LTEF General Meeting Minutes
Monday, June 9, 2008
Attendees: Elyse Fiers
Susan Forenzo
Anne Mankiewich
Nora Pugliese
Noreen Ranallo
Bob Tabor
Mike Walsh
I. LTEF Scholarship
q We discussed awarding one scholarship of a minimum of $1,000, possibly two scholarships if the funds are available.
q The scholarship recipient should be a senior, and a resident of Lebanon Township.
q We agreed that the scholarship should be need-based. Therefore, we would state that our scholarship is for a student from a low-to-moderate income family.
q We also want to consider academics. We would look at transcripts and consider the GPA as well as what kind of classes the student has taken. We also want the scholarship to go to a college-bound senior, so we would ask for a college acceptance letter.
q Another criteria should be extracurricular activities, as well as volunteer work and paid work experience.
q We will also ask for an essay. We discussed the topic and agreed it should be something that relates to the LTEF; for example, why is an education foundation important? Alternatively, we could ask the student to describe what type of education he/she received in Lebanon Township, and how it could be improved.
q We discussed whether to ask for confirmation of the family’s income level. Nora suggested asking students to submit their FAFSA forms (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), which students complete on-line but which could be printed out if necessary. There was some concern, though, that asking for financial documentation might deter some from applying.
q If we do require financial documentation, we should try to keep the review of applications anonymous. We could consider asking an objective person (someone from the school administration, for example), to do the initial review of the applications and pass them on to the committee with names blocked out.
q We should try to get a mix of people for the Scholarship Committee. We will plan to send something out through the schools in the fall, asking for volunteers. In the meantime, it was suggested we also talk to people over the summer about getting involved.
q Anne will try to get in touch with Leslie Yingling at the High School, to find out what the school will need from us to get our scholarship going.
II. Web-site
q Noreen reminded us that we need to let her know of any updates as soon as possible. For example, she did not know the 5K Race had been cancelled, so it is still on the web-site. In addition, e-mail her any flyers, forms, etc. that should be posted. We could also put our meeting agendas and minutes on the web-site.
q Elyse has given Noreen’s contact number to Julianne Targan so they can get in touch about updating the Teacher Grant site. Noreen needs to get access to the site so she can start making changes. We discussed changing the look of the Teacher Grant site, in terms of fonts and colors. It should also be easier to navigate around in, with clear prompts like “Needs funding” for current projects, and “History” for past projects already funded. Right now, the site still shows Spark! as not fully funded.
q It would also be useful to show the total value of each project, as an untouchable field. Then, as the project gets more funding, users can clearly see how much more money is needed.
q In order to make the Teacher Grant Program successful, we also need to work on getting the teachers to post more projects. Susan volunteered to try to prod the teachers over the summer so we can start the new school year with some new projects. Then, we can send a letter out to parents letting them know of the projects that have been funded so far through the program, and the new projects waiting for funds.
q Mike will get in touch with Julianne to find out what level of involvement she wants to maintain in the grant program.
q Noreen would like to have something on each of the web-site pages, or else delete the page altogether. For example, she can list names on the Contributors’ page once she has that information. We discussed listing the names by category; i.e. bronze, silver, and gold contributors, without specifying an exact amount for each person. There will also be a category for anonymous donor.
q We should list sponsors for each event on the appropriate event page.
q The Volunteer page could list all the committees, with an e-mail address so people can contact us to volunteer. The volunteer opportunities to be listed are: Adult Education, Blues Fest, Golf Outing, 5K Race, Playground, Scholarship, Teach Grant Program, Web-site, and LTEF Board. Susan volunteered to write up a description of each of these for the web-site.
q Downloads is another page to be filled in. This page would include forms, flyers, minutes, agendas.
III. Treasurer’s Report – Elyse Fiers
q Profit & Loss Statements and Balance Sheet were distributed. Elyse pointed out that the net income shown for the Blues Fest is $18,109, which is $400 less than the last forecast of $18,500. This was due to double-booking of income, which would not have happened if there had not been such a rush to come up with a bottom-line number within a week of the Blues Fest. For next year, we should be prepared to have only a rough estimate within the first week; it would be reasonable to have a more accurate figure within 3 weeks of the event.
q There are still some unresolved Blues Fest expenses. We still have not been charged the $300 for the ATM. In addition, there is an outstanding check for $80, and Redwoods still owes us $30. Bob suggested we write the $30 off to “servers”.
q In addition, our $300 check for use of the park was never cashed. Elyse will issue another check.
q We also lost $100 from credit card charges that never cleared or were fraudulent.
IV. Committee Reports
A. Golf Outing
q Charlie Felts is too busy to chair the event this coming fall. There is not enough time, nor enough people to get the outing organized by October. Bob suggested that we shoot for September of 2009. We can consider splitting the event with the Cudina Fund, which would help pull in a lot of people and funds.
q In place of the golf outing, we could have an event in the fall that would be similar to the Cabin Fever party. We could have another silent auction, and honor volunteers, which would help to attract more people to the event.
B. 5K Race
q The decision was made to cancel the race, given that there had not been enough publicity to attract a critical number of runners. Mike said he would contact Jill O’Brien to make sure everyone who had registered or received the flyer by mail had been contacted about the cancellation.
q Mike said Collette was going to talk to the Playground Committee about the possibility of taking over the 5K Race.
V. New Business-“State of the LTEF
q The perception amongst some is that the LTEF is only a Playground fundraising group. Bob said he has been asked what we will do once the playground is built.
q Mike pointed out that once the Valley View playground is completed, we still have to tackle Woodglen. Collette is still trying to get Mike Rubright to agree to some kind of recreational structure or space at Woodglen.
q Mike also commented that he feels if the playground is actually built, there would be a lot more interest in the LTEF and more people stepping up to volunteer. He had thought we would reach our fundraising goal for the playground by the end of this school year, but we are still about $15K short. We really can’t wait for the completion of the playground; we need to find ways to get more people involved so that we have the manpower to take on more projects and programs.
q One idea is to hold some kind of “soiree” in the fall, during which we let people know more about the LTEF, and try to get people interested in running or working on one of our various committees.
q We also discussed having an end-of-year LTEF party just for the board members and committee volunteers.
Prepared by Anne Mankiewich
