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Atas das Reuniões do PTA

Minutes of a meeting held on Tuesday, 30th October 2001, at Rua Real Grandeza 99, Rio de Janeiro.

Present: Ana Cecilia Menezes (ACM), Bia Sena (BS), Flávia Miranda Corrêa (FMC), Flávia Rodrigues (FR), Flávio Lopes (FL), Jane Robertson (JR), Jenny Byers (JB), Lúcia Damázio (LD), Marita Carpinteiro (MC), Ralph Jennings (RJ), Rodrigo Morais (RM), and several other parents.

Apologies: Cynthia Fraga, Karla Taylor, Márcia de Luca, Maura Xerfan, Mayra Howie, Verônica Nunes.

Circulation: P.Wiseman, T. Pientznauer, G.Pollard, L.Dimmock, S. Clayton, C. Ribeiro

Item   Action
1. Matters arising from the previous meeting
  1. Insurance - The Board rejected the idea of compulsory school fee insurance. The broker who was offering it will be asked to quote on an individual basis and those interested can subscribe if they wish.

  2. PTA donations - Several requests for contributions have been made:
    Rancho trip - R$2,400
    IB graduation party - R$3.000
    IB Andes trip - R$5.000
    The donation was made to the IB class party, partly in recognition of the help they gave at Founder's Day and at Halloween. The Rancho donation was agreed in principle although the Treasurer (FL) is concerned that since Halloween made a loss, we need to watch our expenditure carefully in order to start the new year off with a healthy bank balance. (See below). The Andes donation has also been agreed in principle.

  3. LATASA - New recycling projects are already scheduled to start in 2002 - Class 5 as part of their Science lessons (Reduce, Re-use and Recycle) and Classes 4 and 5 as part of their PSHE, so the LATASA scheme will not be adopted at this time.

  4. Non-uniform day - This was a huge success and raised over R$1700 for the Austin crèche. Urca reps seemed to be unsure why they had not participated, and apparently Geoff Pollard has no recollection of having vetoed the idea. RJ made the point that any communication from the PTA should go to management at Urca as well as Botafogo, rather than relying on one to advise the other. The success of the venture was documented in a small article in the Falcon, but it was generally felt that the results needed to be better publicised so that the children know how they contributed. FMC suggested publishing a folder/flyer at the end of the year, outlining the PTA's work and achievements and specifying the donations that have been made to charity and to the School.

  5. School Photographs - It was generally agreed that whilst the standard of photography was perfectly acceptable, (Urca reps thought they were the best photos ever), no one liked the "package deal" that was forced upon parents. The Urca children were able to make up their own groups which was fun for them, and the individual photograph was optional without prior consultation of parents. It was agreed that the PTA should have been consulted since it is the parents who pay for the photographs, and representatives will seek a meeting with management to avoid misunderstandings next year.

  6. Renascer - Class 5 are not coping with the monthly donations to support the four children they have adopted. It is obviously impossible to "give them back", but nor can the PTA committee members keep the donations going out of their own pockets every month. After some discussion it was suggested that each House should adopt a child, thereby spreading the onus over the whole primary school and making it a team project. Letters will go out next week explaining the new donation guidelines.








































FMC and KT to produce a flyer for the end of term

FL and CF to arrange meeting with management










LD to propose to Lesley Dimmock
2. Events
  1. Halloween It was generally agreed that the day was a huge success but unfortunately preliminary accounting shows that it will have made a loss. This was attributed to various factors:
    • Entrance fee too cheap - R$3 per car works out much cheaper than Founder's Day, where people pay entrance AND expensive parking nearby.
    • Cost of manual labour - not enough volunteers to man the stalls and help with set-up and knock down. A difficult one to solve as few parents want to put that sort of time and physical effort in. The teachers and IB class helped out but they require transportation, (as do The Sodexho staff who helped), which was another large expense for the day.
    • Lack of sponsorship - the excellent flyer produced by Karla Taylor definitely helped to attract the public, but not enough was done to attract sponsors for the rides, which are very expensive. Once again the idea of the "marketing" folder was raised. RM felt that not knowing what the attendance figures were makes it difficult to sell sponsorship to potential supporters in future.

    There followed a long discussion over the merits of a Halloween party over another kind of party (Guy Fawkes, Christmas..). The venue was also discussed - Botafogo v. Sítio. Finally RJ made the point that the Halloween party was probably the best one ever so why change a winning formula? If the financial aspects can be addressed successfully, the event will be kept in the PTA diary.

    The subject of why the PTA had to pay R$460 in "Direitos Autorais" to ECAD was discussed. As long as there is music played at a party then the fee must be paid. Not everyone agreed that the music was necessary or desirable, but the majority seemed to prefer to have it.

  2. Dinner Dance - The general feeling was that once the requested donations have been made there will not be enough money to finance a Dinner Dance. Several suggestions were made - Happy Hour, Dinner in a restaurant etc. LD will check with the Sol e Mar and FL with the Iate Clube to see if something can still be arranged. It was proposed that parents pay R$50.00, teachers pay nothing and teachers' partners R$30.00. Discussion to be continued via email over the coming days.












































LD, FL to get quotes
3. Uniforms The School never did produce the uniform guidelines it promised at the end of last term. In the absence of any definite directive from the School, the Uniform committee is "resting". One of the suppliers who is closing her business asked if the PTA could circulate her sale prices around the school. This request was vetoed as it might cause bad feeling amongst the other suppliers.

  
4. AGM 2002 LD suggested sending a notice asking parents to put forward a slate for the elections in February. It was felt this was not a good way to run the elections. JB> pointed out that according to the Statutes, the AGM does not elect the officers of the PTA, merely the executive committee. The executive committee then elects the officers at the first meeting after the AGM. Four out of the 11 executive committee are members of the teaching staff, nominated by the teaching staff.

A suitable date needs to be found early on in the new term for the AGM - possibly the first Tuesday in March, and the details of the election procedure will be discussed at the next meeting.









LD to book a date on school calendar
5. Catering FR was delighted to have received the first email via the website! A parent complained that the children were being forced to eat their lunch by some of the teachers. FR said that she had understood from Lesley Dimmock that the children were to be encouraged to try things, but not forced to eat. Several other parents present confirmed that their children have made the same complaint. The teachers present were unable to confirm or deny so the PTA will ask Lesley Dimmock to make a clear ruling on this, once again.

LD mentioned that Sodexho have been asked to improve the quality of the food and service or their contract will have to be reviewed. Teachers at Urca confirmed that standards had dropped recently.

 LD and FR to raise point at upcoming meeting
6. Other business Suggestion boxes

  1. There have been some queries about the IT policy, both for the Primary and Senior school. FMC will write to Peter Napthine to ask for clarification on the School's IT programme. It was suggested that a Breakfast Meeting on the subject could be a good way to help parents understand the system.

  2. A mother had written to propose the introduction of Catechism classes. In fact the school already organises them but clearly the effort is badly publicised, as hardly anyone present knew about them either. It was agreed that the information will go on to the website.

FMC -letter.RHC to arrange meeting.




CF to add to website

There being no other business, the meeting was closed at 9.10 pm.

NB - New date for next meeting: Thursday 29th October 2001, 7 pm.

JB 05/11/01

 
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