October 2022 Meeting
FOM 2022-2023 Board Meeting
October 12, 2022
6:30pm - 8pm
Attendance:
Julie Schulhof
Chris Ring
Roona Shah
Erin Hickey
Jen Jones
Rhyan Sperling
Nell Kolpin
Kaye Muench
Jacki Van Hout
Molly Sundby
Rowena Dumes
Danielle Drayton
Sarah Roche
Not in Attendance:
Frida Brooks (maternity leave)
Al Haber
Introduction – Julie Schulhof
Thank you to Nell and Rowena for the hard work towards the Carnival. Thank you Nell for a great turn out for the parents night out and having a great turn out of 75 plus parents.
Secretary -- Chris Ring
-Discuss changing time for November meeting
-Vote on September minutes, passed.
-Update to Agenda Process
-Open items follow up: Extra school supplies can be donated to Cradle to Crayons. Trucker hats selling for $20. Roona sent an intro email with checklist/instructions to room parents.
-For minutes, moving forward Chris will send notes to Julie day after meeting to review, then send to board to review respective parts/items with plenty of time. Vote to approve will still happen in next mtg..
- New Agenda process will include Julie putting a tentative Agenda together which Chris will look over, add any leftover open items for next meeting and then send out to the board. At that point, If anyone wants to add anything additionally, will email that info to Chris. This will streamline the process and make it more efficient.
Budget – Al Haber
Not able to attend. Al will email budget updates
Communications – Roona Shah
Nell liked the calendar meeting, so we are making that a regular meeting. Need to get organized for next semester, calendar meeting before winter break, Julie will pin down dates for a calendar meeting for second half of school year meeting. Meeting date TBD Open Item: Julie to set up meeting for Nov/Dec.
Room parents question from Julie, Roona says the RP have been fantastic and listen to her and send emails within 24 hours and no complaints at all. Most have done their class parties. A couple classes did their parties together. There are still a few rooms that have not had parties. Open Item: Roona to follow up with RP’s to confirm all have/are hosting class party.
Bryan Comer: Mayer alum running for alderman. Sheffield neighbors will have a Halloween double feature movie night October 28th. This event is the return of others to come in 2023. He and Scott Kaeser will update board on Trebes park changes in future, this month or early next month. Dates will be on Sheffield Neighbors website. Would love to break ground in the spring. Trebes park will be closed likely for a year, due to the construction. But dates are not determined as of yet.
Chair Updates
Sponsorship – Erin Hickey
-Bulldog bites: Menchies event total spend was $433.31, $86.67 made for FOM. Landed on the Open House date so turn out not as great as anticipated.
-Toolbox emailed $3536.11, check coming our way, Mabel’s Labels $44.82, Casatis has committed to $500 donation level and will do a dine event, date tbd
-Chicago Costume event running this week October 1-14 giving 10% back of sales
-Vanille talking about doing a Pie bakery event and has committed to $500 donation.
-Building blocks Merchants for Mayer will be Nov 14-18, in discussions with Lou Malnatis for pizza night and Velocity for Open House event for parents Open Item: Erin to finalize upcoming dates for Velocity, Vanille and Lou Malnatis
School Engagement – Rhyan Sperling
-Met with the LSC grounds committee to discuss goals for the FOM committee; will support LSC committee and ensure goals and plans are similar.
-Sound absorbers (to eradicate noise in lunchroom) being explored - need to use a CPS vendor. Open Item: Rhyan to look into companies, follow up with Admin on recommended vendor; need to determine costs and where funding will be from
-Comment from Danielle:
Grounds improvement ideas with Ms Anastasia, LSC has already talked to her as well in beginning stages, grounds need some help after construction.
Social – Nell Kolpin
-Carnival recap, lots of families were present, increased food and treats for this year, lots of games, older students were the volunteers and took their jobs seriously.
-Parents night out at Barcocina was a great turn out, 75-100 in attendance. The minimum $1500 spend was met and would recommend more events there.
-Dads night, Will be held at Homeslice. Pizza and drinks for two hours for $45 plus will sell the squares, to make additional funds
-Moms night out is November 9th, will take place at Birch Road, and include trivia. Looking for food and drink donations. Plan to purchase food if necessary since space is free.
