behind the scenes coordinator aka Team Mom

Hi Lefty! God Bless you for stepping into this role in difficult circumstances!

For the last 4 years, we haven't had an official team mom, but our head coach had all of the parents sign up for something - aka uniform committee, travel coordinator, score keeper, web master, fund raising, end of the year party. Involving all of the families in some way seems to keep harmony. We've had a great time and no one is overworked trying to do everything. So, my advice is to share the workload with the other families.

Good luck! And I'm praying for a full recovery for your coach.

Here are some fundraising ideas that I used for a summer travel team:

1) Scrip program- this is where parents order gift cards at a discount(different discount for each retailer) and you earn the difference between the discount and the actual cost of the card. The company I used is: www.glscrip.com. Our team used this so that each family could reduce their team fees. If you didn't want to participate, fine, but your fees would not be reduced. I would buy the gift cards for gifts and for our family to use at local restaurants (Fridays, O'Charley's, Red Robin, Wendy's, Subway, Applebee's). If you check the retailer list on the website you will see a bunch of choices.

2) Kroger cards- if you have the Kroger chain in St. Louis . You can load any amount on the cards before you pay for your groceries (via credit card, check or cash) and get 4% back. Kroger keeps track of card numbers and amounts loaded which makes it easy to use.

I don't know if this is the kind of fundraising you are looking for but these worked great for us!

[QUOTE]Originally posted by good eye:

1) Scrip program- this is where parents order gift cards at a discount(different discount for each retailer) and you earn the difference between the discount and the actual cost of the card. The company I used is: www.glscrip.com. Our team used this so that each family could reduce their team fees. If you didn't want to participate, fine, but your fees would not be reduced. I would buy the gift cards for gifts and for our family to use at local restaurants (Fridays, O'Charley's, Red Robin, Wendy's, Subway, Applebee's). If you check the retailer list on the website you will see a bunch of choices.
[QUOTE]

did you give them a list to choose and pay for from - or did you have some capital to invest in a few to start with? This looks great.

I have some great help & have broke down some work to others. Keep everyone busy so no one complains right?

Please keep the ideas coming.

quote:

Originally posted by Lefty34:


did you give them a list to choose and pay for from - or did you have some capital to invest in a few to start with? This looks great.

We set up a bank checking account. I made an order form (choosing retailers in our area). Parents would order the item at full price, writing a check to the team. I would deposit the checks, place the order by phone (you can also do it online). GSCRIP would then make an electronic deduction from our bank account. Orders would be mailed to me and then I would personally distribute them to each family. There is also a shipping charge so I would subtract it from their earnings afterward. That usually amounted to $2.00 or less. I also kept track of each families earnings on an Excel spreadsheet. Doing it this way insured that I would have the money up front to pay for them and wouldn't have a bunch of leftover gift cards.

How much do you need to raise?

I was very successful with a Valentines Rose Sale. Bought from wholesaler, including flowers, filler, boxes, cards & ribbon. We sold dozens only at about the same as retail as Sam's, realizing 50-60% markup. Get pricing early in Jan, try to lock it up, as it goes up the closer to Valentines you place the order. I'd dealt with the same wholesaler for poinsettias for years, so that helped. But you can work your budget backwards to nail the cost/retail...
Have orders & funds in YOUR hand UPFRONT. Depending on the day of week, Valentines, Mom's & players set up assembly line & can be finished in 2-3 hours, depending on how many dozens are sold. Then go deliver!
I've done this for an elementary 6th grade class trip to Wash DC. ($7500 net profit!!), a high school choir trip to Orlando ($5200 net), and baseball team ($2700 net).

It is labor intinsive & kind of messy. Have to have ice chests , Ice water & preservative on assembly day, someone with beautiful handwriting for gift cards, gloves, pruniners, snips, etc. And a script for the boys to "sell"...They are selling to men, so it's easy!! Some even bought for their "little girls" & attached a 3 x 5 "autographed pic of that player, inviting them to come to games... Cute! It was alot of fun!! The team learned alot about "pleasing a woman" too!!

Our team has sold Yankee Candles. We made $1000 each time & potentially could have made more with better participation (age old story...). We try to come up with things that people like & use. It's too late now for Christmas but we would do a spring sale & a fall sale. We would do the fall sale the middle of October after everyone has recovered from the start of school & people are starting to think of Christmas. It's hard to fundraise with so many people selling stuff for schools, all kinds of teams, churches, etc. Good luck!!

Hi, Lefty: What type of 16U baseball team? Travel, HS, Legion? I can give you more indepth response after I know. Have been team mom forever for many teams, and now head up our HS booster group.

