University of North Texas
Parent Association
Spring Meeting
1. President Elizabeth Cheney called the meeting to order at 9:17 a.m. in the Gateway Center following the “Spring Goody Box” stuffing. Minutes from the Fall Parent Association (PA) meeting were disbursed and reviewed with no discussion from the membership. A motion to approve the minutes as submitted was tendered and seconded. The motion was approved; the minutes are accepted.
2. Officer Report
a. President - Elizabeth talked about the Spring Social held at the Super Pit in conjunction with a UNT basketball game. 230 people RSVP’d and 150 attended. The event cost the PA $1000.00 and the office of Transitions picked up the remainder. Elizabeth said that she had received good feedback on the social. Elizabeth asked the members to begin thinking about new ways to market the PA and acquire new business for the PA.
b. Vice-President - Sheryl Jordan discussed the on-line survey recently conducted on behalf of the PA. 1600 surveys were sent out and we received 127 responses (see attached). 60% of the respondents were annual members and 14% were 2 year members. 85% of the respondents were satisfied with the PA. Sheryl discussed the reasons for non-renewal from the survey; several respondents stated they live far away and don’t get to participate, and several questioned if the PA could do things “regionally”. Sheryl asked the attending members what their thoughts were on the subject, and one member recounted how her email must have gotten dropped and she didn’t receive anything from the PA; that she had to get the information “oh her own”. The membership agreed that if the PA is “going to use technology to communicate”, then use if effectively, making sure that email lists are current, etc. Elizabeth interjected that it’s very important that we all stay in constant communication and that email is the best route for that, along with the PA Facebook page.
c. Historian - photo’s need to go into the album on the PA Facebook page. If you are at a UNT event and take pictures, please send them to and she will add them.
d. Secretary - no new business; minutes already submitted and approved.
e. Parliamentarian - no report
f. Treasurer - Melissa gave an overview of the PA financials. The PA has a couple of accounts, and they are “university” accounts so that they remain tax exempt. Melissa pointed out that this is “key” as she can assist with the $$ if the PA is short on funds. Scholarships are funded by a lifetime endowment, and the interest from the endowment is what is used to fund the scholarships. Usually the scholarships are for $1000. Financial Aid department administers the scholarship program. Merchandise sales profits also fund the “draw” scholarships. The philosophy is to “get as much to the students as possible”. Due to this, the fund gets fairly close to “zero” each year. The transitions department pays some of the costs of things like calendars, while the PA pays for the post cards. The bottom line is that it’s ok if we get “close to zero” each year, as we are trying to get as much $$ to the students as possible. Mike reviewed the budget (see attached). The fund balance is $30895. There was discussion from the members asking if the budget was going to be revised to show the lower cost of goody box stuffing materials. A question was proffered from the floor asking if we need to approve the budget at this time vs. at the end of the fiscal year in September, and the answer was no, this is just the mid-year report. A motion was made and seconded to accept the treasurer report. Motion approved. Report accepted.
g. Legislative report - Melissa discussed how UNT is doing well in the legislature. UNT has been approved for 2 new buildings; one for Science, Technology, and Research, and one for Art. The membership asked if new housing was being considered to allow for increased enrollment, and Melissa advised that housing for returning students was a challenge at times. Melissa said that enrollment should increase, that the freshman class looks like a 10% increase, bringing enrollment to over 36,000 students. The Union starts shutting down in May 2013, and Stovall Hall will be the temporary Union. The new Union should be completed with remodeling by August 2015.
h. New Business
i. Membership renewals - an incentive is going to be introduced that allows for students whose parents renew early to be automatically included in Draw Scholarships. The membership asked if we are soliciting PA memberships at the summer send off parties. Elizabeth said that we are trying to get all of the parties covered with PA board members and we would advertise/accept membership applications at the parties.
ii. Summer Orientation - Elizabeth covered the summer orientation dates. Catherine is going to put all of the dates on the PA website. Elizabeth urged new parents to sign up for parent orientation and for members to urge new parents to attend. Parents can stay at “Honors Hall” during orientation.
iii. 2013 Merchandise - Elizabeth reviewed the merchandise program. The current process of ordering at the beginning of the school year and then re-ordering when the supplies get low isn’t working, so all of the years’ merchandise is going to be ordered up front. The $$ is the same, it’s just being spent at one time versus at various times throughout the year. Elizabeth said that all of the “sale” merchandise is going in a $5 bin for orientation. The membership posed the question “can we have a drawing to give some of the $5 bin inventory away to those who join at orientation?” Sheryl Jordan made the motion that we take 2 of the 50 draw scholarships and give them form new members; 1 for renewal and 1 for new membership (lifetime members and 2 year members are added in when they update). The motion was seconded and passed. Melissa noted that moving out of the union had the adverse effect of no storage for merchandise. Melissa suggested that we use the vendor on-line store and receive 3 shipments of merchandise throughout the year. We would have to pay 3 shipping costs. Elizabeth stated that she knows some UNT alums that have warehouse space in Irving; maybe we could get all of the merchandise shipped at the same time and stored in Irving. There was lengthy discussion regarding this, and it is tabled until it can be investigated further.
iv. Pop-up Banners - Catherine discussed the pop-up banners. An example was examined, and the membership felt it was a good investment. A motion was made, seconded and approved to purchase one.
v. Tri-fold membership form - there was discussion about the tri-fold form; that maybe we could use a 5 x 11 inch card, printed on both sides instead. We made 500 tri-folds last year and we need 5000 this year. We can get the cards for around $2000. Motion made, seconded and approved to go with the cards.
vi. Elizabeth reviewed upcoming dates; specifically Family Weekend in October and Homecoming in November. Mitch is donating the footballs we throw, and is providing a trailer/truck for the float. We will build the float on the Friday before Homecoming. Elizabeth will send more information about that later on in the year. Everyone was reminded to buy the large bags of candy AFTER Halloween to bring to be thrown from the float. We may allow parents to ride bicycles in the parade with the float.
With no further business the meeting was adjourned at 10:51 a.m.
Drawings for the “Draw Scholarships” to follow.
Respectfully submitted,
Tony Hill
Secretary