Minutes of the Hamilton-Wentworth Executive
Monday May 15, 2005

Members: Kaywana Gargarello, Frank Torelli, Rosalind Minaji, Dianne MacKenzie, Myra Malley

Regrets: Susan McClure, Marie Patenaude, Neena Monteiro

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

1. ADOPTION OF THE MINUTES

The minutes of April 10, 2006 were approved.

2. CHAPTER UPDATES

Volunteer Hours: 35

Treasurer's Report:

Opening Balance: 5054.55
April Revenue:
None 0
April Expenses:
Newsletters & Brochures 629.17
St. Joes Yearbook 40.00
Balance May 15: 4385.38

Action Items:
" Kaywana will follow up with CPF Ontario Regarding the Gregg LeRock cheque.

Membership:
Ron has passed the membership materials on to Dianne, who will give them to Myra.

Action Items:
" Myra to contact CPF National for recent membership list and formulate address labels.
" Myra will mail all new members since September 05 with welcome letter and Keys to French I
" Myra will mail all renewed members since September 05 with thank you letter and Keys to French II

Communications:
Members will be sent a special invitation to the AGM and St. Jean picnic the week of May 29, as well as a registration form and poster for the summer camp.

June Newsletter (Contents): AGM announcement, summer activities, St. Jean picnic, concours results, CPF camp, teacher profile, bussing update, FSL funding announcement by Province, Hamilton library French programs
Articles are to be submitted by May 25, newsletter to be distributed week of June 5.

Action Items:
" Roz to order additional CPF Ontario posters.
" Dianne to complete invitation for AGM and picnic
" Roz to prepare revised camp poster (including activity list) for member mailing
" Final newsletter articles to be written by May 25 and submitted to Dianne
" Dianne to prepare newsletter for June 5 distribution

3. UPCOMING CHAPTER EVENTS

Le Concours: (May 16)
The separate school competition will take place on May 16 at 7:00 p.m. at St. Josephs school. Kaywana has delivered the CPF prizes. The CPF Ontario concours took place on May 15, 06.

Summer Camp: (May 17, June 7)
Three open houses are being held to promote the camp. Rosalind attended the first one at Vanier last Wednesday. Only three sets of parents were in attendance, although they all seemed fairly interested. A special poster was created by Camp Dove and distributed to all FI schools with the dates of the open houses.

Action Items:
" Myra will attend the open house on May 17 at Burlington Central Arena.
" Kaywana will attend the open house on June 7 at Vanier.
" Rosalind will send all camp background materials to Myra and Kaywana.

CPF Annual General Meeting: (June 8)
This year's event will be a wine and cheese evening held at the Staircase Café from 7 to 10 pm. Members will gather in the theatre by 7:30 for a PowerPoint presentation and any necessary AGM business. Kaywana and Dianne will prepare the PowerPoint presentation highlighting CPF activities for the year. Invitations to the event will be sent to all members, including a drink ticket. Invited guests will also include: all school trustees, FIAC members, helpful teachers and principals, Maria Brenyo, Giselle Portelance etc. Kaywana and Roz will compile a guest list. Neena has prepared the year-end financial statement, which must be incorporated into a slide for a membership vote. Also, executive positions should be confirmed by vote if any changes are being made.

Kaywana has arranged for a live band (containing some FI parents) to play at the event starting at 8pm. At this point in the evening, the Centre Francais will hire a bartender and a cash bar will be held. The band will also be inviting some guests to attend at this point.

For refreshments, Frank will purchase the wine (red and white -enough for 80 glasses), Kaywana will order a cheese tray and a fruit tray from Cathedral catering, Roz will purchase napkins, paper plates, 100 plastic wine glasses and chips. Dianne will prepare the tickets. We will need to arrive by 6pm to set up the projector and make sure the space is clean. We should also expect to stay afterwards to help with the clean-up. Kaywana will speak to Claudette Mikelsons about logistics and insurance.

