School Promo ~ BTFE: Helping out the coordinator - lots of questions!

[susanktz]

Originally Posted by mama22qts Hey I just thought of something -- I should SO hook up with that grandfather for inserts!!!

[doulas3babes]

I'm the BTFE coordinator for our little school. The most they've ever done is $500/yr and I contributed at least half that amount each year. LOL

You've been given some GREAT advice on how to get it all started!!!!

I'm actually getting ready to make signs for both floors of the school for our BTFE contest that will run through the end of Feb. The top class is getting a pizza party, 2nd place an ice cream party and 3rd place a popcorn party. I sold over 5000 CLFE points on ebay (we don't collect them) and I'm using that money to mail the btfe in and to buy the stuff for the parties. I can't wait!!! Last yr, the old coordinator didn't submit ANY btfe and I had over 3,000 to sort through and I ended up throwing away a bunch. Made me a little sick to my stomach just thinking about the money that got tossed.

Oh well, all the best to you!!!!

[diva_dynamite]

Thanks so much for all the great info. We are really small, so there isn't really a point to having contests. If I can just get people to bring in their BTFE's I'll be happy. At last count, I'm up to over $90. Maybe that result will be a little incentive by itself. I'm thinking of doing a little flyer telling everyone how much we earned, and telling them about the BTFE marketplace in case they shop online for the holidays. Free money is exciting!

[Debbieomi]

For even more great advice, go to the coordinator's forum at btfe.com. Once you have your schools code, you can log in as the coordinator and read away. You will literally find 100s of ideas about everything Box Tops.
There are several yahoo groups for coordinators also.
I did class vs. class contests for my first 3 years as a coordinator. I changed it to goal oriented last year and that was a hit. We collect almost ten different items so I figured different goals based on the number of students per class.
For example, this year our theme is "Cash for Trashopoly" based on a Monopoly board. I created the board on a lobby bulletin board. The first corner is the first goal, an average of 50 items per student. (i.e. 20 students means 1000 items, not that each and every student has to bring in 50 items, that would never happen.) When that goal is achieved, everyone in the classroom wins a free funky pencil-bought a dollar stores 12 in a pkg for a buck-two pkgs per classroom usually. The second corner's goal is a total of 100 items per student. The prize is a popcorn party. Our school has popcorn for .25 a bag on Fridays. Our PTO will pay for each classroom to have free popcorn(at the school's cost) as they reach this goal. Third goal is 200 items per student, averaged with a free reccess as their prize. Last year, I had 3 classes bring in over 300 items per student each, so I used that as the grand goal, final square avarage. The classes will earn their choice of a pizza or ice cream sundae party. I figure 2 slices per student, from a local pizzeria at $5.50 for a lg, one item, plus a few jugs of Sunny D. Sundaes are a gallon or so of ice cream, the usual toppings plus whipped cream, sprinkles, etc.
Our school averages $2000 a year in BTFE and almost $4000 a year total from all items collected.
Just like on here when learning about couponing, take your time and read. You have until Feb 28 for your next submission so that's a fair amount of time to gather and implement some fun and easy ideas. Good luck!!