Minutes of the Hamilton-Wentworth Executive
Executive Committee Meeting Minutes
Wednesday October 12, 2005

Members: Kaywana Gargarello, Frank Torelli, Rosalind Minaji, Ron English, Myra Malley,
Yolanda Bragues (left 8:00 p.m), Alex Mallory (arrived 8:30 p.m.)

Regrets: Dianne MacKenzie, Susan McClure, Neena Monteiro, Marie Patenaude

The Chair called the meeting to order at 7:10 p.m.

1. ADOPTION OF THE MINUTES

The minutes of September 8, 2005 were approved.

Confirmation of Executive Positions:
Deborah Doody has regretfully resigned from the Executive due to her ongoing business commitments. Neena Monteiro has agreed to become Treasurer for the coming year. Deborah has offered to complete the remaining paperwork for the SEVEC exchange (ie: T4 slips for counsellors, grant follow-up etc.). We thanked Deborah for her outstanding three year contribution to the CPF Hamilton-Wentworth Executive.

The following Executive positions were approved unanimously.
Chair: Kaywana Gargarello
Vice Chair/Recording Secretary: Rosalind Minaji
Membership Secretary: Ron English
Treasurer: Neena Monteiro

2. CHAPTER UPDATES

Volunteer Hours: 49

Membership:
There are now 94 memberships active in Hamilton-Wentworth. CPF lost 2 memberships over the summer and gained 3 new within the database. Ron noted that four or five additional new memberships have not yet been included in the database. Roz asked Ron to prepare an e-mail list of the current members so we can contact them quickly re: chapter events and FI issues. Ron will send an e-mail (advertising the book sale discount) to those on the current list and see which accounts remain active.

Action Items:
" Ron will prepare a spreadsheet of existing members to be distributed at the November 9th executive meeting.
" Ron will prepare an e-mail list of members and send to Rosalind and Kaywana.

Communications:
The newsletter was printed September 20. The newsletter was distributed by Board mail to public schools in the east end. Ron noted that he did not receive a newsletter from G.R. Allen. We will distribute the October newsletter at the next Executive Committee meeting. Next issue will include: Book Sale/Trade Show promotion, news about FI enrollment in Hamilton, list of suitable French dictionaries to purchase, French movies, etc. The CPF Ontario newsletter grant ($100) has been reinstated and Roz has applied for the 2005/2006 year.

Action Items:
" Dianne will save the September newsletter on disk for Rosalind to add to the web site.
" Rosalind and Kaywana will prepare newsletter materials for Dianne.
" Dianne to prepare and print newsletter for distribution at November 9 Executive meeting.

Treasurer's Report:

Opening Balance August 31, 2005 4,738.78

Interest 2.39
Total Revenues September 30, 2005 2.39

Expenses
Alexa MacDonald Income tax refund SEVEC # 198 305.35
Deborah Doody SEVEC Mailing # 200 36.93
Receiver General SEVEC payroll remittance # 201 97.11
Kaywana Gargorello # 104 St. Joe's Year book 40.00
Roz Minaji # 112 Newsletter & Brochure Printing 432.40
Total Expenses September 911.79

Balance as of September 30, 2005 3,829.38

Outstanding SEVEC items to come $1000 CYW deposit
DVD program Brian Minaji $ 99.99 US expense

3. UPCOMING CHAPTER EVENTS

Book Sale/Trade Show:
The Book Sale has been confirmed for Thursday November 17 at G.R. Allen School at 900 King Street West from 3:00 to 8:00 p.m. Marie has been in contact with the Librairie Champlain to confirm this date.

We will require approximately 25 long tables for the sale/trade show. Ron will contact Chris Spence at the public board about the possibility of having these delivered from another school. Myra will obtain some rental quotes and also contact some schools if Ron is unsuccessful.

It was noted that Norwood Park Home & School were planning a book sale last June and they were able to arrange for delivery of books from Librairie Champlain without going to Toronto to pick them out. It was also noted that thank you cards should be ordered as these are popular.

Kaywana noted that the separate board's French Curriculum consultant is preparing a list of appropriate French dictionaries for various grade levels. If this is available in time, we should ensure that copies of these publications are available at the sale.

We decided last year that we would see if inventory sheets can be provided for each individual shipping box this year to make it easier to check box contents and prices before the items are shelved. It was noted that volunteers arrived at 1pm last year and this was not long enough for set up. This year we will ask for volunteers from noon onwards. Roz will send around a sign-up sheet for volunteers. Yolanda and Frank will see if high school students wish to come and volunteer.

A member discount of 5% was agreed upon and we will deduct this at the till. Members will be asked to visit the CPF table to confirm their membership (or to fill out a membership application form) and get their hand stamped to confirm their eligibility for the discount.

It was confirmed that the Trade Show will take place from 3:00 p.m to 6:00 p.m. when the bulk of our customers attend. Given the short notice, it was decided to send a fax or e-mail to each organization invited. Dianne and Roz will work on an invitation in pdf format.

Kaywana prepared an extensive list of French businesses, schools, and organizations to be invited to the Trade Show. The contents of this list were confirmed and various people were assigned to follow-up on obtaining fax numbers or e-mail addresses. It was suggested that the French martial arts club might be interested in providing a demonstration. Ron suggested adding universities to the list to provide students some ideas about where their FI certificate can take them next. All additions and deletions to the list are to be sent to Roz, who is compiling the invitation master list. The list is to be finalized by Tuesday October 18 and the invitations are to be sent by Tuesday October 25. If organizations cannot attend, they are invited to send literature. Myra's is to be the central address for shipping any materials as she is usually available to accept parcels during the daytime. Dianne is to be the main contact on the invitation and for the media.

