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Parent Representative Meeting Minutes 2009-2010
September 23, 2009
November 18, 2009
February 24, 2010
March 10, 2010
April 14, 2010

Minutes of Parent Representatives’ Meeting
Marymount School
Wednesday, September 23, 2009, 8:30 am

Guest: Tanya Williams, President of Marymount Parent Association

Carmen Knoepffle

, JSA President, welcomes attending parents. Discusses duties of parent reps, including attending meetings (generally Wed. mornings; students meet on following Thursdays). Carmen urges parent reps to please get to know student reps for their school. JSA will report attendance. JSA likes every school to take a leadership role in one event per year.

Helena Park, Treasurer, financial update: Annual dues are $350 per school. Current bank balance is $13,466. Schools need to send in dues. Dues have been received from Brearley, Dalton, Marymount and Nightingale. Usually the PA chair is contacted. Reps ask who receives JSA literature, and discussion commences about broadening JSA mailing list to PA chairs, developing contacts at schools, and encouraging students to join with friends to increase participation. 1-2 students to take lead and represent their school. Number of schools participating is 18 (not all active).

Monique Pettit, Corresponding Secretary: All communication should be directed to Monique for distribution or to be posted on the JSA website. Reps are asked and agree to update information asap on PA heads, community service contacts and faculty at schools and also to notify JSA of any date conflicts (i.e. PSATs, etc., ). Information should be emailed to corresponding secretary. The service coordinator at school could provide calendar to JSA. Also, students are able to post and access non-JSA activities through a link on the website. Monique will email the updated roster to all parents.

Martha Leitner, Community Service Coordinator, Barbara Wallner from Dwight and Wendy Van Amson and Karen Frank from Nightingale: Service Saturday, Sat, Oct 24th, 1-5 pm, Nightingale. Open to all student reps to volunteer, for 4 hours of community service credit. Students need to start collecting toiletries!!! Karen Frank: Estee Lauder has committed to donate 350 women’s gift bags for this event. Volunteer Schools: Dwight, Nightingale, Spence.
Wendy and Barbara worked on it last year and spoke as well Karen Frank. It's an assembly-line endeavor: kids collect toiletries and bag them for recipients who are pre-screened (hospitals, Ronald McDonald House, etc.). Very social event for the volunteers.
Flyers will be edited to include an Upper School JSA MISSION STATEMENT to educate parents, students, faculty in community. Two flyers, instead of one could be mailed.

Discussion on how events are decided for the year and possibility of giving students community service credit for attending meetings. Rep asked how events are determined for students and answered that JSA asks students what they are interested in benefiting. Meeting discussed giving students a script for upcoming JSA events, in order to help them clarify and also to be mindful that we differentiate Upper School JSA from MS. Meeting discussed giving students a more comprehensive involvement which gives comm. svc. credit (students are recognized for attending 3 meetings) because although the comm. svc. piece is the compelling issue, students are incredibly busy and want to be acknowledged for their participation. Instead of just showing up to volunteer, they are the organizers, and recognition of this will motivate them to remain engaged. Suggestions included inviting comm. svc faculty members to a meeting in order to engage them more.

Michele Jeffery (Chapin) suggested that the minutes of the meetings go to community service faculty contacts and also making a personal pitch at PA meetings. Jill Abrams (Dwight) and Kathy Soll (Columbia Prep) suggest reps recruit PA heads and faculty community service contacts at member schools and ask schools what they need from JSA for students to participate. Both reps volunteer to help launch this effort.

Michelle Swarzman (Chapin) suggested Super Saturday partner w/ "Teen Chrons" - and offered to act as liaison between the groups. CCFA Director, Michele Prypyszny 212-679-1570.

Colleen Pike Blair: Independent Voices and Independent Visions: Already have a date for Voices: Barnes & Noble, Lincoln Center, Friday April 23, 2010 Both the Poetry Anthology and Photo Exhibit are well established JSA traditions, and faculty are actively included which creates a continuity w/in school (although only Art and English Depts are notified. Other depts can be included as well -- if JSA has contacts). Wendy suggested JSA mass market via eblast to everyone on list, every other month, to update. Parent reps can work on "trickle-down" basis. Also mentioned Jack and Jill event on 10/17 which includes wkshops, educational topics, etc. (RSVP to Barbara North jjbnorth@aol.com)

PubliColor - Reps discuss PubliColor: should it be taken off list and make it a privilege?

Community Service Outreach -- Parents reps to research organizations to provide space for an event just in case students need one.
Next Meeting: The Spence School. Joint Parent -Student Rep Meeting. Thursday, October 22 at 4:15pm

Minutes of Parent Representatives’ Meeting
Nightingale-Bamford School
Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 8:30 am

Guest: Susan Tilson, President of Nightingale Parent Association.

