UMS PTSA Business Meeting for September 21, 2005

Present:

PTSA News:

• Several teams are working on fund raising efforts for Hurricane Katrina.
• SPLASH registration is due by Sept 30; packets are available in office.
• Walk to School day is Oct 5; see national website for info.
• Reflections deadline is Oct 28; entry forms are available from PTSA.
• See school announcements and other info at PTSA website.

Speaker:

Business Meeting:

1. Student Council Report (by Amanda Umihani)
   Grade level representative elections have been held. Representatives from each Urbana elementary school will also be elected. Results to be announced soon. First school dance is scheduled for Oct 14 at 4 p.m.

2. Principal's Report (by Nancy Clinton)
   Opening of school went well. Suggestions and ideas about how things could be improved upon are welcomed, especially from new 6th grade parents. Send email to Nancy Clinton.
   • Due to fires that were set in the kitchen areas on Monday night, lunch lines have been temporarily reworked and everyone is helping to make this go smoothly. Clean up has been done and the health department has inspected the kitchen. It is ready for regular meal service as soon as tomorrow. The zoned sprinkler system worked as it was supposed to and police and fire depts were very helpful.
   • Bus incident today - a MTD bus had to stop suddenly because of a pedestrian stepping out into the road, and some kids fell on each other with resulting bumps and bruises. Parents were called in cases of injury, and the district nurse was made available to see students who wanted to see a nurse. A letter was sent home with every student who rode the bus.
   • Thanks to PTSA for the back-to-school breakfast. It is appreciated by teachers.
   Nancy noted the good turnout for the meeting and expressed her hope that it continues. Thanks to Sue Keller for her continued service and to Jamie Peterson for coming on board as the new PTSA president.

3. President's Report (by Jamie Peterson)
   This year's slate of officers and committee chairs was introduced by Jamie and elected by voice vote. The President (Jamie) and Treasurer (Sue) were elected during the May 2005 meeting. New officers elected are: Co-Vice-Presidents Barb Hughes and Kris Solberg, Secretary Cindy Loui. Chairs are Patti Pattison (Membership), Patricia Hswe (Newsletter), Alice McGinty (Reflections), Cheri Silha (Spiritwear), and Holiday Voucher Co-Chairs Lisa Sechler and Jamie Peterson. Eve Hargrave volunteered to chair Teacher Appreciation. Okiema Window also offered to help.
   

4. Treasurer's Report (by Sue Keller)
   Sue announced that she has submitted two audits. The 2005-2006 budget was discussed and approved. Sue presented forms that committee chairs might need: deposit detail slips, print shop receipts, reimbursement requests, etc. Money related forms will be kept in the plastic binder/envelope in the PTSA mailbox. Sue reminded chairs to confirm with her about the amount of budgeted funds before spending money. National PTA dues must be postmarked by Oct 1.

5. Membership Report (by Patti Pattison)
   We are still taking memberships and have about 70 members so far. A sign up was provided at registration for people to join a PTSA mailing list without joining PTSA. Quite a number of people signed up for that list (close to 190). She is planning to put out a PTSA directory but is not sure how to include students members, as she doesn't want to include personal info for students. She may just list them separately. Payment of national dues was discussed and it was decided that Patti would schedule a meeting for the purposes of tallying memberships and creating a membership roster.

6. Committee Reports
   • Teacher Appreciation: Next activity will be for Nov 3 parent teacher conferences, providing food for staff. There is a list of parents willing to help provide food items. It was requested to designate a cabinet in the teacher's lounge for PTSA storage. Nancy said this is OK, but to consider that things might be "borrowed" from the cabinet.
   • Newletter: Patricia reports that the newsletter will come out once a month on the last Friday of the month. The September newsletter is ready for the print shop. It will include school contact info, calendar items, team info, and PTSA volunteer opportunities. She will be including Target and Max card fund raising program info. Please submit anything you would like to have included in the newletter to Patricia. Her email is listed on the website.
   • Reflections Contest: The theme this year is "I Wonder Why..." Entry deadline is Oct 28. Rules and entry forms are available from Alice McGinty and PTSA.
   • Spiritwear: Sue shared information about the profit margin ($2.75-$8 per item), and prices seem to be okay. We started the year with a good inventory so can anticipate better income from spiritwear this year.

7. Email list serve and/or web message board services: Jamie listed three different services as possibilities, including quicktopic, prairienet mailman, and yahoogroups. We would like for someone who knows more about these services to help us figure out which one would work best for UMS (and help set it up). Naneera offered to look into this.

8. Website: A web designer is wanted to help update the PTSA website. Jamie said she is able to make text updates, but needs help with design issues. Naneera offered to spend some time looking at the pages.

Next Meeting: Wednesday, Oct 19.

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