If you have any experience with school parent councils or other charities in Alberta, then you know that fundraising is a curse.
Although essential, it is rarely easy and seldom logical. More often than not, fundraising for your kid's school requires you to sell something -- chocolate bars, coupon books, etc. -- to friends and co-workers who turn around and sell you something nearly identical to support their kid's fundraiser the very next week.
I'm not exactly sure why we do it this way. Whatever amount is raised for the charity, you can be sure that the manufacturers are making even more.
Moreover, periodically reaching into each others' pockets over the course of the school year is unquestionably less efficient than simply writing a cheque.
This is why charity casinos licensed by the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission (AGLC) have become so popular among charities. With as few as 18 volunteers each contributing four to eight hours of labour, a charity can raise in excess of $75,000.
Break this down to the hour -- including the time spent recruiting the volunteers -- and it works out to well over $200.00 per hour per volunteer. Try to match those profits selling popcorn or date squares.
Yet in spite of this, finding the 18 to 36 volunteers needed to work a casino is never easy.
Thank goodness every good parent council has a few pillars -- people who come to every meeting and never miss a fundraiser.
If the AGLC schedules the school casino for a workday, pillars take some personal time off in order to volunteer as chip runners. If it is scheduled for a long weekend, they change their plans and stay in town.
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At the opposite end of the spectrum are people who are "morally opposed" to casinos and never volunteer. If their moral opposition extends beyond the school fundraiser into the voting booth, then you have to respect their position.
For some people, however, this stand on principle is nothing more than moral convenience. They are opposed to casinos when asked to volunteer, but gambling policy doesn't affect the way they vote.
Then there are others who refuse to volunteer on the grounds of air quality.
For some, cigarette smoke presents serious health issues. But you have to wonder about those whose allergies keep them out of casinos but don't keep them out of the neighbourhood pubs after beer league hockey games.
Between the two extremes of those who refuse to work and those who refuse not to work lies the middle third of people who either cannot possibly work or who may work but must first be sold on the idea of missing an episode of Canadian Idol.
In Alberta, it is the job of Casino Organizers (COs) -- volunteers who have volunteered to recruit casino volunteers -- to convince these fence sitters to pitch in and help out.
COs generally open these negotiations by letting potential recruits know how monkey-simple the work really is. They tell them, truthfully, that professionals do all of the difficult work while volunteers sit around, visit and occasionally authorize large money transfers.
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If this fails, COs talk about the importance of the fundraiser. In many Alberta schools, for example, casino money pays for "extras" like computers, instruments, books and athletic equipment. It also pays for annual concerts and artists-in-residence.
In most schools, casino money benefits every student. Over the course of their academic careers most students should benefit roughly equally.
Raising these points is usually enough. But in the odd case, COs will have to apply a little peer pressure and resort to name-dropping. They know that people dislike being outdone by their enemies almost as much as they dislike being outdone by their friends.
Finally, if all else fails, there is the hammer method -- COs remind parents of the alternatives. Either we work a casino, says the CO, or we sell 35,000 boxes of cookies. Either we work the casino or we sell 44 coupon books each.
Alternatively, the parent council can choose to spend less. More kids can share fewer computers this year. Or they can do without new mats in the gym. Or we can skip the annual concert.
Fortunately, Casino Organizers in Alberta rarely have to resort to such tactics. Most parents don't want their kids to do without the little extras that contribute so much to school spirit. Most will volunteer do their part, even if somewhat reluctantly.
© Brent Johner. Originally published in the Calgary Herald, April 2006. Reprint rights available.
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