ACMS PTO Meeting Summary
January 8, 2019

Introductions
Present were Coral Cavanagh, Susie Overall, Stephanie Bragg, Jenny Suh, Birgitta Depaoli, Raughley Koehler, Jenni DeWald, and Lisa Laliotis.

Treasurer’s Report and Fundraising Discussion
 Our bank balance is $2,460, with nothing outstanding.
 We’re short for what we’re going to need for the rest of the year.
o $3,000 needed for the 8 th grade field trip and we hope to offset $2,000–$2,500 of the 7th grade field trip.

 Events where the kids attend can present additional opportunities to sell tickets/items.
 Coral will update the Tamale flyer, Jenni will help with the Spanish translation, Birgitta will contact Office Boss about printing the flyer. Aim for distributing the flyer at the Honor Roll Breakfasts Jan 16–18 and as a send-home handout on January 22.
o Any donation gets the donor one chance to win.
o Perhaps announce this at the Honor Roll Breakfast.
o Raughley will make a poster to put up at the Honor Roll Breakfast.
o Close donations on January 30. Draw names on January 31. Pick up on February 1, which is the Friday right before Super Bowl.

 Is there any way to take ownership of some of the school vending machine income?
o Stephanie will look into this.
 We made about $1,500 selling school kits at Cougar Days last year.
o It’s nice to source these locally (Office Boss), but we need to get the order in early (say, April).
 To help next year’s PTO, Raughley will prepare a master calendar of activities that the PTO plans and does.

Principal’s Update by Jenni DeWald
 Natalie Franco is the new Campus Monitor. This role is new to the middle schools. She will be training with the high school counselor and the school will be introducing her to the community.
 Honor Roll percentages are not much different than they have been in the past.
o Honor roll also recognizes and requires good work habits and good citizenship.
o All of the certificates handed out this month will say, “Honor Roll,” rather than some saying, “Distinguished Scholar.”

Open House/Silent Auction
 April 25 is Open House. This event features open classrooms showcasing student work.
o The event typically includes a fundraising dinner hosted by ELAC and last year, the PTO included a silent auction. The dinner and the auction together netted more than $5,900 in 2018.

 We had a good variety of themes for auction item donations, including cooking, golf, home maintenance, art, crafts, barbeque/grilling, winter sports, fitness, movies, and games.
o Once we had received all of the donations, we organized them into themed auction lots. When we needed “baskets,” we used some of the donated items themselves (such as a bucket, bin, case, or other container), or placed the items in attractive, reusable
shopping bags. This avoided the use of excess plastic wrap, but did require that we have monitors for the silent auction area.
o We listed gift cards and alcohol items in the auction item descriptions, but did not place them in the baskets during the auction.
 As a follow-up to last year we will do the following:
o Coral will prepare a thank you letter to send to previous merchant donors.
o Coral will load up the list of merchant donors onto the Google drive, and PTO members can mark which merchants they know and would be willing to contact.

 We need a good way to let the winners know they have won, or at least to get them to come back and check whether they won on Open House night, to help minimize follow-up needed.

Movie Night?
 Our movie license is expiring and will auto-renew if we don’t cancel it.
 TTUSD may have a license that covers our school.
 Raughley is willing to organize another movie night before the end of the year.

School Start Time Committee
 First meeting is this Wednesday.

UPCOMING DATES
 Our meetings will generally be on the 2nd Tuesdays of the month at 7:45, in the ACMS staff room.
 Next meeting March 12 at 7:45 a.m. (No February meeting unless we feel we need a special event planning session.)

ACMS PTO Meeting Summary
December 11, 2018, 7:45 .m.  (Next meeting Jan 8 at 7:45 a.m.)
 
Introductions
Present were Raughley Koehler, Coral Cavanagh, Stacy Russell, Susie Overall, Lisa Laliotis, Birgitta Depaoli, and Kari Chalstrom.
Movie Night Disneyland Ticket Giveaway

• We made $1,385/sold 277 Disney raffle tickets.
  • 234 online, 43 were purchased at Movie Night
• We received a gift card from Safeway that paid for the pizzas. To accomplish this, Raughley asked for a meeting with the manager. Safeway required a Tax I.D. letters, which Raughley prepared.
• We received some other donations.
• We handed out 100 cookies.
• We probably lost a little money on Movie Night; however, this was not intended to be a fundraiser.
• Let’s look at whether the online ticket sales were effective. What other strategies might be effective?
  • Send tickets home with a certain number of kids and encourage them to send them?
  • Have a set of tickets in each home room.
  • Provide materials in both English and Spanish.
• Maybe add a “Boost” post on Facebook.

 
Future Fundraisers and Community Support

• We will send thank you letters to business who donated last year to the silent auction.
• Maybe we can use the list for identifying donors for next year.
• Maybe post the donors names on the website and Facebook as an additional “thank you.”
• Do a TOUCHDOWN Tamales fundraiser again this year. Delay until after January 1.
  • Ask whether Hien can coordinate this again.
  • Announce in Cougar News.
• How can we best say “Thank you” to the person who helps us by making the tamales?
• Provide regular updates on what the PTO spends money on.
• Include a brief list of what we spent money on in the thank you letter.
• The group approved donating our leftover Cougar Bags and school supplies to those affected by the Camp Fire.
• Silent auction this spring – get emails for merchants who donated and send thank yous.

 
 
UPCOMING DATES

• Our meetings will generally be on the 2nd Tuesdays of the month at 7:45, in the ACMS staff room.
• Next meeting January 8 at 7:45 a.m.