Open Forum

I'm meeting with a group of parents on Monday to start a drama booster.  Amidst all of my committments I've had precious little time to plan for this meeting and am hoping this great dramatic brain trust can advise.

How have you gone about establishing boosters?

Any advice of what I should or should not do?

What do you think are the most important points to make to them?

If you have any particularly successful or helpful documents that you are willing to share, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks.

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Tisha Donnelly
Vallejo CA
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You should check with your district to see what their requirements are.

To be a true booster club there are many different forms to fill out for state and federal taxes, and if not done correctly it can get you into a lot of hot water, tax wise.

Also if they become tax exempt, 503c I believe, they can ask for tax free donations from corporations and individuals.

In my limited experience Booster Clubs seem to have the largest issues with money; more so than teachers.

I can’t speak for all districts but our district requires:

A sponsor (me) that has no vote, only there to watch over the parents and help them, the club itself is totally run by the parents.

Principle Permission

District Permission

At least 4 officers, two signatures required to spend money

We or the district require all of our voting members to have students active in the program, for us that means as little as being in one of our classes.

Constitution for the group.

I probably missed a few things but that should get you started.

Parent help:

If you just want parents to help you don’t have to go to all the above trouble. Try to get three or four parent volunteers that can help schedule the parents to work shows, feed kids, maybe even build sets. The level of help and number of parents helping seems to be effected by the socioeconomic level of the parents and the culture of support from the community.

Below is our districts link for the Booster Club guild lines, maybe this can help:

Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District :: Booster Club Guidelines

Hope this helps

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Greg Alldredge
Tech Theater Teacher
Cypress Fairbanks ISD
Cypress TX
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I think the most crucial piece for a booster club is that they become a 501C3 at some point with the IRS and a recognized non-profit in the state within which they work.  This can open up a lot of potential for the group and makes life a lot easier.  The process takes a while but is really pretty simple.  Most states have a state wide non profit group that can assist you with this.  Being a 501C3 also requires you to adopt governing documents, which in and of itself is a very useful process.

Other than that, I think it is important to 1) write a mission and impact statement 3) decide how you will choose officers, their jobs and tasks  3) decide on regular meeting times, say the second Tuesday of every month and 4) make sure the group knows that their job is to help and support you-- that the artistic and management decisions related to the troupe, the school, and your work with their students--- those matters are at your discretion and supported, governed and disciplined through the scope of your school administration.

This will be exciting work for you.

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Michael Johnson
Trinity NC
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Michael offers wonderful advice and I would make sure that parents understand the role of the booster club itself.  Even a new slate of officers must be reminded that their role is there to support you and the department's goals.  They are not there as a board of directors to refuse or deny practical resources or requests of assistance.  The booster club's role is support and make things happen!!

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Sharon Strong
Bonsall CA
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Hi Tisha.  We had a very active booster club where I taught.  Here are a few things we learned and instituted:

1.  We merged with the Band Booster Club to make a Fine Arts Booster Club.  There was some resistance at first, but we included all the Fine Arts areas.  This included band, orchestra, vocal music, visual art (drawing, pottery, sculpture, painting, crafts), theatre, poms/dance, and  color guard.  The advantages were:

When we had a fund raiser, there were 300-400 students involved.  FA Boosters made around $30K-$35K per year.  

Each of the FA groups got $2K / year to spend as they needed.  Boosters got requests from each area, and FA Boosters actually made the purchases, and gifted the materials to each area.  This made it possible to avoid low-bid problems with the district.  EG, instead of getting low-bid wireless mic systems that were junk, we specified certain models of Shure wireless systems that worked great and lasted for many years.  

Whatever was left over after each of the 7 areas  got their $2k went to a  different area, on a rotating basis.  So every 7 years, each area would get around $15K-$18K for a major investment.  One year, we put that towards  upgrading and relocating our audio console to the house from the glassed-in control booth.

2.  A fine arts teacher and an administrator was at each FA Booster Club meeting.  This helped keep the meetings on track, and discouraged petty bickering and griping.  EG, "I don't understand why Mr Fowler cast the lead of the play the way he did."  "I can't believe Mr Smith chose so-and-so as drum major."  Things stayed on task much better when there was a FA faculty member and an administrator at the meetings. FA faculty members often served as Booster Club officers, so the parents knew we were committed to the Boosters.  The administrator was kind of a benevolent sergeant-at-arms.

3.  Boosters did concessions at all the FA events.  It kept them involved, and provided the opportunity to interact with the sponsors and students involved.  Any profit went into the fund that went back to the different areas.

4.  The different areas would take up a collection every other year to have FA Booster Club tee-shirts made up for the members of Boosters.  They would read something like "Proud Member for the Hazelwood West Fine Arts Booster Club, supporting the Arts at West since 1984!"  A little acknowledgement went a long way.  They wore those tee-shirts to every FA event.  We'd also devote a bulletin board to Booster Appreciation, listing what they provided through the years, names of the Booster Club members, etc.  