-Skating rink event, coming. Sold out last year so trying to increase capacity.
-Trying to do a range of free and ticketed events.
Spirit Wear – Kaye Muench
-Carnival Sales $2200 in spirit wear, sold out of a lot of things. Using Chicago Signs for SW. Getting a feel for the sizes that need to be restocked. Ideas for more SW items to sell.
Julie: holiday sale?
Kaye is Open to that..
Jacki: presale for SW
Rowena: bulldog ornament
Roona: water bottle
Open Items: Kaye to determine what items to re-order, new items to order, and decide next time to sell SW
Philanthropy – Jacki Van Hout
-Cradles to Crayons sold out, 8-10 families on a waitlist, already planning another event for november paired with drive Open Item: Jacki to confirm date for next Cradles to Crayons Event
-Grounds clean up after Halloween, possibly with ambassadors of change, waiting to hear if we should tie it together. Open Item: Jacki to confirm date and see if AOC will assist.
-December, Esther’s Friends, baskets or bags for kiddos, drive for materials for the bags. Danielle: If possible tie in Eshter’s Friends with the blanket project, may be able to do it at same time and in the gym. Open Item: Jacki to follow up to confirm date/location .
-Student Leadership Committee will be having a donation drive for families for immigrants that have been brought over from Texas. Date TBD.
Rowena Dumes – Benefit Chair
-Update on Benefit: not for another 5-6 months but have started looking at venues and people are starting to book stuff up already. 2018 moonlight studios, trying to get restaurants to donate food and loved the taste of mayer, families can host and be listed on the program. Looking at second to last weekend in March or April 21st or 28th. Please send Rowena your ideas for possible locations, etc. Open Item: Select date and Venue
Julie:
-Pledge drive update, Timeframe is starting Early november.Last year $338,000 was donated during pledge drive. Heads up dates will be out soon: Likely to start early Nov..
-Teacher reps informal outreach, in past we had 2 reps, they came to every monthly meeting, some want to meet during lunch, brainstorm with them. Thus far, have Ms Amanda, Ms Tracy, Ms Weisse, Ms Lass, Ms Monica, Ms Abraham, Ms Maher
-Want to have small meetings where people can come if they want, talk about what items teachers really want, their needs, etc. Will let everyone know when the meetings are, and will be announced. Bounce ideas off them to help strengthen teacher community/relationships.
Chelsea from LSC: concerns that meeting with them separately, could this start miscommunication? Something to think about. Realize the intentions are above and beyond and it's a wonderful idea but want to make sure that other teachers don’t feel left out.
Roona: Wondering, could the rep teachers take one of the 8 FOM meetings so there is less hearsay
Jen Jones: The teachers that have agreed to meet are enthusiastic about it, very receptive, and will rotate so it’s not the same person every time. Want to make it light and casual.
Sarah/Julie: Need to talk more about pre-planning and scheduling options. That way all teachers will be on same page about topics and what is discussed. Open Item: Further discuss/develop outline for meetings and make sure all teachers can give input to the teacher reps
Jacki: The teachers that want to - how can we support you, include in bulldog blast, bc teachers want to be heard and validated, their voices heard, but cant always participate.
Julie: Principal appreciation month is October, FOM will be doing some nice things
Julie: Committees are for those that want to get involved without having to join the board, so to create more opportunities, over the past few weeks have been working together to create more committees. Timeline for committees, next steps will come once we have agreements on volunteering. The form will indicate what they are interested in. Will reach out to those who indicated interested in volunteering and also to all community via Room parents. Open Item: Finalize volunteer committee descriptions and send out form within week.
Danielle: Concerned that the LSC is doing the same type of committees and task forces and thinks we should define some lines so it doesn’t get blurry who is working on the particular committee, Danielle foresees some overlap. Lets not see it as two separate things but as one larger thing. That way the event is elevated and both committees work together so there is no overlap. FOM clarified that all committees are either different or will support LSC committees if similar.
Meeting adjourned.
Next FOM Meeting: November 2nd, 7pm