Members: Rosalind Minaji, Ron English, Kaywana Gargarello, Dianne Mackenzie, Frank Torelli, Carrie Crockett

Regrets: Yvonne Swiston, Tracey Cseresnyes, Susan McClure, Marie Patenaude, Deborah Doody

Guest: Maria Brenyo

The Chair called the meeting to order at 6:40 p.m.

1. SEPARATE SCHOOL BOARD ISSUES

Maria Brenyo, who is the new French Special Assignment Teacher from the Catholic School Board attended the meeting to introduce herself and learn a little about CPF. She was provided with CPF background materials and a discussion took place about upcoming events and separate school board issues. Ms. Brenyo has been a Core French teacher with the Board for the past ten years and she will be teaching half time and working at her new position half time, once the job begins. We look forward to working with Maria over the coming year.

2. ADOPTION OF THE MINUTES

Review of minutes of December 2. No concerns

3. UPDATES

Volunteer Hours: 120

Treasurer's Report:

As of January 6th, 2005

Opening Balance December 2nd 3,054.85

Revenues
Book Sale Commissions 707.20
Total Revenues December 707.20

Expenses
Carrie Crockett - membership #63 164.12
Sponsorship mailing and printing #72 48.99

Total Expenses November 213.11

Balance as of January 6th, 2005 3,548.94

** In addition, in our savings accounts is $250.00 a SEVEC Donation

Membership: Carrie Crockett
No membership statistics were available from CPF National in December due to a computer problem. Carrie sent out 5 membership renewal letters this month.

Communications:
Dianne distributed the January newsletter. Next newsletter will be in late March.

Dianne has checked with Hamilton Street Railway about costs of advertising on buses. The rate for non-profit groups is: $20/bus/space plus $50 per poster for production. It was decided that this would not be an effective use of funds.

Dianne will be preparing media releases about the new FSL position at the separate school board. She will also contact CHML Talk Radio for an interview spot to discuss French Immersion and the SK information nights. It was suggested that Rosalind do the interview as Chair of CPF.

Carrie has printed posters and cover letters for 102 daycare centres across Hamilton, advertising SK information nights. The letters are to be mailed next week. The CPF promotional letters from the book sale draw slips will be sent in February.

It is not known if CPF Ontario will be distributing promotion grants for FI information nights this year. In lieu of paying for additional advertising ourselves (it cost $1,400 for 3 small ads last year) it was decided to produce a 3 fold pamphlet promoting the FI program and the information nights and distribute this to all JK students in the City. Two versions of the pamphlet will be produced -with only the dates of the public or separate school information nights on them. Dianne will prepare the pamphlet and arrange for printing. Kaywana will find out how many to print for the separate board and Carrie will find out how many to print for the public board. Rosalind will send Dianne background material about benefits of FI.

4. CHAPTER EVENTS

Day In French
The Christmas Day in French was quite successful. Although there were only about 15 people for the movie, there were over 30 at the Dundurn Castle tour. The museum had to use two guides and one had better French skills than the other. The castle was lovely and it was felt that the tour is well worth doing again next year. It was noted that signage is needed to organize the tour group at the beginning, since the participants are from different schools.

5. UPCOMING EVENT PLANNING

SEVEC
The SEVEC enrollment stands at 25. We have not received the videotape from Deni Cavanaugh yet, but once it comes, Debbie and Susan will begin promotion at the middle schools. Home interviews will be starting this month. Debbie will be applying for a Trillium grant (permission has been obtained from CPF Ontario) by the March 1 deadline, although we will not know if we are successful until July 1. Debbie has also started to send out requests for donations to area businesses.

Étienne Concerts
Concert dates are:
Wednesday February 23, 2005 1:00 pm Mohawk College Theatre
Thursday, February 24, 2005 10:00 am & 1:00 pm Bishop Ryan Catholic Secondary School

Ticket sales as of mid December were:
February 23rd PM show, 349 sold of a possible 1200
February 24th AM show, 465 sold of a possible 810
February 24th PM show, 0 sold of a possible 810

Additional promotion is now taking place. The concert has been advertised in the CPF newsletter. A new poster incorporating photos from last year has been e-mailed to both boards for distribution to Core and Immersion teachers.

At least 3 CPF volunteers are needed for each concert. Volunteers should notify Roz by e-mail when their schedules are confirmed. If you know of other parents who are available, please ask them to help.

FI Information Nights
CPF members will attend each of the information nights to answer questions and promote the program.

