Friends Meetign Minutes

Minutes as Presented:
Friends of NMS Annual General Meeting
January 13, 2009

In Attendance: Mr. Alan Atkins, Vicky Patterson, Mary Rowe, Mary Leo Dick

Meeting called to order by Mary Rowe as Chair at 7:06PM

Welcome by Mary and call for new business. Agendas were distributed and Vicky moved to accept modified agenda. Mary Leo seconded. Motion carried.

Approval of Minutes- Vicky distributed minutes of the general meeting from Sept. 30, 2008. Mary Leo moved to accept the minutes. Vicky seconded the motion. Minutes approved.

ELECTION RESULTS; Mary Rowe, Vicky Patterson and Mary Leo Dick have been returned to office by acclamation for a 1 Year term as Co Chairs. We look ahead to the next election with the hope that a few brave souls may step forward to assume guidance of the Friends of NMS and ensure that the many willing hands have the opportunity to remain useful.

ACTIVITIES from Sept. 30 to present; We would like to thank the volunteers who have given so generously of themselves. The following events were successful in creating a positive atmosphere for our children due to the efforts of our members.

Corn Boil-The second annual corn boil was held on Oct.2,'08. Over 1000 cobs of corn were picked by the grade 7 team of Sprague/Jenkins/Fournier. Volunteers along with grade 6 & 8 students husked and split the corn. By days end, over 790 students and their teachers were able to enjoy the cooked corn. Special thanks to Mr. DeCoste, Mrs. Price , Kim Hepditch and the Spirit committee for all their help in this endeavour .
English Book Fair- We sold $2,479 in books. Remaining French book fair profit combined with a $500 donation from RBC DS resulted in the English teachers selecting over $2,434 in books for their classrooms. Thanks to all the volunteers and special thanks to Janice McFarlane for loaning us a cash register for the event. $1900 profit from this book fair book will be used by administration again for curriculum resources.
Pumpkin Carving Contest- In October we held the schools first Pumpkin Carving Contest. Pumpkins were displayed in the theatre and students voted for their favourite pumpkins with pennies. The 10 winners each received a free ticket to the school dance and proceeds of $72.52 were donated to the schools Christmas Families Fund.
Decorating Office for Halloween/Christmas- A few of us decorated the office for Halloween and Christmas. The kids loved it and we had lots of fun too. Very Festive for everyone!
Show Choir Costume Adjustments- We were out on two occasions so far to measure and adjust costumes for show choir. Thank you to the members who can pop over on short notice.

Assisting with Immunization - A few Friends were on hand to direct traffic at the immunization clinic held in November. We escorted the students to and from the nurses stations and provided assistance as needed. We will be present again this Thursday to help with the second round of inoculations in the series of three.

Supervision October Dance- We had 11 parents volunteer at the Halloween Dance. There were so many that we ended up doing shifts vs. working the whole evening.

Teacher Munchie Table for parent teacher interviews- Nov 19th-20th . We set up after lunch. 18 Parents dropped off items during the day, Staff loved it.
Firefighter's Challenge- Held Nov 25, '08. We had 11 volunteers who helped with set up &/or running of the course. Thanks to Mike Smith, Alex Yaychuk, Lisa Cormier, Natalie Green, Michelle Skead, Corinne Gallagher and Sarah Jenkins for inviting "Friends" to be part of the planning committee . Also, thanks to Marie Lafford of Tim Hortons who donated the 4 dozen muffins and 1/2 urn of coffee. Rogers Cable filmed the activities. Vicky would follow up with Rogers to see if it were possible to run their coverage of the event on the T.V in the Main Hallway.
Bake Sale- Monday Dec 15 held bake sale at nutrition break and lunch. Raised almost $200 to be used to buy gifts for the schools 3 Christmas Families. This combined with the funds raised from Hat Day and the Pumpkin Carving contest made a nice sum for donation.

Period for proposed Ammendments to Constitution- 60 days notice were given for any parent who wishes to propose any changes to the Friends of NMS constitution or guidelines documents to be submitted. No formal amendments were submitted, only a one word “grammatical correction” was requested. Both the Constitution and Guidelines , which are posted on our blog in its current form, are Friends of NMS’ binding documents going forward until the 2010 Annual General Meeting.
Nominations for new Executive- In response to concerns raised in last spring’s elections, the elections were postponed until this winter. Nomination for the Executive forms were blogged Dec 1, were voice-mailed and hard copies were given to students to take home Dec-2-3. Nominations were to be sent to the school office before 3:30PM December 12. The three existing co chairs were elected again by acclamation. We will follow the same process again starting in December 2009 for 2010-2012 term.
Needs of the Month- We finished up the Breakfast program in Sept. We then did the Food Bank for October. Although we didn't officially have a "Need of the Month" in November or December, we focused on Christmas families for our Pumpkin Carving Event and Bake Sale.
PLANNED ACTIVITIES FOR SPRING- Since it is early in our new mandate and early in the New Year, we have yet to sit down with administration to thoroughly discuss future activities. The following are tentative plans that have not yet been finalized and are therefore subject to change. Once plans are more concrete, we will notify the membership.
Bake sale at dance- Next dance is scheduled for Feb 5. We are hoping to raise funds for the Anti Bullying program via a bake sale at this dance. More info on the Anti-Bullying program will be published at a later date on the blog. Perhaps parents of dance goers will send items for the bake sale as we will be looking to members for contributions for Teacher Appreciation Week.
Healthy Eating Intitiatives- We will try to get more notice to attract more people. It is a huge undertaking to feed the entire school so the more help the better. Our next healthy eating intitiative is tentatively scheduled for Feb. 2nd.