We are a HS team, but, similar to Legion in that all the boys do not go to the same HS. Also similar to a Travel as to the fact we will be going out of town to play 3-4 times this year.

For fundraising my focus is for lefty's team but would share ideas when they don't conflict with other teams in our organization.

I am also concerned about what makes a team run smoothly so that the coach can spend his time coaching the guys and not doing the odds and ends with paperwork.

Open to most any and all ideas. I want a smooth transition and a great season.

It's been said, but communication is key. Plus, organization is HUGE. I have a differrent folder for each aspect: Fundraising, contacts, receipts, etc.



Plus, I always mapquest or google directions to each game/tourney and forward to the parents so there is no confusion.

Also, if you need anything, funds, paperwork etc. give a strict deadline and make it at least a week early to give you time to get everything in order.

One other thing I like doing at the beginning and sometimes middle of the season is getting everyone together to just gel and socialize away from the stress of playing, nothing big, who ever wants to meet for pizza, or ice cream, whatever. This might work easier for the younger crowd, but it helps us alot.

My son is younger than most of yours, but I've been team mom for many seasons, rec ball, all stars, basketball, now travel, and I love doing it, you really get to know the players better and the parents better because you have more opportunities to speak with everyone, even the ones who like being on their own during the games.

Our legion team does a crab feed. Each boy has to sell 8 tickets. Each family has to bring one raffle prize, decorated and nicely presented. They serve salad, pasta, then big bowls of crab and warm bread. The boys set up, serve and clean up as well.Dont do any of this by yourself. Deligate or you will be very burnt out.

Get both parents of each player's e-mail address along with all the coaches and create a group.

I had out a form that I created that each player gives to his parents to fill out:
Parents names, address, cell #'s, home #'s, players cell #'s.

This way you can get communication going which is key. I tell my parents to check their email daily and just send a quick response back so I know who to follow up with. Also, some parents might not use email, or don't use it much, in this case get a phone number that they will answer and respond to.

You could also create a facebook page for your team to check for announcements and general communication/information.
You just have to make sure you set the filters properly, I am sure your son or friend could show you if you are not familiar.

We have had very good luck with a "nite at the races" and crazy bowls. www.niteattheraces.com

Nite at the races is a little more work and you really need someone that has ties to a Legion Hall or VFW, etc., that can get hall rental cheap.

But crazy bowl is a lot of fun for everyone. Get each player to bring x-amount of couples. Work it out with bowling alley what they would charge per game - and then charge whatever per couple. We usually pay $30 per couple. Have baseball members bring a appetizer if the bowling alley will allow you to bring food. I can go more into this if you want to pm me.

Also, Schnucks has a program where you sign up your team and then get the parents, family and friends to sign up. It is free and they would get a credit card like card to swipe everytime they purchase groceries. A certain percentage goes back to the team. Even though my son has been out of h.s. 2 years, I still use this card for the h.s. You can find more info on the Schnucks website.

Also have done the chicken and beer dance - again you are talking about getting a hall and hopefully a band that will play for cheap. We always got together with 3 other teams and that way there was a lot of help, a lot more people to sell 50/50 tickets to, etc.

Lefty - you have a PM.

quote:

Originally posted by no11:
Lefty - you have a PM.

thank you & so do you No11

Lefty- what a job and privilege you are undertaking! Hats off to you! Despite what I read in the other thread, I think most teams have an "undercover organizer" who is very much needed and appreciated.

Hotels--are you going to be responsible for making the reservations for all or just checking rates and reserving a "block" of rooms at whatever hotel? I guess you know this, but I would ask the hotels for cheaper rates because you will get them. It is really nice to have the whole team at one hotel, we traveled a few years ago and it was very hap-hazard, we all made our own reservations and ended up at lots of different hotels (it was the first year many of us had traveled and as it was a regional team, we didn't know each other prior to being on the team together either).

Not sure how this would work in STL but "out here in the sticks" we do a fund raiser of a coupon card/punch card type thing where local businesses give deals. We get about 20 businesses to offer a discount if you use the card--like 50 cents off a blizzard, 10% off an entree, etc and print the little coupons on a card credit card sized, laminate them and sell them for $5 each. the business punches the card when the coupon is used (if its a single use, others will give the discount for a year). Essentially 100% profit and fairly easy to do--25 kids, 10 cards each equals $1250 minus the cost of printing the cards.

I have found that sometimes it is hard to get volunteers to jump in but many people would be glad to help if asked a specific thing to do. I am our high school "team MOM" and along with the coach's wife, we keep the team running smoothly. She does our big fundraiser which is usually t-shirts and lines up drinks and sandwiches for the away games and I take care of the concession stand and keep the checkbook. We usually pass around a 'sign-up sheet' to catch the people that really want to do a specific thing and then just ask the others individually and it works just fine.

