Volunteers don't get paid, not because they're worthless, but because they're priceless.

- Sherry Anderson

The Whitman school community thrives on volunteers. Everyone can do something. It's up to you to be a positive role model for your student, their school and our Community. You'll get to know a great group of parents, students, teachers and staff, while having fun and gaining a better understanding of these mysterious middle school years.

Volunteer Opportunities At-A-Glance

VIP (Volunteer in a pinch) - help with a variety of activities for before-, during-, and after-school events.
School store team - sell supplies/help with inventory before school/during lunches.
Staff appreciation team - projects such as baking treats, bringing flowers, assisting with a staff lunch or breakfast.
Dances - help decorate, chaperone, and sell tickets at one or more of the three annual dances held after school.
Whitman Monthly News production team - folding, labeling, and mailing of monthly newsletter.
Special events bakers - bring treats to selected PTSA events.
Safety team - identify safety concerns; handle communication matters; distribute emergency prep. supplies.
Fundraising committee - help with fundraising activities.
Music Boosters - help in a variety of ways;fundraising, in-class help, concert set-up coordinator, lesson coordinator and help with mini-projects
Whitman Building Improvement Committee - Help the Whitman Improvement Committee with efforts to paint, clean-up school grounds, improve signage, and more.
Translators needed for parent newsletters (work at home opportunity!) - Translate all or part of newsletters.
Email list manager (work at home opportunity!) - Maintain the PTSA email list.
Hall support - Hall support parents provide an adult presence during the lunchtime transition for shifts between 10:40 and 12:10. Hall support is a key part of the Whitman commitment to a supervised, structured environment that helps students achieve their best.
Homework support for the after-school program - The after-school program needs volunteers who can help students who need extra support with their homework. The program meets between about 2:30 and 4:30.
Team parent - A team parent helps teachers in the classroom and out of the classroom with various support activities.
Teach an after-school class - Teach or serve as chaperone for after-school classes every quarter. Such classes have included bowling, rock climbing, print making, and land sailing.
Book fairs - help during school hours in the library (at least twice per year).
Database entry (work at home opportunity!) - Help enter PTSA volunteer information into our database in the fall.
Reflections - state-PTSA-sponsored arts competition in the fall, help needed during the day and evening.
Picture day - Help the photo sessions move along efficiently, one or two half or whole days in the fall.
Yearbook sales - Volunteers collect forms and payment before school during a two-week period in the fall.
Whitman tour guides - Whitman volunteers show families around our school mornings in late winter.
5th Grade BBQ - May BBQ for incoming 6th graders (planners, servers, hosts needed).
8th grade promotion - help with June promotion ceremony, including decorations.

The Details

Picture day
A big day for the students. Volunteers help coordinate the event and help the photo sessions move along efficiently. Picture day happens on one or two days in the fall. Volunteers needed to help out in half- or whole-day shifts.

Yearbook sales
Volunteers collect forms and payment during a two-week period in the fall with presale of yearbooks. Presale takes place from 7:15 to 7:50 in the morning at tables set up near the main office. Volunteers are needed for one or more mornings during the presale of yearbooks.

Magazine sales
Students raise funds every year to help pay for non-academic events, such as field trips, class trips, and athletic programs. Parents are needed to help collect magazine forms and payments several mornings in the fall. Parents also help distribute prizes to the top-sellers.

Hall support
Hall support parents provide an adult presence during the lunchtime transition for one to one and one-half hours between 10:40 and 12:10. They help new students with questions or direct them to someone who can answer their questions. They help veteran students stay out of the closed hallway. Hall support is a key part of the Whitman commitment to a supervised, structured environment that helps students achieve their best.

Homework support for the after-school program
The after-school program needs volunteers who can help students who need extra support with their homework. This program is one of the ways Whitman Middle School ensures that all students get the support they need to have success in school. The program meets between about 2:30 and 4:30.

Teach an after-school class
Do you have a talent or skill to share with students? The after-school program looks for parents to teach or serve as chaperone for after-school classes every quarter. Such classes have included bowling, rock climbing, print making, and land sailing.

Translators needed for parent newsletters
Volunteers help translate all or part of biweekly newsletters. These newsletters keep Whitman families informed of many different PTSA and school events and needs.

