MINUTES LILA WEST VALLEY PARENTS ASSOCIATION MEETING. Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Transcription

1 MINUTES LILA WEST VALLEY PARENTS ASSOCIATION MEETING Tuesday, November 9, 2010 A meeting of the Parents Association (PA) of the West Valley campus (WV) of the Lycée International de Los Angeles (LILA) was convened at 5:10 PM on Tuesday, November 9, 2010, by Christienne Palmieri (CP), PA president. In attendance from the PA were Marie-Christine Seitz (MCS), Vice President, Haleh Birjandi-Tsipena (HBT), Treasurer, Alisa Chevalier (AC), WV Gala chair, and general advisors Lisa LeConte, Cystal Hines and Taline Grigorian (TG). Elizabeth Chaponot, Head of School (EC), and Stephane Plancke (SP), campus director, were also present. TG acted as recording secretary for this meeting. A sign-in sheet was circulated for all attendees. 1. Approval of Minutes. The Minutes from the October 5, 2010 were approved as distributed to the parents by SP. 2. Financial Update from Haleh Tsipena. HBT summarized the PA s income and expenses as follows: a. Income: - Pizza Fridays: $1,500 - Halloween crepe sale: $200 - Uniform sale: $200 - Halloween costume sale: $80 b. Expenses: - Coffee for coffee socials: $260 It was noted that the PA has large coffee makers, but that the coffee needs to be made early for the morning socials and that the coffee makers with hot coffee in them are unwieldy and dangerous to carry. One parent suggested Peet s Coffee might donate coffee to us; she will look into it and report back to the PA.

2 Page 2 of 6 3. Updates from Marie Seitz: Non-Social Fundraisers. MCS reported on the PA s fundraising efforts as follows: a. Fresh & Easy Supermarket: It was noted that Fresh & Easy is a British (not a French) company. Our school s fundraising program with that company is 2-tierd: i. Receipt collection: The PA is collecting receipts from that store Fresh & Easy donates a portion of the proceeds from those sales to the school. 1 st and 2 nd Grades tied in bringing in receipts, and the teachers from those classes asked that the PA use the prize money for those classes to purchase an academically relevant present rather than to bring ice cream or sweets. As such, the PA purchased a notebook for each kid in those grades. It was noted that certain families opposed the substitution of notebooks for ice cream, as the latter was promised to the kids, but this was done at the request of the teachers from the relevant classes. ii. Shopping Night: During the shopping night that took place on October 20, volunteers helped bag groceries and collected receipts from that night s customers. Donated proceeds from the shopping night (which lasted 4 hours) will total $731. b. Shopping Night at Whole Foods? One parent looked into shopping night at Whole Foods and was told that they do two shopping nights per year. She will sign LILA up for this and report back to the PA. c. Ralphs /Vons/eScrip: Certain supermarkets, such as Ralphs and Vons (by signing up through escrip) will donate a portion of proceeds from sales to the school if families register their loyalty cards and scan their cards each time they shop at those markets. Attendees were given a flyer explaining how to sign up for this program. The PA will send an with easy instructions for all interested families to subscribe to these programs. CP is also looking at a similar program for Whole Foods. i. Example for Ralphs: CP gave the following illustration for the Ralph s program: Ralphs donates 1% of the proceeds for sales for the first $200 spent, and 2% of the proceeds for each additional $100 spent thereafter. As such, if 25 families spend $300 per month at

3 Page 3 of 6 Ralphs (assuming they are subscribed to this program), this would result in a profit of $1200 per year for LILA: ($200 at 1% = $2) + ($100 at 2% = $2) = $4 per month to LILA for one family $4 x 12 = $48 per year per family $48 x 25 families = $1200 per year d. Capri Sun pouches: Magguie Dorsainvil has kindly accepted to collect empty Capri Sun and Honest to Goodness (the organic version of Capri Sun) pouches when she sees them on campus. MCS then packages and sends those empty pouches to the company, which donates $100 to the school for every 500 pouches. One parent objected to the school s participation in this program on the basis that this is not culturally relevant and the product is not healthy. The PA clarified that LILA is not encouraging the purchase of Capri Sun products but only collects the pouches that are found on campus as a fundraising opportunity. e. AAA Food Service: Anahide Hovspian circulated for review a list of imported French foods that will be available for purchase from the company for which she works, AAA Food Service. AAA Food Services will give 5% of the profits from sales to LILA families to the LILA PA. The list will be circulated to parents, and orders will be due by December 1 st. Orders will be delivered by Christmas. SP made the point that as a policy, the school does not encourage businesses making sales on campus, unless they have a cultural or educational value and/or directly benefit the children in some way. As such, it was clarified that delivery of the ordered items will have to be made outside the campus (for example, in the parking lot) and checks will have to be made out directly to AAA Food Services, not to LILA. One parent suggested that given the nature of this offer as an opportunity for cultural exchange and a fundraiser for the school, it should be included in the school s newsletter and flyers should be distributed to the families in their respective folders. Another parent stated that she is acquainted with the owner of AAA Food Service and that he should be convinced to donate as much as 10% of the proceeds of the LILA families orders to the school (she stated that the higher the sales numbers, the higher the donation percentage should be).

