All the Right Moves

[Note: thanks to Sue Katz Miller for drafting this!]

For schools that have a clubs program coordinated by the PTA, contact the PTA President or Clubs Liaison for help. For schools that have clubs coordinated by staff (often Title I schools) contact the Principal to find out who coordinates clubs.

Whether they are school staff or a PTA volunteer, the clubs liaison should help you with the following:

1. Announce the club through morning announcements, PTA/school newsletter, and a flyer (preferably translated into Spanish and/or French and Amharek depending on your school community).
2. Distribute a sign up form for students.*  It will need to get distributed at least two weeks ahead of the club start time in order to get signed permission forms back from kids. Sometimes the PTA runs a single sign-up form with multiple club options on it.
3. Reserve a room in the school.
4. Plan for snacks.  Match the students who turn in forms to the number of open slots and determine if you have taken in enough money to cover snacks etc.There should always be an option on the sign-up marked "I can't pay the fee" and one marked "here's $5 extra to cover those who cannot pay."**
   
5. Produce a list of parent emergency phones and emails that you will have with you at each session. This is particularly important to call parents who do not pick their kids up on time -- because you will need to wait with the kids until their parents show up.
6. Email parents in the class to introduce yourself and seek help in providing snacks, unless you're willing to do this yourself each week (less work to do it yourself in some ways).
   
7. Communicate with school staff about snack policies (what and where they can eat). Generally, you want to get stuff that doesn't leave crumbs (apple slices, not popcorn). Be sure to note any allergies; seek notification of allergies on the club sign-up form if you conduct signups separately from the PTA.
8. Make friends with the teacher whose classroom you are using, and be sure to leave everything in perfect order. Do not under any circumstances allow students to touch classroom materials. Leaving behind a mess can cause you to lose your space and even end the program.
9. You will also need to have your parent group email list to communicate with parents/guardians about chess tournaments and open play opportunities.

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* While it's best and easiest to coordinate with the school PTA's (or administration's) after school club signup process, ATRM.org will develop a simple signup form for this purpose; watch this post for a link.
** There may be an issue with snack fees under a new MCPS fee policy.  We'll look into this.