Charles E. Teach Booster Club: June 2013

Charles E Teach Booster Board meeting

June 26, 2013

Peak Wealth Advisors – Conference Room

Board Members

Dan Block – Principal/Teach School Rep (Absent)
Helen Sipsas – President-Elect
Randi Barros – Co-Vice President-Elect
Mignon Jones – Treasurer-Elect
Lori Shields – Secretary-Elect

Other Guests In Attendance

Morgan Robertson

I. Call to order 12:41 pm

II. Summary of end of school meeting with teachers - Helen read from notes during the meeting she attended with the Teach Teachers and exiting 2012-2013 Booster Board members. Mr Crabb introduced his concept of an “Innovation and Exploration Initiative” The idea is to have various themes throughout the year, with a goal of invention, innovation, etc and tie lessons in various subjects to these themes. Ideas included an assembly to highlight creations, show off and test them. Mr. Crabb asked for Booster assistance to find out what skills parents have that can contribute to this initiative. Lori will look at Survey Monkey for a possible survey to find backgrounds and specialties of parents. Helen will work on questions for the survey. A Teach parent, Meili Laiho, who is also a Cal Poly professor, is very involved in this idea and with helping bring it to fruition. It is believed that ties to Cal Poly for this kind of focus can help distinguish Teach. Morgan reminded the group that Mavis Wong was already working on putting together science lunch events at the school, and she would be a good connection/reference to needs at Teach for the initiative.

III. Summary of meeting with BP PTA President Grace Van Doren. - Helen reported that she met with Grace Van Doren, incoming Bishop’s Peak (BP) PTA President to discuss activities for next year. Grace told Helen she was interested in having BP the Craft Fair that Randi had suggested during the last Teach Booster meeting. Grace stated that they will not be doing a Scholastic Book fair in 2013-2-14, but instead will be doing a twist on that, by asking families to donate books, and then they will sell them for $1/book at their own book-fair style event. While they discussed dates for various events throughout the year, Grace pointed out that the International Day event had been moved to December. The group discussed the benefits of trying to get that event moved back to March or April, because of all of the other activities already slated for December, and the fact that people are very busy that month already, so finding volunteers at that time may be very difficult. Helen will try to talk to the school office and teachers about the schedule to see if this can be changed.

IV. Identifying candidates for remaining positions

Kate Poeschl had sent an e-mail to the incoming Board the day before the meeting to inform everyone that due to personal commitments, she decided to step down from the Co-VP position. Randi told the group that she would still like to have a Co-VP, if possible, to help with all of the expectations of the position. The group agreed to try to find someone before the beginning of the school year to step into that position. The incoming Board was also informed on June 14 that Idona Cabrinha would be stepping down as Co-Treasurer since her daughter has decided to go to Los Osos Middle School next year. Mignon informed the group that she does not need a Co-Treasurer, so the group will not pursue a replacement. Mignon has a meeting scheduled with Marie Neumann to transition bank issues and other treasurer responsibilities.

Helen noted that at this time, the Boosters still do not have a 5th grade rep. Someone heard from some of the 4^th grade teachers that that group of parents is very busy with jobs outside the home, so there are not many of them with time to offer to the Boosters. Helen offered to talk to Mr Crabb for a recommendation on any parents that he feels may have time and willingness to act as the 5^th Grade Rep. Mignon offered to ask Erin Clausen if she is still willing to take on the Ice Cream Social and the Fall breakfast fundraiser. Helen asked everyone to think about ideas for making the Ice Cream social more interactive - buddy families, etc. It was recommended that the Grade Rep make calls to the parents of their grade to ask about interest in Board membership or chair positions for various activities throughout the year. Morgan agreed to take this job on, and Helen will contact Vanessa Rizzo, the 4^th grade class rep, and ask her to do this as well. Once a 5^th Grade Rep is found, that person will be asked to make contacts as well.

Lori asked the group to consider who will fill the remaining two positions on the Board, as there are currently four positions filled with Officers, and one position filled with the School representative, which is usually Mr. Block. There are still two positions open, since the Bylaws call for seven Board members total. Discussion was held about nominating Morgan Robertson and Vanessa Rizzo for the open positions, due to their current participation with Booster activities. At the next official meeting of the Board, a nomination for those two positions will be made, and placed for a vote.

V. Calendar of Events -

a. Breakfast fundraiser event at the Elks – Vanessa Rizzo confirmed the Sept. 14^th date for a breakfast fundraiser at the Elks is open and asked Helen to follow up with Dennis Adams, who is in charge of events at the Elk’s. Need to figure out particulars, but parents would be needed to help cook, serve, etc. The idea is to make this specifically a fundraiser for the IEI.

b. Fall fundraiser - Discussion held re: Genevieve's & Mrs. Fields. Helen spoke with the Rep for Genevieve’s/Mrs. Fields and found that the ROI is much better for the standard catalog of goods for Genevieve than for the other “speciality” items, and since Mrs. Fields is also has the same rep as Genevieve’s, it was decided to go with Mrs. Fields.. Discussion was held as to whether or not we can get prizes for each grade top seller's as a way to motivate students to sell? Other ideas included a pizza party for the top “grade’s” sales. Randi offered to ask the Mac Superstore if they could donate an iTouch as a prize for the sales.

c. Ice Cream Social – ideas were discussed for how to get people to attend, and what if any promotional things should be displayed or handed out at the meeting.

d. International Day – previously discussed under item III.

VI. SESCLOC account signing – Helen will work with Mignon to make sure that everyone that needs to be a signor on the account becomes a signor. Effective July 1, 2013, former signors Idonna Cabrinha, Summer Kabaker and Marie Neumann will go off of the Booster Board, and the new signors will be Helen Sipsas (President,) Mignon Jones (Treasurer,) and Lori Shields (Secretary.)

VII. Next date – Everyone will look at their calendars during the last week of July for a possible next meeting date. Helen will send something out when things get closer to finalize.

VIII. Open Forum - Discussion was held regarding different dates and times for board meetings to be held in the future. Both Morgan and Lori will have a hard time making the meetings at their currently scheduled times due to work conflicts. Meetings held at night would be easiest, but it is understood that the goal is to get a many parents to meetings as possible, so evening meetings may not be feasible. The question was posed as to whether or not there could be a room available in late afternoon, from approximately 1 – 2:30 pm instead. Helen may make attendance at meetings a survey question to get a better idea of how to get more parents to attend.

Helen informed the group that she would like to send e-mails to Teach parents after each Booster meeting to highlight what was discussed, including a link to the Booster website for the minutes. The intent is to keep parents more current on events and needs, and hopefully get them more involved.

Lori asked if everyone had access to the DropBox account for Teach Boosters. There are many old documents that have been used for advertisements/flyers, etc that everyone should have access to for future needs. Helen recalled seeing info on Dropbox in the binder that she received from Idona, and will look into it.

IX. Adjourned at 2:30 pm.