Qlubb-er Spotlight Series - Inaugural Edition, Beth Drummonds

During this Back-to-School season we will be spotlighting Qlubb users who use Qlubb for a variety of groups. These users will share their experiences with Qlubb, in organizing people, and a little bit about themselves. These Spotlight Users inspire me - their energy, their dedication and their generosity are truly remarkable.

For our inaugural Qlubb User Spotlight, I would like to introduce to you to Super Mom-Beth Drummonds, an active parent of 5 (yes, you read right!). She discovered Qlubb last year and has been using Qlubb to help coordinate the activities of her Kindergartener's and 4th grader's classroom.

Qlubb: Tell us a little a bit about yourself and your life with 5 children
I am mom to 5 fabulous children from 12 years old to 3 months old. My eldest 3 are in 7th, 5th and 1st grades in Gwinnett County Schools, Suwanee, GA. A typical school year for me is being room mom for 2 or 3 of the kids, being an active PTA Board member, Girl Scout leader for 1 daughter and co-leader for the other, taking care of the school and PTA e-news weekly, getting my kids to daily activities and just trying to find time to be a mommy :)

Qlubb: Pick three words that best describe yourself
organized . focused . crazy

Qlubb: Describe how you used Qlubb in your room parenting responsibilities
As room mom, I used Qlubb for my Kindergartener’s classroom (20 students) as well as my 4th grader’s classroom (25 students). Kindergarten was full of activities from parties, to a shopping mall, apple day, Dr. Seuss activities, teacher birthdays and visits to the nearby park. The 4th grade classroom was not as taxing, but we had several needs throughout the year such as a monthly reader, colonial day and the holiday, birthday and end of the year parties.

The most complex events I organized in Qlubb were classroom parties. At Christmas we had a “shopping mall” with 5 “stores” for my 4th grader in which the children could use money they’d earned in class. We had a movie theater, candy shop, nail salon, game stop and book store. Each of these 5 stores had a “manager” and needed lots of supplies and donations. It was a lot of fun, but crazy. In Kindergarten we had a Penguin themed party with penguin snacks, penguin games, penguin costumes for everyone, etc. Qlubb really made it easy to coordinate all the pieces..

Qlubb: Why did you choose Qlubb?
Before Qlubb I would send an email with information for the parents and a list of volunteer needs or food items, craft items, etc. Then some parents would sign up by "reply all" and all 25 parents received 2,897 emails. Some of those emails were duplicates. Some parents only replied to me and signed up for something that had already been signed up for. I'd send several emails with updates, but folks were always confused. Then I would send a reminder with the final list before the event, but inevitably someone was confused or said they signed up for this or that and I didn't have them on the list or said they did NOT sign up for something and they were not prepared to get it in on time. UGH! With Qlubb, I simply add the event, date, time, needs list to my group, then send. Everyone can see what is/is not signed up for, can sign up immediately, is reminded the day before and my job is done!

Qlubb: What is the best part of being a room parent? Why do you do it?
The best part of being a room parent is being involved with my children’s education. I feel our educators see them more than I do during the school year and have a lot of influence on them, so I like to be as much a part of that as possible. I also try to help take as much of the trivial burden off our educators so they can focus on teaching. The kids at the elementary level still need time for fun and to be a kid, so that’s where I come in!

Qlubb: Any tips on being an effective room parent?
Be organized . Be concise . Have fun.

Qlubb: Thanks Beth, you are amazing. You must not sleep. Can we have you as a room parent this year?