Community Council Meeting, August 3, 2005

To Do List

Volunteers:

• Kirstin Thompson volunteered for the Special Education Committee and said, her friend Gretchen Tuck would probably like to be on it, too.
• Leslie Callas volunteered to write a monthly update on Watershed happenings and send it to Deborah Long for CLWS Newsletter (cc. Amy Stoner).
• Andrea Bruner and Kirstin Thompson volunteered to take a shift each week as receptionist, times to be determined. 
• Victoria Woolley volunteered to be one of the 10^th grade class reps and to spearhead the silent auction.
• Ivor and Katie will work on the parent handbook.  See below.
• David Woolley will be Community Council scribe/secretary.
• Volunteers for the Communication Committee are Leslie Wilson, David Woolley, and Mary Newby-Elder.  (If meetings occur while Mary is out of town, we will find another parent to attend.)

Calendar items:

• Scott will verify with faculty that September 6, the first day of school, during main lesson will be the time for parent orientation (not just for new parents).  The Community Council would like to be part of this program.
• The Community Council will sponsor an all school picnic potluck – the date has not been determined, but it needs to be ASAP.
• Joint class rep and class sponsor meeting in September.  This should be a minimum of 1 ½ hours with everyone attending. 
• In addition to the picnic potluck, we hope to schedule three additional community potlucks that we would ask for $5 - $10 donations and recipes to share.  These events’ donations would be given to the student council.  We considered having one potluck each season, not during the months of All School Parent meetings.  We’d like to go through the calendar now and put the dates on for the year. 
• As soon as Victoria can get a date and place confirmed for the Silent Auction, it needs to get on the calendar, too.
• Andrea and Bina, Community Council (CC) Co-chairs, will be meeting with other parents who want to help plan the monthly CC meeting agendas on the fourth Wednesday evening of the month.  Location to be determined.  Call Andrea or Bina for details. 

Follow-up:

• Handbook:  Ivor will set up a web site where folks can post content for the parent handbook.  Katie and Scott will meet to identify likely people who can provide that content.  Katie and/or Ivor or others will compile and prepare the handbook.  Scott will double-check, but he assumed that he and the faculty chairs would proof this before printing.  Bina will send the summary and idea list to the Community Council email list to solicit input once the web page is ready.  Input from parents active in Community Council last year, such as Tom Oswalt, will be critical.
• Although Community Council had expressed willingness to help with the lunch program, Scott explained that this would not likely be needed, because it will probably be part of the curriculum.
• Ivor volunteered to research the Minnesota artist in residence program. 

Communications:

• Scott said that an appeal for receptionist volunteers could be put into the registration materials along with the volunteer survey.  He also reported that they decided that SIPS would be the primary vehicle for faculty communication with parents and email could be the primary communication vehicle for Community Council communication with parents.  We did not discuss this to any conclusion, but did announce the parent volunteers for the Communication Committee.  We expect that they will bring parent concerns to that group and report back.

Fund raising ideas:

• One idea is a spring neighborhood yard sale, charging money per table, etc.
• Another idea is a spring plant sale.  (Sheila Weidendorf is experienced at this and has offered to help.  However, there are time limitations to plans that may need to be done soon.)

Next CC meeting: 

Wednesday, September 7, 6:30 – 8:00 PM.  Socializing 8:00 – 8:30 PM. :>)