Team parent
A liaison between teacher teams and families
A team parent helps teachers in the classroom and out of the classroom with various support activities, including assisting students one-on-one, assisting teachers with field trip and special project organization and implementation, assisting teachers with parent communication, and helping teachers photocopy assignments. Whitman teachers work in teams, and each team parent works with one teacher team on an as-needed basis.

Manage reader board
Can you help Whitman get the word out on its reader board? We need a volunteer to change the message on the reader board about once a week during school hours.

Whitman Improvement Committee
Help the Whitman Improvement Committee with efforts to paint, clean-up school grounds, improve signage, and more.

Music Volunteers Opportunities
Fund Raising
Our primary fund raiser is selling of coupon books. Sales begin and end in October. We are looking for a volunteer to manage this fund raiser. Tasks include preparing student forms, collecting money. We are looking for input for additional fund raising ideas. Beginning October 16th, the Whitman Band and Orchestras will sell Gold C coupon books to raise money for music supplies, festival registration fees and instruments. These books are a great value. Whitman will receive $ for every book sold and since this is the main fundraiser we all need to give it our best effort. A realistic goal for each band student is a minimum of 5 books! Packets will be sent home with students on October 16th. The fundraiser will conclude on October 30th. Parent Volunteers are needed to count Money and Distribute coupon books.
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Mini Music Projects
• Music Stands need to be painted
• Shelves are needed in the Orchestra room

In-Class Helpers
Mr. Baldwin is looking for a group of interested parents to provide section help during regular class time. The goal is to have helpers in the class room several days a week working with individuals or groups with music, fingerings, etc.

Lesson Coordinators:
Lessons are an important part of learning and improving your music skills. We've provided a list of instrumental instructors to assist students and parents in finding private lesson instruction. In addition we're coordinating with Ballard High School and Ingraham High School to have high school students provide instrumental lessons free of charge. We're looking for a parent volunteer to lead and coordinate this effort.

Concert Set Up Coordinators
We're looking for a small group of parents to help coordinate set up and take down for performances. The teachers have enough work just to get the students ready to play. Parents volunteers can help set up the risers, PA system and keep the waiting performers quiet and focused while they await their turn on stage.

Whitman tour guides
Whitman volunteers show families around our school during the tour season in late winter. Volunteers receive a map and a guide to the school, with special information to provide at key stops along the tour route. Tours take place from about 8:00 to 9:00 (or 10:00, depending on how much you have to say). After the tour, the principal and councilors informally meet parents to answer any questions they may have.

Whitman BBQ
Wow! What a great way to welcome in-coming families to Whitman. Help the school put on one of its best and most important parties. After-school and evening assistance is needed at this event, including set-up, serving, decorating, and coordination of the event.

8th grade promotion
The eighth grade promotion is one of several key events at Whitman. The event takes place in June and involves many volunteers, who help create the invitation, organize the event, assist with the set up, and more.

Committee Information

School Store Committee chair writes up the schedule of the volunteers and send out any email notices. School store hours are M-F mornings 7:15 to 7:45 and M-F lunchtime 10:30-12:30. Staffing the store at lunchtime requires staying the full three hours (all three lunches) since this is a busy time.

The store supplies basic school supplies, P.E. t-shirts, novelty items like key chains, hacky sacks, etc.

The committee chair order all the store supplies from catalogs, although some items come from office supply stores or Fred Meyer if we can get a good deal. The committee also inventories all products when they arrive and put them out on the cart. At the start of the school year this takes 3-4 hours because the initial order is large. Periodic re-orders during the year take about an hour from re-ordering, to inventory and stocking. The chair checks the bill and gives it to the treasurer. The chair communicates with the treasurer regarding all matters concerning billing and needs to turn bills in to the treasurer in a timely manner.

There is a notepad on the cart for communication. The chair or co-chairs respond to issues raised on the notepad. The chair makes sure the cart is fully staffed and tries to find substitutes.

The time commitment for the chair or co-chair averages and hour or so a week except in the beginning of the school year when the initial order and stocking is done and the end of the year when a year end inventory is done. Volunteers for the store shifts can spend 3 hours a shift (lunch) or 45 minutes (morning). The lunch shift can use two people, the morning shift one person. Many of the volunteers sign up for a shift every other week.

