St. Brendan’s PTO Board Meeting

November 7, 2002 Minutes

Attendees: Julia Walters-Burns, Jan Replogle, Joan McIntosh, Kate O’Brien-Rourke, Teresa Morrow

Teacher Representatives: Mrs. Carlson, Mrs. Herrick

Guests: Julie Bodmer

The Board, Committee Chairs, School Function, Enrichment Coordinators, and Teacher Representatives met in the teacher’s lounge. Julia called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm. Julia led all those present in a prayer.

Meeting Minutes Approval -- Minutes of the October 3, 2002 meeting were approved as written.

Vice President Report (K Bolibol) – School Commission information reported by Julia, including:

1) Parish Leadership Day was 10/5/02; the 5-Year Plan goals & objectives were discussed.

2) Goal Setting and School Accreditation were discussed at length.

3) Parish Finance Council is being asked to address the parish’s school tuition subsidy issues.

4) Development introduced new members to the committee.

5) Margaret Harder is the new Voyager editor.

6) Karen Bolibol presented the PTO report

7) Mrs. Sullivan presented the Principal’s Report.

Treasurer Report (J Replogle):

Highlights: The following is submitted:

1) Wishlist Items Tracking updated to 10/31/02. There were approximately $2000 in expenditures last month; the $3000 remaining, is enough to cover the remaining expenditures for the Wishlist items.

2) P & L statement is included.

- No activity in the following accounts: Money Market Account, Archdiocesan Revolving Funds “Committed Funds”, and Archdiocesan Revolving Funds.

- The Checking Account balances normally.

- Other Issues/Activity: We are experiencing a higher number of returned checks this year vs last year. Jan is working to recover these monies; may need to parallel Parish methodologies.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Sally Foster (J Gotz, J Hobgood, C Henderson) – Report to Julia. The Sally Foster fundraiser exceeded the $14,000 goal. Purchases were delivered to students this week.

Auction (R & J Carroll) – Reported by Kate O’Brien-Rourke.

Procurement is progressing on schedule. There are approximately 200 items to date. The deadline for School Family donations is 1/17/03. This will allow us to meet the printer’s timeline.

The grand piano, noted previously, is not an auction item at this time. The piano dates from 1883 and is not playable as is. It was determined that a minimum number of bidders was necessary for this type of item. The Auction committee is working to secure a buyer for the piano via special interest groups.

PTO Fund-An-Item: Consensus for the Auction Fund-An-Item is Playground Equipment and Improvements (see New Business below.)

The Raffle for tuition monies was discussed. Details will be finalized in the next few weeks. The Giving Tree for Teachers and Staff was also discussed and the details will be finalized soon.

The Auction Committee is looking for a crew to bring items back to the school on Sunday morning after the auction. . .these are items a person is not able to take with them the night of the auction. If you are interested in helping with this activity, please contact Jan Carroll or a member of the Auction Committee.

Holiday Craft Fair (M Cannon, L Wygant) – Crews are busy setting up and decorating this evening for the Holiday Craft Fair this weekend. We will look for more information in the next month.

Family Night ( ) – Reported by J Bodmer.

The Bite of St. Brendan went well. Food was priced relative to the actual food costs or donations. Planned activities kept the younger children busy. For planning purposes: the Archdiocese Junior High activity/cruise is always this weekend. The Bite will have to be moved to another evening if the participation of the Junior High students is desired. Thank you to Julie for leading this group and coordinating this event.

Cancellation of the Spring Dance was again discussed. Unless someone comes forward to chair this event or an alternative activity, this event may be cancelled. This suggestion will be considered.

Action: This suggestion/information will be published in the PTO News for consideration by all parents prior to actually canceling the event.

OLD BUSINESS

Need to identify a Treasurer for next year. Continue this on the agenda.

Need to identify Scrip Chairperson(s) for next year. Continue this on the agenda.

By-laws Changes:

1) Suggested Changes: Suggested changes were reviewed item by item. These suggestions were based on a review of our Bylaws and comparison with other school parent-teacher organization bylaws.

A1. Financial Decisions Clarify how financial decisions are made: Budget with Principal at the end of the school year with the current and incoming PTO Board.

A2. Financial Decisions: Clarify the method to approve budget item expenditures in the course of the school year.

B. PTO Officer Terms: Co-Presidents with staggered two-year terms, addition of the Past-President, and Deletion of the Vice President with the Past-President taking over the Vice-President duties (School Commission liaison).

