MONA SHORES EDUCATION FOUNDATION

MEETING MINUTES

May 13, 2008

Bonnie Adamczak        Lynn Diffell                   Shelley Hall                  Kelly Meyer

Terry Babbitt                Shannon Gaultney         Andy Hogston              Beth O’Neil

Kathy Bremer               Todd Geerlings             Gary Langlois               Susi Potter

Jennifer Bustard            Bob Grevious               Mike Mack

Minutes

Last month’s minutes were approved.

Community Foundation Balance: $134,518.12 (loss of $8,150.00).  Checking account balance: $7,492.70. 

Mike Mack stated that Bob Driscoe had passed away and also, Joann Melrose.  Both were long time Mona Shores School employees.

The Wine Tasting Event made $5,802.24.  Everyone agreed that it was a very successful, fun event that we would like to continue to do next year. 

Skating Parties:

The two skating parties brought in $1,520.00.  All who attended the parties stated that the kids had a great time.  The MSEF Board thanks Tim and Susan Hrynewich for their generosity in hosting these skating parties and donating the proceeds.

A while back, a representative from Vontage contacted Mike Mack and was supposed to attend one of our meetings to bring us up to date on the MSEF web site.  Since Jason left, no one seems to know who is maintaining our website.  Lynn Diffell stated that she posts all the minutes and Board member changes on our website.  The following questions arose:  Does Vontage charge us a maintenance fee?  Is this something that we could do in house, possibly the high school web design class?  Mike Mack will try to contact Vontage and have a representative come and talk to us to see what our options are.

Mike Mack asked for an update on the Middle School Weight Room.  Andy Hogston reported that it is in good shape.  We were able to get a deal on some used Hammer Strength equipment from Byron Center Schools.  The weight room is being used and will be fully functional by Fall 2008.  Andy invited everyone to stop in and take a look at it. 

Lynn Diffell asked how many new members still needed MSEF binders.  Eight people responded – Lynn will supply them at the next meeting.

There was quite a lengthy discussion on the teacher’s Mini Grants, Grant Criteria and individual requests for Student Grants.

Teacher Mini Grants/Criteria:  The guidelines/criteria for the teacher mini grants will be finalized before the beginning of the 2008/2009 school year.  Terry Babbitt, Mike Mack, Ann Cardon and Andy Hogston make up the committee to establish the criteria.

Student Grants/Scholarship/Criteria:  The Board decided that we will still consider every student request for funds.  Helping students with additional funds was one of the original goals of the MSEF.  The Board would like to continue to do this; however, guidelines also need to be made to help decide who gets the grants and how much will be given.  A focus group was formed to develop these criteria:  Susi Potter, Bonnie Adamczak and Mike Mack will work on establishing guidelines and present them to the Board.  Katie Bolhuis will be contacted to see if there was ever a form that the student had to fill out. 

Presently, we have one request from a student.  Mike Mack will let the student know that his request is under review.  The Board will make a decision on this request after the criteria has been established.

The Mona Shores Optimist Club has June 20^th, 2008 Party in the Park date.  They would need the MSEF to supply 30-40 volunteers for this date.  In return, we would receive $500.00.  After some discussion, the Board decided that we would want a set percentage of the profits, rather than a flat out fee of $500.00.  For example, if we are supplying 25% of the volunteers, we would want 25% of the profits.  The Optimist Club wants a guarantee that we will have 30-40 volunteers, not just a couple of people show up.  They have been burned in the past.  Gary Langlois will go back and see if he can negotiate with them.

If we are interested, Kathy Bremer has a connection to get the president of the Muskegon Big Reds Club to come and talk to the MSEF Board.  The Big Reds Booster Club is very successful with fund raisers, etc.  It was agreed that we would like to have him come and talk with our group.  Kathy will try to get him for our June meeting.

Gary Langlois told the Board about a possible fund raising idea.  With the tremendous amount of home foreclosures, HUD is offering any state government body an opportunity to purchase a HUD house for $1.00.  You can then turn around and sell the house for any amount you wanted..  He is going to check into whether or not MSEF would qualify and what our responsibilities would be as far as taxes, etc.

The MSEF Board will not meet in July and August.  Our June meeting will be our last meeting for the summer.  Please note that due to the last day of school being June 10^th, the June MSEF Board meeting will be held on the first Tuesday, June 3^rd at 4:00.  A reminder will be sent out.

The MSEF meeting adjourned at 5:05 p.m.