The chair attends the 6th grade meeting on the first day of school to talk about volunteer opportunities with the school store and to pass around a sign-up sheet.

Manning a school store shift provides the volunteer with an interesting hands on look at middle school! You get to see the kids in their element, what they're wearing, what they're talking about, who is hanging out with who...very fun!

Questions? Want more information? Contact Susan M. Weber, school store chair at 706-7592 or email her >

Legislative Committee

The Whitman PTSA Legislative Representative attends the Legislative Assembly in October in Yakima, the Legislative Focus Day in Olympia in February, and possibly the Washington State PTA convention in May. The rep and committee members should join the Legislative ListServe, which provides lots of information on legislative issues. They boil down the information and prepare snappy updates for the Whistle and the Whispers, two school newsletters. Committee members should keep their focus on what legislative issues affecting schools in Washington state and encourage people to vote in local and school board elections, but they do not endorse candidates or take public positions on local legislative and school district issues. They also forward emails regarding legislative action alerts sent by the PTSA government liaison.

For people who love to dig into the wonky legislative issues underlying the state of education in Washington, this is the committee for them!

Hospitality Committee
The hospitality committee is responsible for providing refreshments at the general PTSA meetings which are held once a month. This usually entails getting to the meeting a half hour early to set up coffee and cookies or other treats and staying a half hour later for clean-up. The PTSA owns a large coffee pot so it is possible to brew the coffee that night. There is also a regular size coffee pot that can be used to heat water for tea. Otherwise, Tully's has been very generous in the past and has donated coffee. We have a budget which has been $200 to purchase cookies/treats, half and half, coffee. There is a large supply of various types of tea bags, powdered creamer, sugar substitutes and regular sugar packets in the cabinet in the PTSA closet, as well as hot beverage cups, napkins and stir sticks. We also have vases and table cloths to get fancy with.

Whitman Monthly Newsletter Editor and Team
Gathers pertinent information from Whitman teachers, staff, parents, students, PTSA executive board and standing committee members, athletic coaches, and the community to create, edit and publish the monthly PTSA newsletter 9-10 times during the school year. The editor coordinates printing, folding and mailing the newsletter with the production team and emails the newsletter to online recipients monthly.

Fundraising Committee
Whitman's PTSA provides fundraising programs to support the educational needs of our children. In '07-'08, there will be 3 PTSA fundraisers: Academic Giving Campaign (AGC) direct appeal in the fall, a parent dance in February, and all-school Cat Tracks in spring. Many hands are needed to take on varied tasks for these fun events that fund a portable computer lab, teacher educational and classroom materials, teacher professional development, and library books. Volunteers are also needed for various club-focused fundraisers. Join us as we work to enhance your child's experience in the school!

Whitman Weekly Newsletter Editor
The editor prepares a weekly one page newsletter with articles submitted by the PTSA and school. The newsletter is emailed out to interested parents every Thursday. A limited supply of paper copies are also made and available for pickup in the Main Office, Room 101, and the library.

Communications Committee
This committee is responsible for distributing the Parent Information Form in the First Day packet. These completed forms are then input into a database that will be used for preparing the student directory that this committee will prepare, print, and distribute. The database also provides email addresses for parents electing to receive the Daily Bulletin, Whistle, and Whispers via email. Database information is also used to secure volunteers for different committees. This committee also receives the Daily Bulletin for the Whitman Main Office and is responsible for emailing out this information to all interested parents. The Communications Committee may also provide information to update the Whitman website.

Dance committee
The dance committee helps coordinate volunteers for the school dances. We need chaperones and volunteers at the craft table, photo booth, and to sell pizza. Volunteers are also needed a week prior to the dance to sell tickets during lunch. After the tickets are sold, the dance committee writes student names on the back of the tickets and puts them in envelopes according to the student's homeroom. The committee also hires a DJ, works with ASB on a theme for each dance, and sets the dates of the dances.

School Safety Committee

• Provides PTSA and parent perspective to Whitman Safety committee
• Manages PTSA safety budget
• Liaison between safety committee and PTSA Board/newsletter/parents
• Provides input for safety policy development
• Assists in identifying need for, procuring; and distributing needed emergency preparedness supplies
• Identify safety hazards/concerns

You make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give. --Winston Churchill

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