Volunteers to date are:
Jan. 27, A.M. Cunningham -?
Feb. 3, Earl Kitchener -Frank
Feb. 8, Glen Echo -Ron
Feb. 10, Norwood Park -Rosalind
Feb. 15, St. Eugene -Dianne
Feb. 16, St. Josephs -Kaywana
Feb. 17, Sts Peter & Paul -Dianne
Feb. 17, G.R. Allan -?

In addition, Roz will attend the information night at Westdale and Kaywana will ask Yolanda Bragues to attend the session at Cathedral.

French Courses
Registration forms have been included in the January newsletter. A draft of the revised Level Two materials has been sent to Betty Dunfield and she is proof reading them. Annette Ray is unable to teach Level One, so a new instructor is being recruited.

Le Concours
The Separate School Board is holding an interschool Concours during the first week of February. Three participants per school, per grade (Grades 4 to 8) will be taking part. CPF will donate 5 book prizes for the local winners.

The Public Board inter-school contest will take place in March. Marie is meeting with other organizers next week and will find out how many schools will be participating.
The CPF Provincial contest occurs: May 19, 2005

Parent Information Night/AGM - April/May 2005
Rosalind suggested that rather than holding our AGM as part of an information night, we hold it as part of our regular executive meeting in early May. Members can be notified of the AGM through e-mail and our newsletter. This will allow us more flexibility in the format of the information night. Rosalind suggested that the Information Night take the form of a trade show this year, with booths from organizations offering activities in French outside of the school setting. She will approach Norwood Park school council about holding a joint event in the hopes of increasing attendance and simplifying the job for both groups.

Member Appreciation Event -June 2005
Lisa Breton from le centre français is very open to CPF participating in the St. Jean Baptiste Festival at Pier 4 Park. The event takes place on the afternoon of Sunday June 26. It was suggested that CPF send invitations to all members which include tickets for free cotton candy. We would rent a machine and sell it to everyone else. We would also hire a French performer for the event. Suggestions are welcome for a French performer (budget of $400 or less)

Dianne suggested that another Member Appreciation Event could be held for adult members as our way of rewarding parents for their help and support of CPF. This was felt to be an excellent idea, possibly for the Fall of 2005. Suggestions included a winery tour, and wine tasting and French food at the Staircase Café. The LCBO offers wine tasting events. Dianne, and Ron will cost some of the local wine tours and the LCBO event.

Summer Camps
Kaywana and Ron met with Lisa Breton from le centre français in December to start the planning for next summer's camp. The camp will be held in early August and will run as 2 one week sessions. The cost of the camp will include CPF membership as well as membership in le centre français. The camp will be aimed at FI kids in Grades 2 to 6 (ages 7 to 12) and francophone kids in Grades 1 to 6 (ages 6 to 12). The goal of the camp is cool, fun and not academic -but all in French. It was thought that kids with different language abilities could be matched to help each other out. There would be 30 campers per session and it would run from 9am to 4pm with extended care offered.

Next Steps: Lisa will be contacting the principal of George P. Vanier high school to see if we could use their facility for the camp. Kaywana is looking into licencing and health regulations for day camps. Lisa will also be applying for two different federal grants to try and hire university students to organize and run the camps. Lisa, Rosalind and Kaywana will meet again in February to discuss the progress made.

4. PUBLIC SCHOOL BOARD ISSUES

Ron and Rosalind attended the first meeting of the Policy Working Sub-Committee which is reviewing the Public School Board's Transportation Policy. The Policy Working Sub -Committee was formed in June and it intends to review all 32 Board policies during the course of its mandate. The Committee meets twice a month and all meetings are open to the public. There is a period at the end of each meeting for public questions, and the public is welcome to write or e-mail letters or submissions to the Committee.

FI transportation has been included as a specific issue in the Transportation Policy review. Rosalind and Ron are meeting with Debbie Edwards of the Norwood Park School Council on Friday to discuss how best to approach the Board on this important issue. All Executive members are welcome to attend this meeting.

5. OTHER BUSINESS

CPF Ontario is sponsoring the Esprit d'école 2005 weekend event for Grade 7 and 8 FI students designed and run by la fédération de la jeunesse frano-ontarienne. The event is being held in Richmond Hill on the weekend of February 26 and will include a variety of fun sessions designed to enhance leadership skills. Cost is $25 for CPF members or $50 for non members and includes all meals and accommodation.