UMSI Meeting: January 10, 2009 I. Call to Order: 10:15 AM Members attending: -Jessica Flaherty: The Montessori School of Westfield, Westfield -Marilyn Horan: Bunche, Ft. Wayne -Tammy Lake: Towles, Ft. Wayne -Laura Harants: Arlington; Ft. Wayne -Sandy Strantz, The Montessori School of Westfield, Westfield -Robin Fowler; Little Flower Montessori, Zionsville -Tara Slagel; The Northside Montessori School, Indianapolis -Whitney Kinkel: The Montessori School of Westfield, Westfield -Mark Nardo: Indianapolis Public School #56 -Cecile: The Montessori Academy of Indianapolis A. Conference Materials presented -folder will include: -welcome letter -notepads -name tags -conference schedule -conference agenda -maps of Towles and Bunche -certificates for presenters and participants B. Conference Update -posters will be printed for each classroom -table cloths will be ordered -checks have already been turned in: given to Sandy to give to Treasurer Bob Strantz -Towles/Bunche already assigning people to classes -some parents are coming -IPFW, Manchester, Taylor, other universities have been contacted -Early Childhood Meeting Place has also been contacted -Presenters will be given two certificates: one for presenting and one for participating *breakout conversation: people wait until the end to register...don't panic about registration numbers yet! *Towles Print Shop will do any print job for a non-profit (for a smaller fee) C. Treasurer's Report: -The UMSI Indy's Child Open House ad bills have been sent out. We've received most of the payments. *Please keep track of how many people come to your school during the Open House this Sunday: post a sign-in sheet *People can request that their children go to any school in any district as long as they provide transportation IV. Spring Conference A. Facilitate regional groups (1:30-2:30): -if we don't get volunteers, we will need to appoint people -Mark Nardo will facilitate the Central Regional Groups Meeting -Whitney Kinkel might be facilitator for North Regional Group Meeting - UMSI will appoint the other faciliator(s) b/c they don't need to be from their regions *State Standards people might be able to speak with just the Heads of School to address the legislation that is about to go through. B. What should be discussed in these groups? -getting a committee head: will need to set up actual committees and find members -what are your needs? More interaction? More training? More contact/networking? -What do you see for the organization in the future? -What is working for you right now? Parent involvement piece that's working? -How can we best network with you? What's the best way to keep in contact? -How often would you want to meet? C. What supplies will we need to bring? -UMSI Conference signs D. Discuss the change of time for the heads of school and regional meetings: *Heads of School Meeting (8:30-9:30) will be at the same time as Regional Meetings...what can we do? -Will continue into the 1st session or the 1:30-2:30 session. E. Where will these meetings be held? -Locations: North: media center; Central: big gym; South: cafeteria F. Posting of sign to inform conference attendees of change: -no need for signs because the times aren't changing G. Volunteers to man the UMSI table during the conference: -people just need to be there between sessions: -we'll have people sign up to volunteer -Towles and Bunche will man the registration table -UMSI will man the UMSI table -people can sign up and actually pay to become members -Ask Mike Flaherty if he's attending. If so, then can he man the UMSI desk? H. Other details for discussion? Maps and flags? -we will have walkie-talkies to communicate soon -Whitney and Jessica will take care of pin map -the regions will be outlined beforehand -Can we have a Question/Answer table for Special Education questions? These are things that need to be done before the meetings are held: *we will need a flow chart/hierarchy of UMSI members *we will need guidelines so that people aren't doing things in the name of UMSI without UMSI consent V. Report on Web Site VI. Discuss next step in completing the member list, as well as a list of everyone who attended the conference in Ft. Wayne: -Towles secretary; Trisha Kiefer, will be inputting data along with date that member first joined; position, cluster, type of school, AMS or AMI affiliation, addresses, etc. Make sure that a zip code sort is available VII. Report by Whitney -MUST have parents on board! VII. Report by Robin about her discussion with the Cincinatti group -Jo Wilson, Head of Cincinatti organization there. The org. has been going downhill lately so she was asking Robin what we're doing to get people to their conferences, etc. One of the things they do is that they have workshops scheduled for just two hours plus a keynote. She's hoping we can do a regional conference to work together. Their org. has been around for over 20 years and they already have established a way to make connections so that we don't have to start at the beginning. We can share vendors and speakers, too. Cincinatti is close enough for us to help them and for them to help us and also for their members to visit our conferences. They have a Montessori high school which is a great model. Over time we're wondering how to sustain this excitement and "freshness" of our agenda. -why don't we set something up so that we do the fall conference and they do the spring conference? IX. Discussion of a membership card? -Marilyn will see if it's possible to print those off at her Print Shop -can we do an UMSI brochure: what you get as a member and goals for the future -What will it look like? -the Membership number can also be their member login on the website (5 digit - year: 00001-08) -lifetime memberships: possible? we will think about it X. New Business -can we find somewhere like Ivy Tech that will host a certified trainer for training groups? -can we work together to open up assistant training to all schools? -should we send membership certificates or window cling? Or both? Same design as website? -Where will we hold the Fall 2009 conference? -Possibly at Public School 91? Principle: Margi Higgs (Mark will contact) -What about the middle of October? -Should we include a "Save the Date" card for October 17th? -Everyone will check their calendars and get back to Mark Nardo. -We'll set up a summer session for writing the Bylaws: all day at Public School 56: during a week day XI. Writing of the Bylaws -we need to decide who will be on the board and for how long and how they are nominated -will we offer lifetime membership? -what are membership benefits? -how do we decide whether or not a "school" is a member? -lifetime versus a 5 year option? --Mark passed out a sheet on universal Bylaws. Very helpful! XII. Adjourn: *Jessica will check with Mary Lyman about whether or not we've sent home registration to the parents for this conference