If you are managing the team $$, I recommend requiring two signatures on checks and keeping a easily understandable paper trail of receipts, etc. Makes it easy to show "just where did we spend all that $$" for the doubters.

Please don't go into this thinking that everyone will be happy all the time--won't happen! Just like Obama and Hilary--keep your friends close and your foes closer! I think that keeping the team organized is probably the biggest challenge for you and the coach. One of the most frustrating things for me in any group activity is not knowing what is going one. I would get a group email thing going for announcements and deadlines, it helps because as we know, the kids aren't the greatest at passing along info.

I think team bonding is good for all, makes the team more cohesive and helps the parents too. BBQ's, potlucks, whatever! A cohesive group of parents also are less likely to be "pot stirrers" and more likely to pitch in and help I think.

One of the parents on our summer team volunteered to be the team photographer. She loves taking pictures and made a slideshow for each kid with team and individual pictures from the whole season. It is one of the best memories for Catcher #1 from the funnest summer he ever had.

I am loving these fundraiser ideas that keep popping up in this thread, I'm drowning in project graduation again this year and will be right back in the year after next when catcher #2 is a senior.

quote:

"undercover organizer"

Oh Thank you all so much - I guess there are things that stay being us girls. Please keep any more ideas coming. I am taking notes and printing pages we have only 2weeks before 1st parents meeting.

THANK YOU LADIES!!!!!!

I was fundraising chair for team for 4 years. What a job! I also wasn't working full time, so I did most of the stuff that the coach needed that he couldn't take care of being in teh classroom everyday. Selling candy at school (allowed only for fundraisers for the teams) was a money maker. Be careful though, some schools require that you go through vendor only.
Some good ideas here, but the BEST for us were teh one that cost nothing, car washes, spaghetti, chili dinners. We did candy and sold banners and the plastic cards. THE best, was that we pumped up our list of goodies in concession. Grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, made FF, pizza, nachos, soft pretzels, candy, popcorn. People are hungry when they come to a game and when they smell that stuff, they'll eat it, ALL. So as word spread we had the best concession in town, they came with appetites. The more we provided the more they ate. Pizza can be delivered from dominoes, buy one pie from them and get one free (we made arrangements in advance with one store), don't bother with the frozen pizza. We also ran pre season tournies. The scouts were our best customers. The last year I was there, we dropped some other fundraising things and made most of teh money needed off of our concession. We made a deal with our shirt guy, who through in a few dozen shirts for free and they sold like hotcakes. We got 25 a shirt, and they gladly paid as they knew it was a fundraiser. Also, don't forget 50/50 raffle. We'd make about 50 a game sometimes after split.


BTW, contact Otis Spunkmeier, they have fund raising ideas. I think that you can rent the cookie baker for free and then you just buy the frozen dough.

I do beleive that most coaches KNOW they need help when raising money and they know that moms know how to do it.

Hi Lefty 34!

May I first suggest upgrading your title to Director of Baseball Operations. That's what they call the fellows who do this job for the college and pro teams. It's an important function and vital to the smooth operation and success of the team. Kind of like umpires; when you do your job well, hardly anyone notices...but when it's not done well, Oh boy! everyone has something to say!!!

On a fundraising note, as good eye mentioned about Kroger cards, Schnucks(St. Louis grocer) does the same thing. Here we get 5% of any amount we "pre-load" onto our Schnucks Gift Card, then use the card to buy your groceries and/or gas. It costs nothing to participate and everyone buys groceries. You can have as many cards assigned to your team/players as you want! Cards for Grandparents, Aunts/Uncles, cousins, friends...everyone just keeps re-loading and re-using their assigned cards and the checks start rolling in to the team. We actually do both Krogers and Schnucks!!

We're just finishing a successful www.butterbraid.com campaign. It's a yummy pastry that you pre-sell and is delivered frozen to thaw and bake fresh at home. It's relatively simple; Pre-sell, order, deliver. The rep came with a demo of the product for everyone to sample which helped to motivate sales a lot.


Wishing you success. Lots of good advice already posted. I think many of us here have served in this capacity at one time or another so hopefully we can be of some help.

TPM and Lefty: We USED to make a ton of money on food in our snack shack. But guess what has been happening around here? The health dept. has started to shut down any baseball snack shack that cooks food, or even sells pre-cooked food, unless the SS applies for and obtains a RESTAURANT LICENSE and complies with all health code regulations as a restaurant would. Sad, huh? So, we just sell candy, and anything that does not need to be cooked, heated, melted, etc.