Hope some of this is useful!  

Bob Fowler

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Robert Fowler
Co-Developer
Interactive Educational Video, LLC
Chesterfield MO
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Thank you for the responses so far, they've been helpful.  The band booster president and vice president have offered to help with the technical set up of the 503C, it is less the legal than the relationship aspects I'm searching for.  Your responses are definitely welcome!

I really wish there were more practical training opportunities for theater teachers.  The EDTA discussion forum is my life line for practical advice.

Thank you.

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Tisha Donnelly
Vallejo CA
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1. Check into Parent Booster USA.  They provide legal and 501c3 help.  We use them and it costs a fraction of what it will run to file all of the paperwork on your own to become the individual entity.  My parents did the research (a lawyer and an accountant) and found this to be the most cost effective and provide the most bang for the buck in legal and financial questions and services.

2. find out what your district requires.  Mine has been through so many changes that we did research and put together an organization that should withstand the changes in the future.  Then build job assignments and binders to pass on from year to year.

3. Officers.  I have an accountant and a lawyer on my Board of Directors and if possible as a current officer so that no I is left undotted or T uncrossed.  We make sure during our first meeting or retreat that all officers are aware of our mission statement, our purpose and goal which is to provide for all kids!  No one gets special treatment and all of the kids in the program should be helped/served as needed.

4. Proper filing of paperwork is essential.  We have a corporate binder that is updated and kept in the theatre office with all of our paperwork so that anyone who needs to see it (including administration) can look at it.  Our administration sends a representative (AP) to any meetings that discuss money so that they are in the loop and my Chairman of the Board and current President keep them up-to-date on any news.  I can but again, I am a non-voting member.

5.  We meet monthly.  We do not meet in June or July and occasionally can skip November or December depending on where our shows fall.  We have officers that run the monthly/day-to-day business and a Board of Directors that meets twice a year to make sure that there is a chain of command and things are on the up and up.  I have no voting privlidges and I report to them as part of the meeting, ask for financial items to benefit the kids and help make sure that we as a team are there to the benefit of the kids in the program.

6.  They handle the volunteers for events.  They have their own fundraising and they also sponsor our celebrations.  A couple of years ago, they decided there would not be dues to be involved and that every family was invited to our opening dinner kick-off and end of year banquet.  The student and one parent was invited free and then a donation was requested for any additional family members.  This got the people there for their required two meetings a year and people present to volunteer for things that were upcoming in our program.  Little things like this are items set up in their budget/calendar/planning.

7.  Volunteering is the main goal of my booster club and secondly they make sure that no child is left out due to cost.  I learned that decorating the lobby, making sure the news media and school district is aware of what we are doing, planning the VIP room for our larger shows, feeding the cast and crew, organizing parent volunteers and Saturday workday help were all part of what I needed the booster club for.  Extra hands and eyes supervising kids is essential and I hope that each year, I get better at what I and all of the booster club does.  So we are always open to change, new ideas but also hope that they new set of parents are willing to listen to our past knowledge too.

Best wishes!

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Nicole Morgan
Director of Theatre
Spring Branch ISD
Houston TX
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I agree with Greg that involvement does tend to correlate with socioeconomic status of the community you're serving, but I also think that it just takes time (and patience!) for the booster to get to where it can be an enormous benefit to the program.

Much of use here. Establishing roles and expectations, that they are a support and a help to the aims and goals of the program, is really important. Our booster club is slowly growing, so it is getting a little easier each year.

I love the practice of the Fine Arts booster! Alas, I know currently that would be somewhat impossible to make work at my site, as much as I would want something like that to happen. I think that would definitely be the way forward; I'm sure it would foster more inter-dependence and greater cooperation between the disciplines. I yearn for the day when our orchestra will play the music live for our musicals! One day. :)

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Phillip Goodchild
Theatre Arts Instructor/Assistant Department Head of English
Hillsborough County Schools
Ruskin FL
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Hi Trisha,

After hearing horror stories from colleagues, whose parent booster groups had run amok, I was determined that it not happened when I founded mine. I did several things to make sure that it didn't.

1. I made it very clear to the parents in the charter group that their involvement would have no impact on casting, or crew assignments. (I made that clear to all of the students as well.)

2. I wrote their initial Constitution. They were so grateful that I had done all that work that they adopted it intact. :-) That Constitution very clearly delineated the separations between the boosters / school / and program. (I would have to check my archives, but I could probably come up with a copy if you want it.)

3. I made sure that booster money was never involved directly in production budgets. All of their contributions to the program were for scholarships, assistance in attending the State and International Thespian Festivals, and capital improvements for stage and classroom equipment.

My booster group was terrific, very supportive, and really had a great impact on the program and the school. It also really helped cement my relations with a core group of parents, which made relations with each group of incoming parents easier to manage.

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Robert Smith
VA Co-Chapter Director
James Madison High School
Vienna VA
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