half of the PTA annual budget and is critical to the success of our students. Every dollar raised goes towards new technology in classrooms, field trips, school psychologists, garden and computer staff and programs, school assemblies and more. The auction & gala is a night of fun activities including: online, silent and live auction; delicious food & drink; live entertainment and more!! (NOTE: For school year 2020-2021, the spring auction will be ONLINE only with a Zoom party. No in-person event).

Planning for this event begins in about mid-September. If you like to plan events & parties please consider joining the Auction Committee!

• Co-Chairs: Courtney Bergin and OPEN POSITION
• Time Commitment: 1-10 hours a month for 6 months (i.e. helping to request donation items for the online auction, helping to plan the Zoom party event, helping to ensure the online auction is up and running) *** Donation Requests begin in October. Task consists of outreach to vendors. No cold-calls necessary. Email templates are available to send out.***
• Auction Software Administrator: OPEN POSITION(S) (1-2 volunteers needed)
• Time Commitment: 10 hours for 2 months to help ensure auction items are inputted into the software and to ensure the software is ready for the online auction, including trouble-shooting on the night-of.

Read-A-Thon

During this two-week event in the Fall, students focus on reading while raising money for important PTA-sponsored programs. Your donations help make our school great! We need a committee to come up with a concept, and roll out the program (including tracking the reading hours, donations raised, and disseminating prizes). For the Fall 2020 read-a-thon even, we will be using an online platform for the reading logs and donations, so we will need help getting all the students’ information up and running on their web pages.

• Chair: Anne Warren
• Time Commitment: 3-4 volunteers on about 2-3 evenings or afternoons before the event and then again after. There are some tasks that can be done on your own time from home, too.

Merchant Programs

There are many easy ways to earn FREE MONEY for Edison PTA every time you shop through Amazon and other merchants.  This committee helps advertise our programs and works with sponsors to set up new programs. Volunteer support is always helpful - sign up if you are interested and we will be in contact as needs develop throughout the year.

• Chair: Monica Bell Sloan
• Time Commitment: 10 hours a year

Dine and Donate

Set up occasional fundraising opportunities that also support our local businesses. Eat out on a specific date, bring a flyer, and the participating restaurant will donate a percentage of the proceeds to the Edison PTA! Volunteer support is always helpful - sign up if you are interested and we will be in contact as needs develop throughout the year

• Chair: Monica Bell Sloan
• Time Commitment: 10 hours a year

Otterwear

Help with any design concept for Edison Otterwear and other swag. Coordinate orders with vendor. Take and track Otterwear orders. Coordinate getting the Otterwear orders out to purchasers. Volunteer support is always helpful - sign up if you are interested and we will be in contact as needs develop throughout the year

• Chair: Lila Fox
• Time Commitment: 10 hours a year

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SCHOOL SUPPORT AND OPERATIONS
Committee Chair: Kat Smith

School Supplies

As an Edison parent, you don't have to shop for school supplies! Just bring your student the first day of class and the teachers will have most of their supplies ready! The PTA may ask for additional small items the first week of school, but usually items that you can easily purchase at the grocery store or find in your own home. Volunteers take inventory of remaining school supplies, take orders from teachers, order the supplies over the summer, and deliver them to classrooms in time for school to start.

• Chair: OPEN
• Time commitment: variable and flexible amount of time, thought timing of work is more fixed. Most work occurs in May for inventory and request aggregation, in June for price comparison and product orders, and the bulk of volunteer help is needed the week before school begins for distribution of supplies.

Teacher/Staff Appreciation

The Edison PTA greatly appreciates our teachers and staff - and we want to show it! On a monthly basis, each grade provides a Staff Appreciation luncheon for our School Staff. Parents contribute homemade or catered lunches, with plenty of flowers and treats! Then towards the end of the year, the Staff Appreciation Committee coordinates Teacher Appreciation Week, where we pamper our teachers each day of the week, with a grand luncheon on Friday!  

• Chair: Courtney Bergin and Denise Burpee
• Time commitment: 1-2 hours per month

Lunch Buddies

Help support kids during lunch and lunch recess.

• Chair: Jeanine Sidran
• Time commitment: 11:45-12:45, as many days as you choose.

Library Committee

Help our school get the most out of our library during distance learning.

• Chair: Cameron Holland
• Time commitment: 1-2 hours per month

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YOUTH ENRICHMENT
Executive Board Liaison: Jeanine Sidran

Art Docent

Edison's Art program is led by an art instructor with support from parents. Monthly lessons cover a variety of art methods and related art history. No art or teaching experience is necessary to be an art docent. The lessons are prepared for you step-by step, and it is a really fun way to get in the classroom with the kids!

• Chair: Jen Daily, Rachel Falk, Shalynn Taylor
• Time commitment: 2 hours per month.

Assemblies

Monthly assemblies bring in authors, musicians, plays, and many more educators to teach our kids about many topics, plus they are super entertaining! Volunteers help research, schedule, coordinate and hire Assemblies programs that enhance learning for all of our students.

• Chair: OPEN POSITION
• Time commitment: 15 - 20 hours per year.

Garden Science

Edison’s organic garden is a hands-on place to apply lessons and have real-life experiences that get kids excited about learning. When students are on campus, they visit the garden for a new lesson each month, learning about observation and investigation, life cycles, problem-solving, recycling, and teamwork, with topics as varied as chickens, intercropping, soil ph level and weather measurements. Students also plant crops, pull and compost weeds, amend soil, harvest crops and share vegetables and herbs they’ve grown themselves. PTA Garden Science volunteers help with lessons and help maintain the garden one weekend morning per month (either Saturday or Sunday from 9-noon). Garden Maintenance day is also a great way to get to know other parents and children, learn about gardening from our Garden Instructor, and get fresh air while the kids help or play on the Edison blacktop. During the 2020-21 school year, modifications are being made due to COVID-19. As such, Garden Science volunteering may entail preparing seeds and cups with dirt for students to take home. Join the Garden Science committee to learn more!

• Chair: Mark Cline and Anne Warren
• Time commitment: Garden Docents 1-1.5hrs/month during school hours; Garden Maintenance Crew 1-3 hrs/month on the weekend.

STEAM Enrichment

From assisting Edison's educators with STEAM related supplies and activities, to hosting Weekend STEAM Workshops/Experiments out on the Edison blacktop, to participating in the Alameda Mini-Maker Faire, this committee seeks to engage our parents and kids with hands-on STEAM learning opportunities.

• Chair: Erik Kneer
• Time commitment: 1-2 hours per month

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PTA COMMUNICATIONS
Committee Chair: Tara Navarro

Marketing and Graphics

We are seeking people who can help us advertise various events and encourage more participation.  From advertising restaurant nights to promoting PTA meetings to designing graphics for Facebook, this is a job that can be done from your home.  We are particularly looking for people who are comfortable with graphic design or Facebook.  For example, you could help us make this overview of volunteer opportunities look slick and beautiful!  Sign up under the Communications committee.  

• Chair: Tara Navarro
• Time commitment: Variable and as you prefer

Communications

We are looking for people to support our Communications efforts, including technical support to parents on Konstella, newsletter preparation, and other communications efforts.  This job can be done from home!  

• Chair: Tara Navarro
• Time commitment: Variable and as you prefer