Teacher Appreciation Week- Currently we are discussing the possibility of providing a luncheon for the teachers and staff during Teacher Appreciation Week which runs Feb. 9th to 13th. We will need food contributions for that. Details to follow as plans firm up.
Spring Family Fun Day- Waiting on confirmation from the school on timing and choice between having a spring family fun day or winter carnival, what it would entail, staff participation etc.
Grade 8 Celebration- Awaiting direction from administration on our involvement. We were very involved last year and received positive feedback from students and parents. The grade 8 parents will be contacted directly by the school. Many hands are needed here as the activities last year were carried on throughout the day and into the evening. The Friends will be available to help as necessary.
Decorating for Sports Awards Ceremony- We've been approached by MMe LeClerc and Mr. Yaychuk re: decorating for this event. The ceremony will be held during a school day to ensure that the recipients are available to receive their awards.
LOOKING AHEAD TO NEXT YEAR- We are always looking for and welcome new ideas. Parents may feel free to speak to us or send in their comments.

NEW BUSINESS- None added

NEXT MEETING- To Be Announced

ADJOURNMENT- Mary Leo moved that the meeting adjourn. Vicky seconded the motion. Mary adjourned the meeting at 7:30PM .

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Minutes as Presented:
Friends of NMS MARCH 26, 2009
In attendance: Mary Leo Dick, Vicky Patterson, Mary Rowe
1. Fruit and Vegetable Initiative: Just to recap. This was held Feb.2 with 8 parents helping. We served Fruit Trifle and it went well. The kids loved it. The 800 kids and staff loved the blueberries/blackberries/strawberries/pineapple/melon etc.
2. Valentines Dance/ Bake Sale: We had a great food table with lots of maximal nutritional value and moderate nutritional value choices: carrots, grapes, grapefruit to name a few. We made $190.20 for the antibullying campaign. We also gave out 'vegging out' coupons for kids found eating healthy fruits/veggies.
3. Teacher Appreciation Week: We had 20 volunteers who contributed to Teacher Appreciation Week Feb.10, 2009. It was nice to have some of our new volunteers come out and contribute. The teachers and staff were very appreciative.
4: Feb. 13, 2009 Informed parents of need for coaches as asked by PSSC: A call out to parents was emailed and blogged Feb 13 re: need for coaches. This was done in response to a PSSC meeting where it was asked if Friends could get out the word of the need for coaches, to volunteers.
5. Talent Show: 2 of us helped with the final Talent Show Preparations back stage. We spent the days organizing the kids, working with timing, calming pre performance jitters. It was a lot of fun.
6. Pink Shirt Day: Feb 25. The office and hall were decorated in pink. In addition to the adults, kids were encouraged to wear pink. Along with the adults that came out to help, we had 10 students who participated. It was a lot of fun and a great way to promote Antibullying. The school was spotlighted on CBC News and Gleaner/ Northside news.
7. CIS Women's Volleyball: Feb 3 parents supervised 46 students who went to UNB to watch the game.
8. Winter Carnival: A group of parents served hot chocolate to children participating in outside activities Feb 27. We were fortunate to have the use of the home ec room. Special thanks to Janice MacFarlane and also the cafeteria for the use of their coffee urns. Idea to give tickets for hot chocolate to ensure equal beverage for kids.
9. Knitting: Lynn Thibodeau one of our volunteers has graciously offered to teach a group of kids at lunch hour on Thursdays. It will go onto the announcements and hopefully start up next Thursday. Mary have offered to help Lynn with supervision.
10. Volunteer Week: April 19-25. Alan thought it was a good idea to acknowledge the school's volunteers. ?any suggestions.
~ 11:30-1pm or 7:00- 8:00pm Finger foods would be served. We would need R.S.V.P.s in advance to plan amounts.
11. Spring Fling: This would be a fun event to offer the school. It was last done in 2003. Is this something we could tackle? It required 81 parent volunteers at night, 25 during the day. !78 cakes were made, 33 people approached businesses. 4 at the dunk tank and 30 business donations were made. 14 teachers helped.
This is a huge event that would require a lot of planning. With the economy in the state it is, not sure if we could get the donations or help needed to pull this off. Could we take a secondary role as opposed to point? Alternate idea would be to do a year end bash/dance for the kids. Something different and more scaled down than the 8's celebration. Will mention it to Alan for his feedback.
12. Grade 8 Celebration: Alan had paperwork on his desk. Will check with him when it will be sent out.
13. Sports Awards: Will Await word as to our role.
Meeting Adjourned.