Minutes of the Hamilton-Wentworth Executive
Wednesday March 3, 2004

Members: Rosalind Minaji, Kaywana Gargarello, Carrie Crockett, Lori Prevec, Deb Doody
Susan McClure, Tracey Cseresnyes, Yvonne Swiston

Regrets: Marie Patenaude, Frank Torelli, Mary Finstad

The meeting was called to order by the Chair at 7:00 p.m.

1. ADOPTION OF THE MINUTES
The minutes of January 21/04 were approved.

2. UPDATE

Volunteer Hours:
Total = 64 hours

Treasurer's Report:
Opening Balance: $5,250.14

Revenue: $1,650.00 Course registrations (22)
$8,065.00 Etienne Concert
$9,715.00 Total Revenues

Expenses: $ 133.75 Classroom rental
$ 20.00 Posters
$ 133.40 Course photocopies
$ 87.98 Labels and dividers for course materials
$ 63.98 Binders
$ 50.00 Gift certificates (gifts)
$ 500.00 Annette
$1,388.65 Spectator advertising
$ 80.00 Stage crew
$6,452.00 Etienne
$ 90.58 Membership mailings
$9,000.34 Total Expenses

Closing Balance: $5,964.80

Membership:
Carrie reported 7 new memberships, 3 renewals, and 8 memberships lost. She has sent renewal letters to these 8 members.

Communications:
The Chapter received a $50.00 rebate for distributing the CPF posters to the local daycare centres. Norwood Park distributed 7 for us, while Carrie sent out 41 others.

The Spectator newspaper ad promoting the seven Kindergarten Information Nights was carried on three dates in February and March. The third ad was free due to CPF's registered charity status.

Carrie sent a letter to Robert Munsch to inquire about his interest and availability to potentially perform at our Member's event in May. He was not available this time, but we will consider contacting him again for another event in the future with more advance notice.

Lori attended a meeting of teachers from both the Halton and Hamilton-Wentworth boards of education at the Brock University campus in Hamilton to discuss CPF Chapter activities. The teachers were most interested and supportive of our initiatives.

3. CHAPTER UPDATE
Etienne Concert: Roz brought in the newspaper clipping of the Etienne concert in the Spectator, and shared the letter she received from Steven after the performance. The event was a great success and raised $1,400 for the Chapter. The kids really enjoyed the show, which was high energy and loud! Thanks to Lori for all her organizing of this event.

Level Two Course: There are 22 registered participants and 2 executive members attending this course. The following motion was passed:

"That during each session of the CPF Basic French Course Level One or Level Two, up to three members of the CPF Executive be eligible to take the course at no charge. This policy will only be implemented if the minimum number of paid students (15) has been registered and provided the addition of Executive members will not exceed the course maximum (25) or cause paying students to be turned away."

During this course, references have been made to the Level One course material, which not all the participants have. A suggested price of $20.00 for this binder of material was discussed. Roz will arrange to have some Level One binders printed.

FI Information Nights: To date, the following FI info nights have taken place with approximated attendance numbers:
St. Eugene's: approx. 40 people (some children)
Sts. Peter and Paul: approx. 50 people
St. Joseph's: approx. 10 people, one SK class has full enrollment
Norwood Park: approx. 60 adults and 10 School Council members, plus 25-30 children

It was suggested that next fall, we send out a flyer to all school councils suggesting ways for them to promote FI enrollment at their schools. Norwood Park has students prepare posters which are hung in local arenas, libraries and community centres. They also put on a three day information booth at Limeridge Mall to promote FI and their school. If all schools did this then the program would receive a major boost.

4. AGM/PARENT INFORMATION NIGHT
The date was confirmed to take place in the evening of Thursday April 22/04.

The suggested theme is the benefit of continuing FI at the high school level. Various potential guest speakers were proposed. Roz will contact Anne Klaus (Westdale) and a representative from Heritage Canada. Kaywana will contact Mr. Putzy (Cathedral) and Father Jim. Deb will contact Ian Thompson from the HWDSB.

A location for the event was discussed. G.R. Allan charges $20/hr. Cathedral and a special room at the Spectator were also suggested. Deb will look into the cost of the room at the Spectator, as well as find out its suitability for approximately 100 people (i.e. chairs, multimedia equipment, etc).

