Minutes of the Hamilton-Wentworth Executive
Thursday September 25, 2003

Members: Rosalind Minaji, Lori Prevec, Kaywana Gargarello, Deborah Doody, Tracey Cseresnyes
Regrets: Susan McClure, Frank Torelli, Marie Patenaude, Carrie Crockett

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

1. ADOPTION OF THE MINUTES
The minutes of August 28/03 were approved.

Unfortunately, Julie Senecal-Tremblay has resigned as Chapter Contact due to personal circumstances, although she will continue to be a CPF member. The Executive recognizes all the time and effort Julie has put forth to "spread the word" about CPF and initiate the formation and development of this local Chapter, and are very grateful for her commitment.

2. UPDATES

Volunteer Hours:
Total =140 hours

Treasurer's Report:
Opening Balance: $ 1,472.54
Revenue:
$344.55 for May book sale
$ 2,050.00 fees for French courses
$1.39 Interest
Expenditures:
$ 22.20 stamps
$ 58.99 binders
$ 176.03 inserts for binders
$ 408.28 printing
$ 1,000.00 teachers' honorarium
$ 374.50 classroom rentals
$ 2,030.00 Total Expenses

Balance on Hand: $ 1,828.48

Membership:
No new memberships processed to date as we are waiting to ensure that all cheques clear. 90% (approx. 30-35) of course participants are new members. Roz will send off membership registrations to Ottawa next week and give a copy to Carrie to confirm membership and contact information.

Communications:
Updates to the Chapter website will include pictures of the most recent French Courses recently started at Norwood and G.R. Allan.

3. FRENCH BOOK SALE:
This year's sale will be held in St. Joseph's School gymnasium on Wednesday November 26/03. Kaywana will send a letter to the school's principal to confirm the date, time, etc., but tentatively, set-up will take place between 1-3 p.m., the sale between 3-8 p.m. and clean up between 8-9 p.m. Marie is to confirm whether we can "mirror" our previous order from Champlaine. We will also request more "thank you", Christmas, and Valentine cards (cheaper, bulk) to be sent.

4. FRENCH COURSE (FALL 2003):
41 registrations: 21- Monday at Norwood
20 -Tuesday at G.R. Allan

Revisions of the course material were made jointly by Marie, Lori, and Annette over the summer. Lori re-typed the course material and had it ready to be re-copied and prepared for the courses that started last week. Roz will ask Barb Mison for a copy of the Level 2 course. This will provide plenty of time to review and revise if needed. Next year, the Level 1 course will be offered in early Oct. to allow for parents to get organized with other activity schedules and perhaps the Level 2 courses could run in the winter.

5. FRENCH CONCERT:
Roz e-mailed the performer, Etienne to see if he was available to do a concert for us in February. He replied, giving February 11/03 as a date he could perform in Hamilton. He would charge $5.00/person and encouraged us to invite both FI and core French students in grades 3 to 8. He would like to do three concerts: 10 a.m., 1 p.m., and 7 p.m. When Roz presented this idea to the FIAC, Gisele Portelance said she would e-mail all FI and core French teachers in the HWDSB to determine the level of response/interest the idea receives.

It was proposed that Etienne could perform for the students in the public board schools during the day (one in an east end location and one in a west end location) and in the evening for those in the Separate board (plus families from both Boards who didn't see it during the day). Thus, Kaywana will approach the principal at Cathedral to inquire about the use and availability of their auditorium facility for that evening. Having the venue there will provide parents an opportunity to view part of the high school that their children may potentially attend.

Also at the concert, we will plan to sell refreshments and ask Poster Pals and Tralco Educational (Lori) to set up tables to demonstrate their merchandise, if interested.

6. PUBLIC SCHOOL BOARD ISSUES:
At the FIAC meeting September 24, Marie provided an excellent presentation on Le Concours, the French public speaking contest she had her students participate in last year. A small group of teachers has been formed to plan for a Board wide competition in 2004. The students will be involved in a mini competition at their own school. The top 3 speakers would progress to presenting their speech to members at the HWDSB. Finalists would then move on to present their speech at Glendon College. The Glendon competition is a non-competitive environment for the elementary school level, where the speeches are evaluated by a judge, a facilitator, and other students. This feedback provides the presenter with positive and helpful information to apply to future speeches, especially at the high school level, where competition is stiff.

Norwood Park School has started a program where tickets are awarded to students who speak French in the hallways and amongst their peers. These tickets are placed in a jar over the week, and on Fridays, tickets are drawn out and small prizes are awarded to the winning students.

Ginette Bromhead, Alisa Greve and Mary Scime (Norwood Park staff members), have produced new before, during and after reading and writing posters that match those provided in the English stream. Thus, the steps for students to follow in reading and writing are reinforced in both French and English. The posters will eventually be made available on a Board wide basis.

The Board is looking at imposing a deadline date for grade 1 students enrolling in French Immersion. Otherwise, it makes staffing and student allotment difficult because of the fluctuations in enrollment.

The Board is also looking into difficulties with the phone-in system for staff absenteeism and lack of French substitute teachers. Overall, enrollment in French Immersion is up, although there are only 13 SK students enrolled at Glen Echo this September.

7. SEPERATE BOARD ISSUES:
The H-W Catholic Board held their meeting on September 9/03. Roz and Kaywana presented and introduced them to CPF. The information was well received, although our request to distribute our newsletter to the FI students in their Board was not responded to at the meeting. Kaywana has been in touch with the Board to clarify the process they would like us to follow for future issues.

8. NEWSLETTER:
Our Fall newsletter will include articles about the Library Story Time at the Westdale and Central locations this summer, Le Concours (public speaking contest) this past spring, and the French courses that have started at G.R. Allan and Norwood. An advertisement to promote the Book Sale at St. Joseph's in Nov./03, and tips and website references will also be presented.

9. CPF CONFERENCE: Oct. 17 and 18/03
This year's annual conference will be held at the Valhalla Inn in Toronto. Oct. 1/03 is the deadline for each chapter to submit names for two delegates to attend. Marie and Craig have expressed an interest in attending. Carrie Crockett has also expressed an interest, although her ability to attend may be dependent on childcare arrangements. The delegates that do attend the conference should inquire about receiving more of the new small CPF posters so that our executive members can take copies back to their home schools to hang up.

10. OTHER BUSINESS:
Roz brought it to our attention that there were new by-laws put forth by CPF National that affect our executive structure. According to these by-laws, our chapter needs a Vice- Chair, and a Secretary Treasurer. These positions will need to be filled at our next AGM.

A concern was also raised that as our Chapter matures there will be a need to provide our members with some exclusive benefits at the local level. Presently, all FI parents can access our newsletters, concerts, and events. Lori proposed that the members' children receive backstage passes to meet Etienne in the upcoming concert. Other value added benefits will be proposed over time.

We require another 50 copies of "Keys to French" to distribute to our new members. It was proposed that Roz proposed to CPF Ontario that we exchange our updated, electronic course material for these copies.

Next meeting will be held on Thursday Oct. 23/03. Location to be announced.

Meeting adjourned at 8:45 p.m.