Minutes of the Hamilton-Wentworth Executive
Thursday April 18, 2002

Members: Rosalind Minaji, Julie Senecal Tremblay, Marie Patenaude, Frank Torelli
Guest: Jane Weary
Regrets: Andrew Vowles, Tracey Cseresnyes, Deborah Doody, Kerry Dolan, Anne Gaeton, Lori Prevec, Dean Alex, Kim MacDonald

The meeting was called to order by the Chair at 7:15 p.m.

1. ADOPTION OF THE MINUTES: The minutes were approved by Julie Senecal Tremblay.

2. UPDATES:
Volunteer hours: The total volunteer hours logged since December was 45.

Treasurer's Report: Balance on hand $233.75
Expenditures $35.00 (Binders)
Deposits $526.00 (2002 Membership Rebate)
Balance as of April 18st $724.75
Marie will check to see if any balance remains in the old CPF Hamilton account.

Membership report: All members have been telephoned and their information confirmed and updated. Names of spouses and e-mail addresses were compiled.

Chapter Outreach: Five Kindergarten Information Nights were attended by members of the CPF Executive. A successful Parent Information Night was held on March 19 to inform parents about EQAO results and provide tips for helping FI students at home. The session was attended by approximately 50 parents. The CPF display was set up at the Norwood Park French Café attended by approximately 200 people. Copies of the "Keys to French" have been mailed to all members, along with a letter with information about the book sale, web site and attaching handouts from the Parent Information Night.

3. SPECIAL EVENTS
Book Sale: The book sale has been confirmed for Tuesday May 14 at Earl Kitchener School from 2 to 8 p.m. The room is still to be confirmed by Dean Alex.

Preparation: Julie and Marie will be driving into Toronto to tour the Champlain book store and select items for our sale. It was suggested that they choose a broad range of products including: dictionaries, bescherelles, greeting cards, novels, videos, posters, non-fiction resource materials, music cassettes, magazines and games. The store will deliver the product to Earl Kitchener on Monday May 13, along with bags and receipts. Dean is to find out where the materials could be safely stored overnight. Marie will find out whether credit cards can be accommodated at the sale or if it will be cash only.

Promotion: The book sale has already been posted on the web site and flyers were handed out at the Parent Information Night. Roz will prepare a set of posters and send them to all FI schools for posting (public and separate schools). Julie will contact francophone schools in Hamilton Wentworth with a French version of the poster. Marie will approach the francophone church on Cumberland to see if they will announce the sale in their bulletin. Frank will contact Cable 14 and the Spectator to place community broadcasts about the sale. Roz will send an electronic copy of poster to Claudette and ask her to distribute it to Core French teachers. Roz will contact the Hamilton Public Library to see if they would be interested in acquiring French material at the sale. Roz will send e-mail reminders to CPF members the weekend before the sale. All members should speak to their school principals about promoting the book sale in their school newsletters and about sending a staff member to the sale to acquire books for the school library.

Set-Up: Volunteers should arrive at 9:00 a.m. to begin set up. Sale starts at 2 p.m. and will run until 8:00 p.m. with one hour for clean up. We are required to return all unsold materials to Toronto and Marie has volunteered to do this. Roz will send around a table of four hour shifts for volunteers to sign. We will need at least four people at the sale at all times. Marie and Roz will book off work for the day. Items to bring: calculators, camera, bristol board, tape & markers for signs, CPF display. Julie has volunteered to roam the crowd with a CPF membership form and try to sign them up.

Picnic: Roz suggested it would be nice to gather our members together for a simple social event like a picnic. Marie will check with the francophone community centre to see if we would be welcome at their Fete de la St. Jean picnic the weekend of June 22.

4. COMMUNICATIONS:
Newsletter: Since the 2002 membership rebate is in, we have the funds to produce a second newsletter. It should be distributed the week of May 6th so that the book sale could be promoted all FI parents. Roz will contact Kevin to see if he has time to do this next week. Possible content: book sale, FI review update, tips from parent info night, CPF summer reading kit, French summer camps, & recent FI school events (Julie to provide paragraph on ski trip, Marie on restaurant trip, Roz on French café, Jill on Mariposa concert)

Web site: Roz is updating the information regularly.

Public service announcements: Radio stations Oldies 1150, K-lite FM, and CHAM Country will play the CPF PSA once daily between March 4 and April 30 (a total of 171 times and total value of $12,825.00).

5. FRENCH IMMERSION REVIEW:
At their April 15 Committee of the Whole meeting, the School Board approved the two staff report recommendations for phasing out the FI program at Sanford and Sherwood. After much debate, they also agreed to bus the children already in these schools to another location. The remaining recommendations of the French Immersion Review are to be brought back to the School Board at a later date.

Three delegations made presentations to the Board in support of the FI program. The delegations were from Norwood Park School Council, the Hamilton Home and School Association and Hamilton Wentworth Chapter of Canadian Parents for French. The delegations asked the Board to look at transportation, increasing allocation of resources to the Program and setting up a process for opening FI schools in new areas. We were grateful to Peter Kenwood from the CPF Ontario Board of Directors for coming down to the meeting on his day off and telling the Board about CPF's Transportation Study.

The Trustees were impressed by the many parents present at the meeting and made some positive comments about the FI program (although no commitments yet). The next staff report will contain the most critical decisions and we will need to pay close attention to the Board agendas.

6. CONVERSATIONAL FRENCH:
CPF Ontario is developing a Conversational French course for parents and are putting together a complete binder of course material. The course runs for 10 weeks and can accommodate between 10 and 15 parents. The Thunder Bay Chapter charged $25 for members, and $50 for non-members (who then had their membership dues paid) and paid the teacher $400. CPF Ontario might be providing a grant to Chapters who run the course.

It was felt that this would be an excellent item to offer our members this Fall. Julie will continue to follow up with CPF Ontario and everyone should be thinking about potential instructors.

7. MAKING CONTACTS:
Julie has been in contact with some of the French language schools and will prepare a list of francophone contacts for our records.

8. BOARD STAFFING ISSUES:
A letter from Ken Bain in response to Deborah's inquiry was read out at the meeting. This item will be carried over to the May meeting to see if further action is required.

9. OTHER BUSINESS:
The CPF Chapter Annual Report forms have been received. We do not need to hold an Annual Meeting this year, but we must provide CPF Ontario with a report and financial statement by May 31, 2002. Roz will complete the forms.

MEETING ADJOURNED: 8:45 P.M.

NEXT MEETING: THURSDAY MAY 23, 2002
7:00 P.M. NORWOOD PARK