Tracey will approach Scholar's Choice, Explora-Toy, Turtle Pond, Librairie Champlain, Poster Pals, Tralco, Usborne Books, Firefly Books, Etienne, and CPF Ontario for potential door prize donations and/or interest in exhibiting their materials at this event as well as at the Member's event in May.
Refreshment supplies of water and juice were briefly discussed. Lori will approach a local Tim Horton's for donations.

Roz will put together the annual and financial reports again this year, but inquired if anyone else would be interested in taking on the position of Treasurer for next year. She will prepare a PowerPoint presentation of the Annual Report to present at the meeting.

5. SPECIAL EVENT FOR MEMBERS MAY 16
An exclusive special event for our members was discussed. Sunday May 16/04 from 1:30-4 p.m. was the date set. Suggested locations (and those that will inquire about the rental fees, availability, and suitability are in parenthesis) included the Yacht Club (Deb), the Central Library, and the Westdale synagogue (Kaywana).

Roz will contact performers Jacquot and Marc Tardif (magician) to see if they are interested or available for the event. Sue will contact M.E.L.D. to see if they're able to perform their puppet show as an opening act (refer to "Other Business"). Roz will also see if CPF Ontario will provide any funds for the event as it is a French concert, although not in partnership with either school board.

Refreshments will be discussed later. We will anticipate an attendance of approximately 100-150 people at least, and budget $1000.00 for the entire event. Invitations will be mailed to all members.

6. PUBLIC SCHOOL BOARD ISSUES
At the last FIAC meeting, Marie Patenaude presented CPF's 2003 State of French Education in Canada. FIAC members were requested to bring comments back to the March meeting.

Regarding FI information nights, it was suggested that instead of offering the session at Waterdown High School, perhaps hold it at a school in Dundas or Ancaster, where parents are already transporting their children to the nearest FI school in Hamilton. This will be reviewed next year.

Le Concours public speaking contest will involve Norwood Park, Dalewood, and G.R. Allan this year. The competition will take place on March 23. It was suggested that an inter-school competition date be set for 2005, so that other local schools can plan to participate next time. Our chapter will provide book prizes for all participants. Roz will arrange to purchase and deliver these.

The issue of middle school students at A.M. Cunningham moving to Dalewood instead of Glen Brae was also raised. It was suggested that information sessions for middle school parents be offered in addition to those at the JK/SK and secondary levels.

7. SEPARATE SCHOOL BOARD ISSUES
Yvonne Swiston is the new representative from Sts. Peter & Paul.

St. Eugene's is also having a French public speaking contest and will possibly arrange for other schools to get involved also. It is not clear whether they are proceeding to the Provincial Concours.

8. CPF ONTARIO WORKSHOP APRIL 2 & 3
This year's workshop will take place at the Valhalla Inn in Toronto. Roz and Kaywana are registered to attend. Deb Doody also expressed an interest. This year's theme is "Building Bridges" and features various speakers including the Office of Official Languages, the Ontario Modern Languages Teachers Association and the Institut canadiens des standards en éducation

9. OTHER BUSINESS
We still have approximately $300 left from the FI Advertising/Promotion grant from CPF Ontario. It was suggested that we use these funds on providing promotional items for our Chapter. Lori will investigate the cost of designing and producing a bookmark with the CPF logo etc. Roz will also inquire with a contact at work.

M.E.L.D. (Multicultural Early-Learning Development) held a French language promotional evening at Norwood Park on Tuesday March 2/04. Carrie and Kaywana attended and reported that they provided a puppet show, a singsong, a book reading, and supplied parents with a complementary canvas tote and a workbook inside to use at home with your child. Sue will also contact M.E.L.D. to see if extra copies of the workbook could be obtained.

This quarter's CPF Ontario newsletter included a picture of our fall book sale.

The potential of organizing summer French camps was raised -perhaps for 2005. Ted Karp mentioned last year that CPF will pay for the insurance for Chapters as an incentive to arrange such camps. A partnership with M.E.L.D. was suggested.

The idea of organizing French Movies for Kids was also discussed. Roz has contacted the Staircase Café on Dundurn St. to inquire about their interest in a partnership with us to host such an event. It is a 60-seat cinema with a catalogue of movie listings to choose from. Further discussions will continue at a later date.

The meeting adjourned at 8:55 p.m.