The Chairperson is the captain of a Scholastic Book Fair team.
As captain, you schedule, plan and manage the event.

Your four key duties are to:

1. Serve as the main contact between the school, your volunteer team and Scholastic.
2. Recruit, motivate and organize your volunteers.
3. Promote the fair in your school, to students and families and to the community.
4. Direct the set up and operation of the Fair.

Volunteers are invaluable team players:
A team of volunteers can help you plan and run your Fair by acting as greeters, helping with publicity, setting up the Fair, decorating, restocking, running your Family Event, being cashiers, and working with community sponsors to get contributions. Use these guidelines for working with volunteers to help get organized.

Where to look for volunteers:

• Past Book Fair volunteers
• Room parents
• PTA, PTP, and SAC members
• School staff and faculty
• Parents, grandparents, and older siblings
• Students from neighboring middle schools and high schools
• Outside volunteer groups (Rotary, Lions Club, Friends of the Library, Literacy Coalition, church groups, and synagogues)
• Businesses and community school partners

How to recruit volunteers:

• Ask your principal to send home a volunteer recruitment letter (PDF Form 78KB).
• Recruit alternates to be available on short notice in case you need them.
• Attend your back-to-school event, PTO/PTA meeting, or other school gathering and post a Book Fair Volunteer recruitment flyer (PDF Form 104KB).
• Call past Book Fair volunteers provided by the previous Book Fair Chairperson.
• Include a recruitment notice in your school newsletter and on your school Web site.

Use these tools to keep organized:

• Send out Volunteer Reminders (PDF Form 80KB) to notify your volunteers of their work schedules.
• Refer to the Volunteer Job Descriptions List (PDF 18KB) when assigning positions.
• Use this a Volunteer Schedule (PDF Form 58KB) to keep track of volunteer work shifts.
• Print Name Badges (PDF Form 80KB) on Avery labels to make your helpers identifiable.

Say thanks to your volunteers!
At the end of the Fair, it is nice to send a personalized thank-you note to your volunteers. You can also post a thank you to the volunteers on the school marquee, give them recognition in the school newsletter and on the school Web site.


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