It was decided that we would not invite book, game and toy sellers to the event this year as they would compete with our sale and also could lead to inventory mix ups in the gym. Ron suggested that we might look at organizing the trade show in future years to sell tables to the participants and have them come and set up and sell the French materials. This would be easier for our volunteers but would still generate revenue for the Chapter and provide a benefit to the French community.

Action Items:
" Rosalind will contact Marie to confirm Champlain is booked and how inventory will be selected and tracked.
" Rosalind will send a sign-up sheet for volunteers and send out by e-mail.
" Ron and Myra to organize delivery of 25 tables.
" Yolanda and Frank will see if high school students are interested in coming to provide volunteer hours.
" Rosalind will keep a master list of trade show invitees, send all corrections/additions to her.
" Dianne and Rosalind will prepare an invitation in pdf format.
" Myra to be main mailing contact for trade show materials.
" Dianne to be main phone contact and media spokesperson.
" Invitations are to be sent by e-mail or fax by October 25.

French Course:
Only four people have registered for the French course this Fall. Members suggested that competition from Collège Boréal might possibly be the reason for the drop in interest. It was decided that the course will be cancelled and that we will not run a course this winter. The Executive voted to send our instructor $100 for her trouble as she missed another job opportunity because she was holding her time for our course. It was also suggested that we work with Collège Boréal to see if they would be interested in providing discounted courses for our members in return for our promotion of their French Second Language courses in our newsletters.

Action Items:
" Rosalind will contact all registrants and the teacher to tell them the course is cancelled.
" Rosalind will contact Collège Boréal to see if they are interested in providing a CPF member discount.

4. MEMBERSHIP SURVEY

It was decided to postpone the member survey as volunteers are busy with the trade show. In January, we will undertake a membership phone survey to determine the following:
" complete contact information including e-mail addresses
" promotion of upcoming events and member discounts
" recruit Executive members from missing schools
" question why members joined, and what it would take to keep them
" discuss member discounts or benefits

Action Items:
" -Rosalind will prepare a draft member survey script for January.

5. PUBLIC SCHOOL BOARD ISSUES

The draft Transportation policy was approved by the Committee of the Whole at the School Board on October 3rd by a vote of 7 for and 4 against. The Board of Trustees will consider the issue on Monday October 17th An article about the new policy appeared in the October 11 Hamilton Spectator and CPF was approached for an opinion. Rosalind will attend the Board meeting on behalf of CPF to monitor the result.

6. SEPARATE SCHOOL BOARD ISSUES

Kaywana met with Maria Brenyo, the Separate School Board curriculum consultant, on October 11th. Issues discussed included: PA day activities for French teachers, assigning a French resource teacher to each FI school, French dictionary list for various age groups, French field trips, French entertainers, Concours promotion at the City-wide level and encouraging separate school students to attend the Provincial Concours at Glendon College. Kaywana is also asking the consultant to consider starting a French Advisory Committee similar to the one in the public school board, to allow teachers, parents, board staff and students to exchange news and information about the FI and Core French programs.

7. FRANCOPHONE COMMUNITY ISSUES

Roz and Kaywana attended the Board meeting of the Centre Français on October 12, just before the CPF Executive Committee meeting. The purpose of attending was to inform the Centre Board about CPF's role and mandate and to express our support in working with them on the French camp for the coming summer.

The Board members were extremely receptive and encouraged us to continue meeting with Lisa Breton to ensure cross-promotion of our events and activities. It was suggested that FI students should be informed about French performers at the francophone schools and a list of contacts will be provided to CPF so we can facilitate this communication. We were informed that the Centre de santé communautaire runs French sports activities for youth and that these could also be promoted to our FI students.

Some upcoming Centre Français events for Fall: Laurence Jalbert concert in Mississauga on November 6, French film at Staircase Café on November 24. We asked whether a children's film could be planned for in conjunction with our tour of Dundurn Castle on December 4th.

Action Items:
" Rosalind and Kaywana will continue to meet with Lisa Breton to plan for summer camp and other joint events.

8. OTHER BUSINESS

a) Greg LeRock is touring Ontario this year and has approached various teachers about holding a Hamilton concert. This could work well for our Etienne replacement.

Action Items:
" Rosalind will contact Westdale to see if there is a Secondary school PD day in February that does not impact elementary schools, and whether we can make use of Westdale for two French concerts.
" Rosalind will contact Greg LeRock to see if he is available on the date proposed and whether he would provide CPF will a donation in return for promotion of the event.

b) The Hamilton Public Library has approached CPF to sponsor a French children's author for the Hamilton Families Read event in January 2006. The library brings the authors to libraries, schools and community centres in Hamilton so they can share their work with children. The children are encouraged to read the book with their families. The cost is $250 and it will be a good opportunity to promote CPF as well as provide a French author for Hamilton students to hear. The Executive agreed to sponsor an author and promote the event in our newsletter.

c) Alex Mallory made a brief presentation about a new method of teaching French using American Sign Language. The "Accelerative Integrated Method" (AIM) was developed by Wendy Maxwell and is now used in 1,000 schools around the world with impressive results. The Ottawa Carlton Board is using this program in Ontario. Alex is working with A.M. Cunningham to pilot this program in Hamilton perhaps starting next year. If the pilot is successful, Alex is hoping that CPF would be willing to work with the two school Board to promote this teaching method in Hamilton.

Action Items:
" Alex will provide additional material about AIM to the Executive members.