September 2012 Garibaldi PAC Meeting Minutes

Garibaldi Annex Parent Advisory Committee Meeting

September 12, 2012  6:30 pm

Attendance

20 People

 Agenda

            •           Added by Kate:  potential donation of bicycles to school

            •           Added by Anne-Marie: potential sustainability committee

            •           Agenda adopted with additions

  

PAC Welcome

• Jen Gunasekera, Past Chair, welcomed everyone and encouraged parents to get involved.  Any contribution to the PAC helps to grow the school.  There will be a parent volunteer drive in the next 2 weeks where parents can sign up for a variety of committees.  Parents are encouraged to consider signing up for the fundraising committee, which can decide how it will operate and what it will focus on: a large party with silent auction as in the past two years, and/or a combination of other fundraisers such as manure sale, coffee sales, popcorn and hot chocolate sales, etc.
•  Joel Ronne, interim Co-Chair, encouraged all parents to feel welcome to have input into the PAC through meetings and committees, and thanked teachers for attending.

Principal’s Message

•  Encouraging to see so many parents in attendance – studies have shown that when parents are involved in their child’s school, children are often more successful at school.
•  Ms. Baker receives many messages about events in the community that might be of interest; these will be forwarded to the PAC for possible distribution to parents.
•  Terry Fox Run is coming up – more information about how Garibaldi will participate to come.
• Parent-Teacher Goal-Setting Conferences will be Sept 25 and 26 – 2pm dismissal.
• Open door policy at Ms. Baker’s office – please let her know if there is something you need.  

Communication Committee

• Last year the Committee developed a blog to tell parents about events, post information about the community, and so on.
• Visit http://garibaldipac.blogspot.ca/  if you are not already receiving emailed blog updates, and sign up there.  If everyone signs up, it will help the Committee make sure everyone receives important notices.  The goal is to go paperless in terms of notices sent home about PAC events.  Parents can post items to the blog themselves (this is the most efficient option) or send them to the Committee to be vetted and posted.  Emails to the Committee can be sent to garibaldiannexpac@gmail.com 
• Posts to the blog can only be viewed by people who have signed up.  So far, posting ads (as opposed to community notices) has not been a problem, but material is moderated and if necessary, the Committee can develop a policy to prevent inappropriate postings.

Donation of Bikes and Other Items

•  Kate’s family has 5 or 6 bikes that they are willing to donate to the school. Possible ideas are to create a bike “co-op” – bikes that stay at the school for kids to ride home (but there may be liability issues around this) or to have a bike swap.
•  There have been discussions about organizing swaps of other items too, so bike swap could be rolled into a broader swap system.
• If there is enough interest, a subcommittee could be struck to decide what to do  

 
Executive Nominations

• Required positions are Chair, Vice-Chair, Treasurer, Secretary.
• Can also create additional positions and have members-at-large on the executive.
• Duties of executive members were read out from BCCPAC Constitution and Bylaws.
• Five executive members were elected by acclamation, as follows:

• Joel Ronne was nominated as Co-Chair by Yvette Gabrielle, seconded by Angela Wong-Moon. Nomination confirmed by acclamation.
• Jocelyn Gallagher nominated herself as Co-Chair, seconded by Lisa Osoba. Nomination confirmed by acclamation.
• Yvette Gabrielle was nominated as Vice-Chair by Lisa Osoba, seconded by Caroline Troffe.  Nomination confirmed by acclamation.
• Angela Wong-Moon was nominated as Treasurer by Taslim Hameer, seconded by Sarah Boon. Nomination confirmed by acclamation.
• Julie Beer nominated herself as Secretary, seconded by Brenda Kyle.  Nomination confirmed by acclamation.

• A call for members- at-large was made, but no nominations were made; it was decided that members-at-large would be elected at the next meeting.  There was consensus that it would make sense for chairs of Garden Committee, Fundraising Committee, and Communications Committee to become members of the Executive, once selected.

 Financial Update

• Angela Wong-Moon updated the PAC on the PAC’s financial situation. Overall, it is better than the same time last year.
• The PAC Account has a balance of $2776.62. Last year, money in this account was used to pay for the teachers’ resource fund, math supplies, musical instruments, picnic tables, popcorn maker, gym mats and Hot Lunch kitchen supplies.
• The Gaming Account has a balance of $918.48.  Last year, money from this account was used for Chinese NY Lion Dance, One Woman Circus Show, Year End Beach Day bus rental, Badminton Lessons.
• There is also $300.00 available to the school in a one-time DPAC fund.
• Finally, there is $957.50 in the PAC’s Vancouver School Board account.  Money from this account was used last year for the bike rack installation, purchase of musical instruments and tennis lessons.
• In terms of profitability of different PAC events, Angela estimates that hot lunches made about $50 per lunch; popcorn and drink sales made about $80 per sale; movie nights made about $160 per night; and coffee sale made about $80. The auction evening in December last year made $6000.00.
• Angela would like to see some stricter systems put in place this year for accounting – ie. for example, movie night has been run so that snacks are purchased in bulk with cash from the last event, then some snacks are used for one movie night, some for another, so it is difficult to tell how much money is actually made from each event.  Plus, a more systematic way to process and decide upon requests for PAC funds would be beneficial.  If anyone would like to help create forms or systems for putting into place a more accurate system of keeping track of expenditures, etc, please let Angela know.

Spending Requests

• Joel noted that the PAC strongly supports the teachers and wants them to feel that the PAC is approachable and efficient at providing needed financial support to teachers.
• Amounts to be allocated to teachers for the purpose of supplementary school supplies and other resource materials were discussed. 
• Anne-Marie moved, seconded by Caroline, that the PAC should give to each of the seven VESTA member teachers (both Annex and Home Learners) a teacher allocation of $200.  Motion passed unanimously.  It was noted that a second teacher allocation could be made later in the year if finances permit.    

 PAC Committees

• Volunteer signup will take place the week of September 25/26 – at least two or three mornings, plus during teacher conference times. Home Learners do not start classes until September 25^th so special attention will be paid to making sure they are given opportunities to get involved.
• Parents should feel free to suggest new committees to be created.  Last year’s committees included Recycling, Movie Night, Hot Lunch, Fundraising, Bike Rack, Garden, Program Support, Communications, Library, and Media Relations/Advocacy.   

Next Meeting

• October 10, 2012 at 6:30pm.  Yvette to arrange childcare for meeting

Minutes of June 2012 PAC Meeting

• Anne-Marie moved that the minutes of the June 2012 PAC meeting be adopted as circulated. Caroline seconded. Motion passed unanimously.   

Adjournment

•  Jocelyn moved that the meeting be adjourned. Motion passed unanimously.