Minutes of Parent and Student Representatives’ Meeting 07-08
October 24, 2007
May 15, 2008
October 24, 2007 Meeting, The Chapin School
Evianne Cowing, Safe Haven Project: 36 students have volunteered for the Parent’s League’s Safe Haven Project. Nightingale-Bamford students will start at 11:45am, everyone else to arrive at 12:30pm, for a short information session. The dress code is no jeans or t-shirts. Pizza will be served at the end, around 3:30-4pm. Rain is forecasted, an e-mail will be sent Friday evening to confirm or cancel the event. No rain date has been established but it will be rescheduled for the spring if cancelled.
Monique Pettit. Students should email Monique their school’s non-JSA calendar of events to post on the JSA website, i.e. coffee houses, exhibits and performances open to all JSA students. The updated Roster will be emailed to all JSA parent reps, please read over the names from your school and make sure that they are correct.
Carmen Knoepffler: Each school is expected to help oversee an event and parents are needed to help volunteer, usually 1 parent per 10-15 students. The Holiday Carnival needs a parent volunteer to oversee the event and other parents to chaperone. Each school operates an activity booth. Parents of the school overseeing the event will buy prizes/prize tickets/goody bags, and parents need to arrive early to help set-up. Chapin offered to oversee the event. Each school should email Sabina Wu with their booth selection The bulk of work involved in Voices is mostly proofreading, and then setting up the evening reception Colleen Pike Blair from Calhoun and Nightingale-Bamford volunteered to proofread. Publicity: How can JSA encourage more awareness of the organization and better publicize its events? Some ideas include sending JSA flyers in with schools’ Parent Association mailings and having reps send information through class distribution lists
Please let Monique Pettit know if your school can host either the December 12/13, April 16/17 or May 15 meetings.
[Students met separately during a portion of the meeting to discuss the booths for the Holiday Carnival. Browning volunteered to take pictures.]
***Next Meeting: The Spence School
Parents Representatives Meeting Nov. 14, 8:30am Student Representatives Meeting Nov. 15, 4:15pm
May 15, 2008 Meeting The Dwight School
Carmen Knoepffler: Thank you to everyone for the work done over the year. Next year, Evianne Cowing will replace Helena Park as Treasurer and Diane Discenza will be the new Community Service Coordinator. We will need a new Student Coordinator. The students did a fantastic job of fundraising. La Scuola, Spence, Browning, Marymount, and Nightingale all raised in excess of the $200 target. This money funded the Holiday Carnival and Service Saturday. Thanks to: Ritu Banga for obtaining the MasterCard funding for Voices and securing the gallery for Visions; Sarah W. of the Spence School for redesigning and maintaining the website; and all the parents for chaperoning. Fifty-five Certificates of Participation were handed out to students who attended at least 2 meetings and participated in a community service event. Those who participated in Visions also received a Certificate of Participation while those participating in Voices receive the Anthology.
Ritu Banga, Independent Voices: Jennifer Stark of Barnes & Noble has been a really good partner. She should be contacted in the summer for next year. The printer, Barry Street at The Print Center, Inc., has been very responsive. As he works with all the schools, the teachers know him. This is the 11th year for Voices. The structure is all in place, a new person should take over chairing this event. Funding remains a key element. Of the $5k funding from MasterCard, $4k was spent, with $1k remaining. Kathy Evans volunteered to investigate the National Endowment for the Arts’ fast track grants for reading, of up to $10k, for which we may qualify. An e-mail should be sent to all parent reps to help find possible funding sources for next year.
Evianne Cowing, Co-chairs, Visions: 300 people attended the reception and stayed awhile. Thirteen schools participated, including Hewitt, which was a late entrant participating for the first time. Dina Nemeth, our speaker, talked about the different paths to a photography career. She said great things to the students about their works, which made them feel very encouraged. A new person should run Visions next year.
Monique Pettit, Corresponding Secretary: For the roster next year, everyone should send in the names and e-mail addresses of the new PA heads, parent and student reps.
Carmen Knoepffler: We need to establish the date for the Holiday Carnival and get in touch with our contact at Christ Church over the summer. The first meeting for the fall will be at Marymount, and the first event will be the Safe-Haven Project on Saturday October 25th.
Parents Meeting: Sept. 24 8:30 am
Students’ Meeting: Sept 25 4:15 pm