Carmen Knoepffler, President: Opens meeting and welcomes those in attendance.

Barbara Murphy, Service Saturday: Service Saturday, October 24, 1-5 pm, Nightingale-Bamford. Forty-two students from 9 schools attended. Students packaged 275 bags of toiletries for charities such as Midnight Run, Trinity Place Shelter, City at Peace, the Bowery Women's Mission, and B'nai Jeshurun and St. Paul & St. Andrews Shelter; made 60 birthday cards and decorated 50 Thanksgiving shopping bags for clients of God’s Love We Deliver; and made 134 craft kits and 9 surgi dolls for Project Sunshine. Suggestions for improvement for next year included getting a group of students to commit to staying until the end to help with clean-up and delivery of toiletry donations, and getting students involved earlier in planning the event so they have a sense of ownership. Feedback from students who participated in the event would also be useful. Speakers from charities such as God’s Love We Deliver should address the students at their meeting before Service Saturday to generate enthusiasm; students should also be directed to view the GLWD video on YouTube. Students who participated will be sent email copies of the thank-you notes from charities that benefitted. Thank you notes received were circulated.

Suzanne Fawbush, JSA Parent Letter: The JSA Parent Letter to publicize Upper School JSA among its member schools and clarify its mission and activities was discussed. The letter will be sent to JSA parent reps to send to their school’s PA Head and community service director and to be included in a school newsletter or email blast. The issue of changing the name to distinguish Upper School JSA from its middle school counterpart was discussed, and it was decided to put the question to the student reps at their meeting November 19.

Monique Pettit, on behalf of Helena Park, Treasurer: The current balance, as of November 16, is $15,014. This does not include Service Saturday expenses. Reps who incurred out-of-pocket expenses are encouraged to send their receipts to Helena for reimbursement as we do not want to set a precedent of having volunteers shoulder the financial burden for helping out. Parent reps from schools that have still not paid their 2009-2010 will receive a new invoice from Monique and should follow-up with their PA.

Colleen Pike Blair: Independent Voices: Barnes & Noble, Lincoln Center, Friday April 23, 6:30pm. Colleen reported that the letter to Voices faculty contacts has been sent out, and several schools have responded. A copy of the letter and list of faculty contacts will be sent to parent reps. Submission deadline is February 5. The poetry anthology this year will be online, like last year, but a modest number of hard copies will be printed as well, probably through a self-publishing program. Volunteers for proofreading were solicited, and Karen Gantz Zahler volunteered to help. Also needed is a student emcee and a student to create an improved version of the online anthology.

Carmen Knoepffler, Winter Carnival: Winter Carnival, in lieu of the Holiday Carnival, will be held January 9, 1-5 pm at Christ Church, 520 Park Ave. at 60^th St. and co-chaired by Chapin, Sacred Heart, and Hewitt. Student volunteers are needed to organize, set up and staff booths. Carmen will email the notes and suggestions from last year to the Chapin co-chairs of the event.

Carmen Knoepffler, Student-Run Event: A student-planned event will take place in the Browning gym on February 20. Student reps at the Nov 19 meeting will set up committees to plan and help out. A group of three student volunteers including Ben from Calhoun, Katie from Nightingale, and Elizabeth from Hewitt will help plan and supervise.
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Helena Park, Treasurer: Balance is $15,428.53; dues from 15 schools have been received. Part of this amount will be used for expenses incurred with Voices. There was a discussion re: not carrying such a large balance forward. It was noted that a portion of the current balance is from a grant received from MasterCard to be used in connection with Voices. One suggestion was to insert a footnote in the financial statements specifying that a portion of the balance is restricted for such purpose.

Independent Visions – Diane Gallagher and Marzia Stocco: Visions will be held on Saturday, May 22, from 5 - 7 at Tamarind Art Gallery, 142 East 39^th Street (www.tamarindart.com). There will be a faculty preview from 4:30 – 5. Four to five volunteers are needed to help at the gallery on the 22^nd. Marzia will check with the gallery to see if JSA needs to hire a professional hanger for the event. Diane will check to see if a professional photographer can give a presentation. The name/logo of the gallery should be visible on the flyers. Photos can be B/W or color and are due two weeks before showing. We would like to create a presentation of all students’ work at the event in slide show or other form. JSA is responsible for creating this. There was discussion of soliciting JSA students to create and possibly do a PowerPoint presentation. Suggestion was made that the faculty advisor at each school could send images of photos and student photographers to person assembling the presentation. Also, a list of faculty advisors at each school should be circulated so that students at schools without photography classes can participate.

