International School of Älmhult Parent Teacher Association Core Team
Meeting minutes from 2015-08-20
Attendees: Alinda Dias, Camilla Binz, Christopher Baker, Li Ahlsén, Krista Baker, Mia Thunqvist, Sarah Brownrigg, Simran Sachdev
Absent: Eja Tuominen, Maria Haglund, Parul Bhargava, Valley Leoni
No / Topic1 / Welcome and introduction
Mia opened the first PTA core team meeting of this school year and everyone introduced themselves. We welcomed our new member Sarah.
2 / Last meeting minutes
The purpose of the meeting held on May 27 at Camilla’s house was to decide on events for the coming school year.
Follow up from last meeting:
· Krista has added PTA events to the Google school calendar
· Krista has followed up with Madeleine that a PTA tab can be created as part of the ISÄ website (www.almhult.se/international)
· At the previous meeting we talked about that Krista will create a survey for teachers about the teachers’ expectation and engagement towards the PTA and the class parents. Now we discussed that instead of a survey, Krista will find a good time to bring up these topics to the teachers and summarize it at one of the following core meeting.
3 / Upcoming events
Welcome lunch on Friday, Aug. 28, noon
Sponsors: Li, Camilla
Place: Haganäs Restaurant School room
Food/drinks: The restaurant school is providing food at 50 kr each. They will offer chicken/vegetarian main course and coffee with cake.
Agenda:
· Talk about the PTA activities
· Explain the class parent tasks
· Ask if someone is interested in joining the core group
· Introduce what Ämhult has to offer in terms of after school activities
· Q&A
Invitation: Included in the Newsletter from Aug. 18. Li will send a reminder via Managebac latest by Tuesday, Aug. 25
Others: Organisers will mark the way from the entrance to the room
International Pot Luck Party with Open Mike on Friday, Sept. 11, 17:30-19:30
Sponsors: Not needed – we make it a common effort since planning is minimized due to the open event
Place: The Haganäs Canteen. Krista will book the canteen between 17-20
Food/drinks: Pot luck so everybody will bring both food and drink (specify on invitation). Mia will buy plates, mugs, cutlery, napkins
Agenda: No agenda, open mike
Invitation: Mia will send out via Managebac with email notification by Wed. Aug. 26. Li will update this event in Managebac calendar.
All Parents Meeting, Wednesday Sept. 16, 4:00-5:50pm
Sponsor: Mia (coordinate agenda with school and other speakers)
Place: Haganäs Auditorium. Krista will book the auditorium.
Food/drinks: Camilla asks if the MYP3 students want to provide fika for their fund-raising
Agenda: Mia to send out suggestion and core members to give feedback. The agenda includes 20 min. mingling since that has been appreciated.
Invitation: Mia will send out via Managebac with email notification by Wed. Sep. 2. Li will update this event in Managebac calendar. This event is already in the school’s Google calendar.
Other: Fritids and pre-school are open, so parents can book the extra time if that is outside their scheduled times. Include this info in the invitation
Halloween party: Fri Oct. 23
Sponsors: Sarah & Christopher. They will call for a meeting and book venu
Others: Similar to Valentine day disco set up? Class parents to be involved
4 / Class Parents
Information about class parents have been included in welcome introduction from the school. The teachers also talked about it during the information on Thursday, Aug. 20.
Krista will summarize the status on what classes have class parents by next week before the Welcome lunch.
Class parent explanation document: Li will add some words about the Fun Fair
5 / PTA Fee
The base is previous year’s All Parents’ Meeting when we decided to introduce a member fee of 200 sek per school year per family.
Approx. 20 families paid during 2014-2015.
We decided to keep the amount. Li will add that from this year, the fee is mandatory in the PTA fee document.
Once we get the “bankgiro”, members can make bank transfers. Until then, we have to do with cash and “Swish” transfer.
We need to have a common explanation on how the PTA funds are used, and how the class funds will be administered (bank sub-accounts). We should also have a general recommendation how to use the class funds to be transparent to all parents. This will also clarify what the PTA and class funds are not meant to go to.
We will work on this wording, suggestion to do that at the next core team meeting
6 / Communication
Managebac is our preferred way of communicating with all parents. (Check “notify by email”)
Also communication to:
· PYP via Peter
· MYP via Krista
· All school via Linda
· Pre-school via Peter – and clarify that it relates to Preschool
Printed handouts: If we have handouts, we should have them ready on Thursdays to go into the homework folders.
Li has created an email address , password hagabo17
Valley has been asked to be admin.
7 / Organizational
New potential core team members: Stina Håkansson, Jeanette Gutenberg
Registering the PTA is ongoing by Mia
8 / Others
Year book: Camilla will check year book options. If we decide to make one, we will involve students.
9 / Next meeting
Nov. 19, 7pm, Alinda’s house at Allégatan 2
Minutes taken by: Mia Thunqvist