LTEF General Meeting Minutes
Monday, February 9, 2009
Attendees: Collette Evanko
Elyse Fiers
Anne Mankiewich
Noreen Ranallo
John Roncoroni
Bob Tabor
Mike Walsh
I. Treasurer’s Report – Elyse Fiers
q Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet were distributed. Elyse noted the General Fund is at $8,386.73 and the Playground Fund is at $125,190.49.
II. Shop to Earn – John Phelps, Good Giving LLC
q As of now, we are enrolled in the Shop to Earn program. John Phelps attended the meeting to present the program and answer questions.
q This is a supplemental fundraising program that operates at no cost to participants, and involves internet shopping they are doing anyway. It is “passive” and effortless on the part of participants.
q A portal has been set up on the LTEF web-site. Participants log onto our web-site, then click on the portal, which is linked to approximately 700 retailers. The retailers represent a good mix, from major stores like WalMart, Home Depot and Target, to apparel like Eddie Bauer, as well as Expedia and Travelocity.
q The user can click directly on his/her retailer of choice, and will go directly to that retailer’s web-site. Shopping can then proceed just as usual, with all the same prices, discounts and deals. However, because the user entered the retailer’s web-site through the LTEF’s portal, the retailer will pay a percentage of the proceeds back to the LTEF.
q The funds the LTEF earns will be deposited automatically to an account we designate on a monthly basis. The average family spends $1,600 on on-line shopping annually. At an average of 6.25%, this would amount to a contribution of $100 per family annually.
q Our only initial cost is $349, which is the one-time set-up fee and the cost to run the program for the year.
q There may be some competition in the area, including UPromise and Yellow Brick Mall, which Voorhees High School has. However, Shop-to-Earn gives the highest cash-back percentage of all these various programs.
q The next step is to make any desired changes to the draft announcement letter, flyer and other printed materials provided. Noreen will also need to set up our web-site with the internet shopping portal. We will then be ready to launch the program.
III. Committee Reports
A. Playground – Collette Evanko
q The Playground Committee is collecting food and silent auction donations for the Cabin Fever event. Collette will need volunteers to help check tickets at the door for Cabin Fever. Anne, Elyse and Noreen all agreed to help.
q The LTAA basketball concessions have been going well; they have raised around $700 so far.
q Collette will be meeting with the playground designer and Nick Fabbroni. Nick has some ideas for reducing the costs associated with Phase II of the feasibility study.
q John Roncoroni suggested we should let people know not only how much we have raised so far for the playground, but also how much we have paid out to date. So far we have paid $8,000 for Phase I of the feasibility study; with the addition of Phase II costs, this will reach a total of close to $30K. We could put this information on our web-site, and it could also go on the information banner on the school web-site.
B. Blues Fest – Bob Tabor
q All the bands are under contract. The stage and sound are all set. They have arranged for someone in town to be a back-up for the sound, just in case.
IV. New Business
A. E-Mail Database
q We have approximately 300 e-mails in the database already. Everyone in the group should review the database and add in any contacts not already included.
q Mike pointed out that there might be some out-dated e-mail addresses that should be corrected. Noreen will review the list and make corrections.
q We also want to have the ability to reach out to teachers and staff. Noreen suggested the best way to do this is to send our messages to the two principals and ask that they distribute the information within the schools.
q Once our list is complete, Mike will send out a message asking parents to let us know if they do not want to receive our news and information. Noreen suggested that he send his message to groups of no more than 50 e-mails each, since some servers will send messages going to large numbers of e-mail addresses to SPAM.
q Noreen created a spot on the LTEF web-site allowing users to register their e-mail to receive LTEF news.
B. Scholarship – Anne Mankiewich
q Anne contacted Leslie Yingling at the high school, who e-mailed information on all the scholarships currently being offered, as well as the generic scholarship application.
q Anne suggested we use the new e-mail database to let parents know about the scholarship, and invite participation in a committee. The purpose of the committee would be to establish the guidelines and criteria for our scholarship, and ultimately to act as the review body for scholarship applications.
Prepared by Anne Mankiewich