Action Items:
" Dianne and Kaywana to prepare a PowerPoint presentation to highlight our accomplishments for 2005/2006
" Everyone to send CPF photos to Dianne for inclusion in the presentation.
" Frank to purchase wine
" Kaywana to organize logistics re: band, pa system and bartender and order food trays.
" Rosalind to purchase: plates, napkins, glasses, nibbles.
" Dianne to prepare an AGM invitation to all members which will also include information about the St Jean picnic and the membership drive.
" Myra will purchase "Urgent" stickers to put on membership mailing envelopes
" Everyone to find doorprizes
" Kaywana will prepare a written summary of our activities and volunteer hours for CPF Ontario

St. Jean Picnic (June 25):
We have not had any success in locating a performer. It was decided that we should restrict our participation to the booth and cotton candy machine again this year and use our funds for the French agenda initiative (outlined below).
We will promote this great event as much as possible to the FI community as it is a chance to mingle with the francophone community. Myra, Frank and Kaywana will check their availability to run the booth. It would be great to have two shifts this year as it is a four hour event.

Action Items:
" Kaywana will contact Claudette Mikelsons to confirm our participation and find out about this year's activities.
" Four volunteers needed to run the cotton candy booth.
" Once volunteers are confirmed, Roz will order the cotton candy machine and sugar.

4. PUBLIC SCHOOL BOARD ISSUES

The Board's Executive Council has approved transportation funding (at the same level) for the 2006/2007 school year. This decision still has to be confirmed by the trustees during the budget process, but it is expected to be passed.

Parents from Dundas and Waterdown are expected to attend the FIAC meeting on Wednesday May 17 to discuss the progress of their initiatives to start FI programs in the suburban localities. The special FI information nights held this month were attended by only 4 parents in Dundas, but by about 25 parents in Waterdown. Rosalind will continue to monitor this situation and assist where possible.

5. SEPARATE SCHOOL BOARD ISSUES

Dianne will be presenting at the May 18 French Advisory Committee meeting on the following topics: celebrating French in Schools, support for students, parents and teachers, and a communication policy regarding the availability of Immersion. Kaywana will also be presenting at the meeting on CPF issues such as transparency of funding from Province to Board etc.

6. FRENCH AGENDAS

Further to Ron's suggestion about CPF sponsoring French language student agendas, Kaywana has approached the agenda company for information. CPF cannot put a logo on the front page of each agenda, due to the agenda printing techniques. Kaywana also investigated the possibility of inserting the Keys to French (black and white version) document into the French agendas, with a cover page highlighting CPF and our benefits to the community.

The insertion of Keys to French will cost $1.50 per agenda, and must occur on the 4 double sided pages usually provided to each school for their own specific material. Kaywana suggested CPF could pay $1 per agenda and the schools would pick up the remainder. The three separate FI schools have been approached about this idea and they are interested (they do not currently use their additional pages and they see the Keys to French as a great tool). The separate board has until June 20 to develop camera-ready artwork for the agendas. Rosalind will approach FIAC with this idea for the public FI schools on Wednesday.

We confirmed that our offer would only apply to French language agendas, and that we would not have the funds to extend the offer for the Core French stream. Also, this would be a one time offer -the schools could consider whether to continue the initiative in future years.

Action Items:
" Roz & Kaywana to approach school boards regarding interest in CPF sponsorship of Keys to French in agendas.
" Dianne to develop front page for Keys to French.

7. OTHER BUSINESS

Andrea Horvath (MPP) sent Kaywana an excerpt from the Hansard covering her speech about the education bill. Ms. Horvath spoke about funding for transportation and of FI education. Unfortunately she misquoted Kaywana in her speech, so Kaywana has sent her an e-mail pointing out the errors.

Donna Skelly is interested in developing a program on French Immersion bussing for CHTV. Dianne will contact her for more information.

CPF National sells window decals which read "Proud Parent of a Bilingual Canadian" for $1 each. Kaywana approached them to purchase some, but they are no longer producing the stickers. Kaywana sourced a local printer and found that a two colour decal could be produced for $428.84 for 500 copies. We agreed to order 250 copies, and Dianne will work out a design that includes the CPF Hamilton-Wentworth name as well as French and English text. These decals will be given to the parents of each FI high school graduate in Hamilton each year.

Action Items:
" Dianne to design new window decals for CPF H-W.

Next Meeting - AGM Thursday June 8, 2006
Staircase Cafe 7:00 p.m.