C. Bylaws Amendments: The present PTO bylaws amendment procedures place constraints unlike the amendment procedures of many others. Julie suggests amendments as needed.

D, Definition of Board membership and responsibilities, e.g. Executive Committee vs. Executive Board.

2) Process for Bylaws Review:

Step 1. Review the Bylaws item by item this evening.

Step 2. Copy the Bylaws with suggested changes, via e:mail, to each PTO Committee/Function Chairperson for feedback prior to the December PTO meeting.

Step 3. Final review and comment at the December PTO meeting.

Step 4. After the December PTO meeting, the proposal is to be routed to each family via the

Wednesday communication envelope. Include a sample ballot with the Bylaws proposal.

Step 5. Route the ballot to PTO members in good standing, prior to the January General Meeting. Attendance at the January General Meeting is not required to vote. Absentee ballots may be cast prior to the January General Meeting.

Note: The ballot will essentially consist of two provisions:

1) Waive the provision requiring amendments to the Bylaws in April only; and

2) Vote on the remaining provisions (see general description of the general changes noted above).

This is an all or nothing situation; one must vote yes to waive the provision requiring amendments in April in order to cast a vote for the remaining provisions. If the provision to change amendments is not passed, the remaining provisions are null and void.

3) Suggested Changes: See the handout reviewed at this meeting for each suggested PTO

Bylaws change.

NEW BUSINESS

PTO Fund-An-Item:

1) As noted above, Playground Equipment and Improvements will be this year’s PTO Fund-An-Item. The costs associated with this endeavor are considerable.

2) The following suggestion was made with favorable responses. Develop a plan with targets for subsequent auctions; similar to the Fund-An-Item topics prior to actual school construction, the library and library furniture one year, the science lab another year, etc. It was noted that we need to work within the Parish campus plan.

Action: Ask Denise to contact John Meyer to discuss the overall campus plan; Denise is on the Parish Facilities Council.

3) If the overall campus plan is not yet defined, suggest a subcommittee of interested school and parish members to further define the Playground Equipment and Improvements targets and timelines.

Fulcrum Foundation Dinner: The Archdiocese tuition assistance fund is related to the Fulcrum Foundation. This dinner occurs in May 2003. Support of the PTO has been requested, not yet defined. More information to follow.

PTO Volunteer Hour Drawing: PTO Volunteer Hour Calendars are due by the 1^st Wednesday envelope of the month. The drawing for a scrip certificate from among those with prompt return of their volunteer hours will be held during the week rather than at the PTO meeting. The winner will be announced in the PTO news.

School Accreditation Surveys: The Student Growth Committee is responsible for the following four surveys: Spiritual, Academic, Personal, and Parent & Community Involvement. PTO is asked to assist with the Parent & Community Involvement survey.

Action: Mrs. Carlson gave the Parent & Community Involvement survey to Julia for the PTO

Co-Presidents. This will be routed to the PTO Board and PTO Committee leaders. The surveys are to be returned to Mrs. Carlson by December 2, 2002.

Fundraising, Committee, Function and Enrichment with “No activity report at this meeting.”

FUNDRAISING:

Scrip (L Blakeley, D Jennings) – No activity report at this meeting.

Box Tops (C Seib) – No activity report at this meeting.

COMMITTIES:

Health Screening (D Heye, J Smith) – No activity report at this meeting.

Hot Lunch (K Kramer, J Maccarrone) – No activity report at this meeting.

Improvements ( ) – No activity report at this meeting.

Library (J. McCoy) -- No activity report at this meeting.

Membership (T Morrow, S Sonnen) – No activity report at this meeting.

Outreach (L Ungvarsky) -- No activity report at this meeting.

Playground (C Jacoby) – No activity report at this meeting.

Room Parents (S Proulx, H Clancy) – No activity report at this meeting.

Volunteer Coordinator (G Beauchamp) – No activity report at this meeting.

Technology (M Sonnen) -- No activity report at this meeting.

School Functions:

Calendar (D & T Clark) – No activity report at this meeting.

Emergency Readiness (MK Livingston, W Slater Hospitality (T Lambert, D Loutsis) – No activity report at this meeting.

Milk (J Towey) – No activity report at this meeting.

Parish Publicity (M Perez-Torkildson) – No activity report at this meeting.

School Photography (J Jacoby) – No activity report at this meeting.

Uniform Exchange & Lost and Found (J Peterson) – No activity report at this meeting.