September 2014 MPC MEETING NOTEs



Mather Parent Council Minute Notes
Thursday, September 18, 2014

Sherman: Stand if you... 

          What do we have in common? What Do we share?

Sierra (co-chair MPC): Welcome

• 375th birthday year: everyone needs to pull together for the October celebration,
  

• Sign Petition to create a square in Marie Connolly’s name at corner of Parish/Winter Streets (part of 375 celebration)
  
• Transition year: need to elect new parent committee heads, MPC positions  
  
• Ways to connect with the MPC: emails, fill out your parent info form,connect with your child’s teacher, closed facebook page(?), MPC blog on Mather website, other ways?
  
• Choose themes you want to know more about (top 5) for future meeting topics
  
• Moto: “Together for our children”
  
• Zahra: Family liaison, free developmental screening for 3 and 4 yr-olds, other family resources through BPS.
  

Marie: Mather 375: What is it?

• Poster by Corey and Peter
  
• Sun. Oct 19th Opening convocation, in 1st Parish: Pastor, dignitaries, children’s performance, everyone welcome, 5pm community dinner, birthday entertainers, kids activities w/ (City sprouts, etc.), ½ price dinner for all Mather families and K. Stranberg has complimentary tix
  
• Mon. Oct. 20th: Statehouse ceremony to declare Mather Day
  
• Weds: Oct. 22: commemoration in auditorium, children performing, Mayor Walsh and VIPs, open to public but ticketed. Begins at 9. Cake and tea reception in tent on Meeting House Hill following the ceremony
  
• Thursday: Mather birthday field day (teachers will run this)
  
• Friday Oct. 24: Benefit fundraiser at Phillips House
  

How do people get involved?  

• Attend!
  
• Tickets online
  
• Facebook, Twitter
  
• Donate: items from your business, any items for raffles/auction
  
• Solicit donations from other businesses, community, etc.
  
• Volunteer at any of the birthday week events: set up, serving food, etc.
  
• Need help figuring out parking, get quotes for printing, find a DJ for Phillips House event, share listings w/ community calendars, data entry
  
• Need to translate poster into Vietnamese, Spanish, Creole
  

Fundraising

• Looked outside of Dorchester (so as to not exhaust local funding), 5 out of 100 donated.
  
• Fundraising letter to solicit donations from local business: looking for gift cards (375 gift cards?), bigger items for auction
  
• Sign up on the poster to solicit specific businesses (to avoiding repetition)
  
• Need to translate solicitation letter into Vietnamese, Spanish, Creole
  
• Translation issues: Vietnamese parents in attendance are not able to understand. Should be a topic for a future MPC meeting on communication
  

Alicia (Site Council Co-chair)

• We need more parent representation on the Site Council
  
• Meetings every 2nd Thursday/month, 5:30, daycare and pizza
  
• Need for diversity of membership
  
• Site council advocates for school budget (specialists, etc.), hiring decisions, school resources
  
• Next site council meeting will focus on beginning of school transition issues
  

Katie Lee (Chair of Environmental Committee)

• Wellness day on Saturday at Mather, 10-2
  

Break up into Committees (find out more about the Main MPC groups)

• Executive
  
• Appreciation/Support
  
• Environmental/Wellness
  
• Social/Event
  
• Programming
  
• Outreach/Communications
  
• Fundraising
  
• Classroom Volunteers
  

Chat, ask questions and mingle.