Being a donor for PUDM is one of the most important roles in our organization. It is also one of the most appreciated because being a donor means you support our cause and support us as an organization. If you are interested in donating, your first step is to go to donate.rileykids.org/pudm19 and click the big red “DONATE” button at the top. After clicking the button, you will be prompted to search for a participant or team to donate to. This will allow you to donate to a certain individual or team adding to their fundraising total. If you do not have a specific person or team to donate to, you can click the blue link that states “click here to give directly” which allows you to donate directly to PUDM. The money goes directly to our total amount which is announced at the marathon.  

When you donate, you can choose how much you would like to give. You will also answer a few questions including your name, address and email. You can choose to have your name anonymous to the public, but your name will be available to the whoever you donate to. A personal message can also be added to your donation if desired.  

Every donation is greatly appreciated whether it is $5 or $100. Every penny counts at Riley, and we appreciate your support and interest in donating to us.

Becoming a participant in PUDM means you are joining the largest group of people in this organization. There were over 2,000 participants at PUDM 2018, and we are excited to see how many we will register in 2019. Being a participant comes with responsibility of helping Riley, because participants have a $200 commitment to raise before the marathon ends. $200 may seem like a lot of money to raise, but it is very manageable. If you ever had any questions or concerns, Elizabeth Miller is the Participant Communication Executive and will be more than happy to help. 

Participants are also welcome to attend any PUDM- sanctioned events that are put on throughout the year. This will give them the chance to meet other PUDM members including committee members, chairs or executives. There are a few meetings dancers will need to attend to get information regarding the marathon and fundraising strategies to help them along the way. Finally, there will be small get togethers for the participants to get to know the people in their color track before the marathon in November.  

For more information on how to register as a participant click here.  

The purpose of committee members in PUDM is to allow committee members to become further educated about PUDM and our cause: Riley Hospital for Children, fundraise, spread our cause, attend events, and assist with brainstorming and tasks. A committee member will have the opportunity to meet other members of the organization, develop/improve leadership and team skills, and contribute ideas. The committee member experience helps prepare members for future leadership opportunities in PUDM if members are interested.

Being a committee member means you have certain roles and responsibilities that need to be fulfilled. There will be weekly meetings that your executive will hold at the same time every week to give out the most recent information about events, fundraising opportunities or ideas that PUDM has. These meetings will also be a time for your committee to brainstorm ideas on what your committee can do to make PUDM 2019 the most successful year yet. With more responsibility comes more fundraising, and committee members have a commitment of raising $750 before the marathon comes to an end. Committee members are also leaders in this organization, as they are people that participants and strangers to the organization can go to ask more information on PUDM.    

To learn more about becoming a committee member, you can attend a committee member callout meeting. PUDM will release information on when and where callout meetings will be held through social media, so keep your eyes peeled. After attending the meeting, people interested can answer a simple questionnaire to see which committee you would fit best in. This questionnaire will be used by executives to place people in committees they are interested; however, the surveys will also weigh your strengths and weaknesses to showcase what committee can benefit as having you a part of their team. Finally, you will get a notification on a committee member reveal meeting where you will meet the rest of your committee, chairs and executive.  

PUDM 2019 has another special group of 53 people called chairs. Chairs have specific jobs within a committee, and they work alongside an executive to help make their committee is as successful as it can be.
When you apply to be a chair, you apply for a certain position within PUDM. Every committee has a different job to do, so as a chair, you get assigned a specific job within your committee. Chair positions range from photography and videography, sorority outreach, fundraising challenges and more.

As a chair, you have more responsibility which results in greater time commitment. There will be weekly meetings that your committee will hold plus weekly meetings that executives and chairs will hold together. There will also be times that chairs will need to do work outside of PUDM meetings or events, so chairs need to be able to manage their time wisely to get school, work and PUDM jobs done. Chairs are a leader for this organization. They lead their committee members and are someone their committee members look at for guidance Chairs are also leaders to participants because they will have questions or need advice, and chairs need to be able to help with whatever they need. As a leader, chairs should be able to lead by action. When canning sign ups are up or PUDM is holding an event, chairs are expected to show up and encourage their committee to show up too.

The process to become a chair is different from committee members and participants. All chairs fill out an application that assesses their likes and dislikes as well as their skills and work ethic. This application asks about past leadership roles and digs deeper into why they are interested in the position. There is also a section that lets you rank all chair positions, so the executives can see which positions they are interested in the most. After submitting the application, the executives will choose which applications to move forward to the next round. If your application moves forward, then the interviewing process begins. All chairs must be interviewed by executives to talk with them in-person. When the interviewing process is done, executives then sit down and choose which chairs they wish to join their committee. Executives will then contact their desired chairs.

PUDM has 18 Executives that lead committees, manage projects, and help plan our main event in November. Executives within PUDM are tasked with running all of the projects that fall under their assigned area of the organization as well as tasked with leading a team of student chairs and student committee members. From Fundraising to Productions to Riley Relations, executives are the members that will run every aspect of PUDM from Day 1 until the Main Event. Executives will learn excellent project management skills and interpersonal skills, getting excellent practice leading team members, collaborating with all types of people, and executing tasks effectively and efficiently. Executives are the leaders that all other members of PUDM will look to for guidance and for help with projects. Executives are encouraged to have strong time management skills, be comfortable speaking in front of large groups of people, and know how to delegate tasks in a logical and effective way. A large part of holding an Executive role within PUDM will be leading a committee of anywhere from 20 to 100 participants. Executives will be the main point of contact for committee members when it comes to fundraising help, guidance about participant experience, and inspiration, and Executives will be expected to lead and organize exciting and engaging committee meetings for their members. Holding an Executive position within PUDM is a large responsibility, but one that is worth every hour of work along the way.