Meeting Minutes - January 20, 2011

7:00 pm Welcome and Introductions (Kori) Attending: Leslee, Elise, Dan, Trisha, Catherine, Suzanne, Sue H., Ben, Megan

7:10 February, meeting and winter Pot Luck (Kori)
Kori out of commission starting 1st of February – Elise will chair February meeting; Kori tentatively will host Pot Luck in late March. ECFE Budget meetings at Mona Moede coming Tuesday and Wednesday – Kori and Trisha plan on going, Leslee possible backup for Kori. Question from Helen via Sue: What concerns/issues do we (parents) have about ECFE that would have an impact on the budget? More MELD classes, more year-long classes, more daytime dad classes, offered at more locations.

7:15 Treasurer's Report (Trisha) ~1900 in the kitty. MELD teachers will be paid by end of this week. Still searching for check from Best Buy ($1000) – need help getting response from ECFE admin staff.

7:20 LAC update (Trisha) – North will be doing Disco Ball 2/5 from 4-6pm at Mona Moede; also working on service project. East is working on a Pajama party, details TBD. Voices for Advocacy day will be March 17th this year. More details to come. Rep from Help Me Grow wants to spread the word to local parents. Offered booth at Vehicle Day. Discussion of Flyer to help local families understand the Kindergarten process. Suggestion to have reps go to more K classes, or possibly have an event in the fall around Kindergarten process.

7:25 Spring events
• Cinco de Mayo potluck – Needs chair – easy even to coordinate; Tony does most of the work and we just arrange art/craft project, get volunteers there,

• Vehicle Day – Needs chair – mostly involves calling vehicle owners. Still need to set date. Possibly the 21st of May. Kori will check with Sabbathani to see if this date is available.

• Advocacy Committee – Needs chair – we need this committee per our bylaws so someone needs to step up!

7:40 February Teacher Appreciation Baskets - We will assemble these at next month’s meeting so bring treats to fill three baskets!

7:45 Safety at Wilder – some concerns expressed after November’s meeting about safety at Wilder. Wilder ECFE staff have been very responsive in addressing safety concerns around classes, but there is concern that people may not feel safe attending PAC meetings because of where they are located. Need to continue the conversation and be aware of people’s concerns – possible to attend meetings virtually, looking into getting better lighting for meeting entrance, etc.

7:55 T-shirts (Dan) – forms are out for ordering! Woohoo! Last day for ordering is the 4th of February. Need site liaisons to ask parents to write their day/class on the form. (Sue will communicate this to the liaisons.) First run is for South classes only; will try to include other Mpls PACs for Spring trimester.

8:00 Google Docs (Elise) – need way to centrally locate all docs associated with PAC events and committees, something that is free, easy to use, and easy to maintain as personnel change. After looking at various options, Elise recommends that we adopt Dropbox as a document storage/sharing system. PAC Secretary would have responsibility for tracking and supervising document storage; individual committee and event chairs would have shared access to specific folders and documentation. All changes would be synced and updated across computers. Elise also introduced a form that would be filled out/updated by each event chair, which would give an overview of each event. Vote was taken and both dropbox system and form were adopted unanimously.

NEXT MEETING: February 17th. Bring treats for the teacher baskets!!