Independent Voices – Colleen Pike Blair: Voices will be held on Friday, April 23^rd, 6:30 at Barnes & Noble, Lincoln Center. There will be a faculty preview from 6 – 6:30. Most submissions are in except for Birch, Calhoun, Trinity and Riverdale. Invitations will be sent in late February. Several readers are signed up for the event and an MC has been obtained. There will be an open mike at the end for kids to read.

Mural Project – Kathy Soll: On February 20^th, 1-5 pm, 84 students from 15 different schools, including 2 non-JSA schools, participated in the JSA Mural Painting project at Browning in conjunction with City Year NY. City Year NY is a non-profit organization which unites young people from diverse backgrounds for a full-time volunteer service year to serve in needy public schools throughout New York City. The JSA students were mixed and assigned to different groups where they painted five inspirational murals. The murals will be donated to under-resourced public schools in Brooklyn and Queens. Several volunteers from City Year gave presentations on why they serve. Photos of the murals will be available on the JSA website.

Dedication at Independent Voices: A discussion was held about whether to dedicate this year’s Independent Voices to the memory of Vivienne Fisher. Donna Ullman, Collegiate rep, will discuss the matter with Tony Fisher, Vivienne’s husband.
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Minutes of JSA Parent Representatives’ Meeting
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
the Dwight School

Donna Ullman, Collegiate: Discussed student meeting: several new activities mentioned

Colleen Pike Blair, Calhoun, “Independent Voices” 2010: Trinity and Calhoun still to submit poems. An MC was proposed by a Calhoun teacher. It was agreed to put MC name on program and pay $100 for his time. Discussion of this choice as Student is 10^th grader.

Diane Gallagher and Marzia Stocco, “Independent Visions: Marzia discussed doing a retrospective slide show during Visions Show. Two promotional ideas for JSA were discussed: PowerPoint presentations were considered, a 2009-10 annual retrospective of JSA activities to show projects undertaken by student reps of JSA; and a historic perspective on JSA work over the years to illustrate the JSA mission. It was suggested that we add a brief word of support for JSA from the member schools.

Legal issues were discussed and we agreed to look into ramifications of students on video. Some parents agreed to meet and develop the idea further. A separate meeting of a committee will be called for further planning: Marzia, Kathy, Martha, Monique, Carmen, and Diane. Tony will help with implementation.

Parent Reps should send the invitation to Voices to their school faculty. It was included in a March 1 email from Monique, Subject: JSA Event Invitation: Voices.

JSA is seeking new board members for Recording Secretary (takes minutes, emails invitations), Corresponding Secretary, and Student Coordinator.

Minutes of Parent Representatives’ Meeting
The Brearley School
Wednesday, April 14, 2010, 8:30 am

Sheryl Flug, President of the Brearley Parents Association welcomed everyone to Brearley. She said that the student representatives are role models for volunteering and reflect our schools’ values.

Carmen Knoepffler for Helena Park, Treasurer’s Report: The current balance is $15,594.

Barbara Wallner, Dwight, Report from March 11 Student Meeting. Year was a great success. We want more boys turning out. Next year, we need more ideas for Battle of the Bands. We need a stage for 250 people.

Colleen Pike Blair, Independent Voices: Barnes and Noble, Lincoln Center and 67^th Street, Friday April 23, 6:30 p.m. Reminders should be posted and sent to schools. Want a big turnout. If a student would like to read his or her poetry and is not on the list, they are most welcome to come.

Communication:Each representative should be in touch with their faculty representative and promote JSA events. For example, at Brearley, information is posted on the website, flyers are posted on the bulletin board, the parent reps announce the JSA events at the parent association meetings, and student reps Ariel and Megan announce the events at the student assemblies.

Diane Gallagher, Independent Visions: The Tamarind Art Gallery, 142 East 39^th Street, www.tamarindart.com, Saturday May 22^nd 5-7pm. Please encourage students and teacher representatives to urge students to attend and showcase the students’ photography at this last JSA event. The faculty preview will be held at 4:30pm so please encourage faculty to attend.

Planning for next year: There are three board positions available. Recording Secretary, Corresponding Secretary and Student Committee Chair (Kathleen Coffey and Barbara Murphy volunteered to co-chair). Student ideas for next year include Voices, Visions, Service Saturday, bowling, Publicolor painting, Midnight Run, and helping the homeless in Central Park

Certificates: It was discussed that students should be honored for their important contribution to JSA either by certificates which adults think should be the paper version although students often like the green version by email. Kathleen Coffey volunteered to print certificates for Visions.

Attendance at meetings: adults and students are encouraged to email recording secretary if they have an excuse for not attending meetings. At least one representative

from each school should attend. Students will receive the certificates for community service if they attend at least 3 meetings and 2 or 3 community events.