October 20

LTEF General Meeting Minutes

 Attendees:        Collette Evanko

                         Elyse Fiers

                         Susan Forenzo

                         Anne Mankiewich

                         Noreen Ranallo

                         Isabella Tabor

                         Mike Walsh

 

I.                   Treasurer’s Report

  • Elyse Fiers distributed Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss statements.
  • Elyse reported that we will not be able to get a refund of the insurance we paid for the 5K race. The amount is approximately $391.

 

II.                Committee Reports

 

A. Golf Outing

  • No date has been set yet. The Cudina Foundation has indicated they are agreeable to doing it with us as a combined event.

 

B. Playground

  • Collette reported that we made $194 selling stars at the Valley View back-to-school night, and the stars are now all hanging up at the school.
  • Next fundraiser is the Portrait Fundraiser. It will be $25 per sitting; $17.50 goes to the playground, plus a percentage of the sales. There are 50 sitting slots available.
  • We received the engineering contract, which is now separated into two phases. We took an informal vote and agreed to go ahead and sign the first phase, for $8,000. Mike hopes to have the first phase completed in 3-4 months. If the assessment goes well and no major redesign is required, we will be set to start construction as soon as the weather permits in the spring.
  • Collette listed the other upcoming fundraising activities: the Halloween Madness food concession, Pizza for the Playground, Christmas shopping fundraiser, and the Cabin Fever party in February. A suggestion had been made to change Cabin Fever to Casino Night, but Mike and Collette are concerned that this would exclude too many people who are not interested in gaming. There would also be a greater up-front cost involved.
  • Mike wants a list of the playground equipment and costs, so he can talk to people and businesses to see if we can get some more major donations and sponsorships before the end of the year.

 

C. Web-site

  • Noreen passed out copies of the new web-site pages, which have been completely redesigned.
  • The Home page features rotating township photos.
  • Noreen pulled information from the LTEF newsletter that was prepared for Back-to-School-Night. She also added a Contributors page.
  • There is an Events page, which now shows the Portrait Fundraiser and the Yoga Class Series. It should be expanded to include all the current fundraising efforts, such as the Pavers, Pizza for the Playground, etc.
  • There are also Community Links, as well as Quick Links to Enrichment Grants, Blues Fest, etc.
  • The link to Enrichment Grants takes you to the original Teacher Grant web-site. It still shows projects as not yet fully funded.

 

D. Blues Fest

  • The next Blues Fest has been scheduled for May 16th. The park has been reserved for that day, as well as the day before and after, making set-up and clean-up easier.

 

 

III.             New Business

 

A. Alcatel-Lucent Sponsorship

  • Mike had sent a letter to Alcatel-Lucent informing them that we cancelled the 5K race, and to explore a possible redirection of their sponsorship. In the letter, he suggested that they become a direct sponsor for a piece of playground equipment.
  • A-L responded that they would prefer their funds to support an educational project. Alternatively, they would like the sponsorship to help disabled students.
  • We discussed possible ways to fulfill their request. Mike suggested that he write a letter describing how the playground will be made handicapped-accessible. However, Mike also pointed out that we might be able to get the Board of Education to pay for these costs.
  • Another possibility is to use their $2,500 to fund our first LTEF scholarship.
  • We also discussed using the funds in conjunction with the Enrichment Grant program. If either of the schools anticipates needing funds for a major project or piece of equipment, we could use the sponsorship to grant that request through the Enrichment Grant program. Mike will speak to both principals to find out if there are any such upcoming needs.

 

B. Education Program

  • Julianne Targan has asked if the LTEF would be interested in funding an after-school enrichment program. She knows of other schools that have such programs, and would be willing to look into it if we are interested. Elyse raised the issue of liability. The only way to avoid liability problems is for the school to run the program, not the LTEF. We would cover the costs, which would include any equipment, materials, staff wages, etc. Anne will get back to Julianne and explain our position.
  • Anne Marie Kager, a parent from our school district, has volunteered to teach a belly-dancing class as part of our adult education program. Anne will contact Anne Marie to find out about costs, scheduling, etc.
  • Mike mentioned the possibility of running a Red Cross babysitting program.

 

 Prepared by Anne Mankiewich


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