4 Page 4 of 6 f. LILA Yard Sale? One parent had an idea to organize a LILA yard sale. Parents would donate items to the school, and the PA would sell them on a weekend and benefit from the profits of the sale. This event could take place in the spring. CP called for a volunteer to chair this project. One parent stated that a similar project for her son s basketball team was not very successful, whereas a bake sale outside of Ralphs did bring in a lot of money for the team. This item will stay in consideration. 4. Gala Update. AS reported on the work of the tri-campus Gala Committee as follows: a. Date and Place: The Gala will take place on Saturday May 7 at the historic Park Plaza Hotel, north of downtown LA, near the corner of 6 th and Alvarado. b. Gala Kick-off Cocktail Party: i. A Gala Kick-off Cocktail party took place on November 5 and was reported to be a success Gala tickets were presold at that event. The Gala Committee is planning additional enthusiasm building events leading up to the Gala. CP has volunteered her house for the next such event sometime in January (date to be announced at the next PA meeting). ii. One parents expressed concern that all families were not invited to the Kick-off Cocktail on November 5 and that it was an exclusive and secret event. EC explained that the guest list was geared toward families who (a) helped in the Gala in previous years, (b) expressed an interest in helping this year or (c) succumbed to pressure to be involved in the Gala in some way, either financially or otherwise. The idea behind this year s Gala is to fill tables from people outside of the immediate LILA family and to pre-sell as many tickets as possible so as to avoid the pressure of having to sell tickets close to the event. AS explained that last summer, experts in fundraising educated the Gala committee on how to promote a successful event and one point made was to invite families who could sponsor tables to a pre-gala kick-off event. The November 5 cocktail was part of that effort. EC further stated that the Kick-off

5 Page 5 of 6 Cocktail was by no means intended to be kept a secret, but that if the perception of secrecy created a buzz and resulted in the Gala becoming a much talked-about event on the various campuses, then this was a positive, albeit unintended, outcome. iii. One parent stated that the school needs to improve its communication about the Gala and other fundraising efforts, and that the LILA Gazette s Fundraising Edition recently sent to LILA families was very helpful. That parent believes that more people will be involved if they understand the nature of the event, and the school will be more successful in tapping into the wider community. 5. Thanksgiving Feast. Our campus s Thanksgiving feast will take place on November 23 at lunch. The PA will provide the turkeys, the whipped cream and the tablecloths for the event. s from room parents will be sent requesting other menu items and volunteers for that event. 6. Other Committees. a. Carnival: The Carnival date has been set for Saturday, March 12, 2011 from 12 to 5 PM. There will be some fun games targeted for younger and older children (including bouncies, slides, etc.). There will also be food, including healthier options. The kids will present a program for their families. The Carnival Committee has met and is looking into specifics with various vendors. The budget has not yet been set, but options for pricing are being discussed. The profit will mostly come from the sale of food. One project involving the kids will be to prepare decorations (including masks, etc.). The PA will ask the room parents to send a Save the Date to the families. b. Restaurant Night (Stevie s Creole Café): This event will take place on November 10 th, and a portion of the proceeds from that night s sales to attending LILA families will be donated to the school. One parent noted that there were not enough reminders sent to the parents for this event. c. Wine and Cheese Night: This event, called Du Pain, Du Vin, Au LILA, will take place on December 4, starting at 7 PM, on campus. Tickets are on sale

6 Page 6 of 6 now for $30 per person, which is the same price as last year. Flyers for the event were put in parents folders. The Committee for this event has met and decided to serve both French and California wines (which are a good value for the price). The food menu will include charcuteries, salads, cheeses and breads. LILA families are encouraged to invite family and friends from outside the LILA community. d. Ciné Club: SP stated that the 5 th graders are excited to work on this project. This will take place every other Monday (or Friday). The start date is to be announced. e. Movie Night: This event will be postponed until after the Holidays. f. Yearbook: The PA expressed its gratitude to Susan Masse for agreeing to chair this project. The PA is encouraging families to upload their photos from various school events at the following website: (login: LILAWestValley, password: bonjour1). These photos will help the yearbook project, and families can also download pictures at no cost. 7. Le Partie Book. Discussion of this item was postponed until the next meeting. 8. Healthy Pizza. One parent reported that Z Pizza offers a variety of healthy pizzas. HBT will need to review the prices to determine whether it would be worth switching from Papa John s. CP will revert. 9. Fresh Lunches. This company brings in catered lunches to the school. The company needs a minimum of 10 people to order lunch per day in order to service a campus. Orders are placed online. An was sent out about this, but the PA did not receive enough responses. 10. Community Service Project. Discussion of this item was postponed until the next meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 6:30 PM. The next meeting will take place on Wednesday, December 8 th at 9:15 AM.