Friends of SW Charter Monthly Meeting

October 7, 2014

Dates to Remember:

• October 9^th Girl Scout Drive to Benefit NW Children’s Outreach Ends
• October 10^th No School
• October 24^th Run for the Arts Final Deadline for all money to be turned in
• October 30 & 31^st Goal-Setting Conferences (students & parents attend)
• November 4^th FOSWCS Meeting 6:30 pm @ Elephants on Corbett
• November 6^th Morning Community Coffee in the Great Room

 The first part of the meeting was dedicated to planning for our Annual Dinner & Auction.

Auction 2015 Kick Off!

This school year’s auction theme is: Go Green Gala: REspect, REnew, REward

Chris Beckley revealed his beautiful auction poster.

The auction will be Saturday, February 28^th from 5-9 pm at the Multnomah Athletic Club.

Similar to last year, we’ll have a cocktail hour upstairs along with the silent auction (100 items), Make it Mine, Wall of Wine, Sign Up Boards, and class art projects that are not live auction items.

The Dinner and Live Auction will be downstairs after the silent auction is complete.

Our goal for 2014 was $50,000. We grossed over $60,000! This year’s goal is $60,000.

The auction chairs have done some research to determine what items sell the best at SWCS auctions.

The top live auction items from last year included:

• VIP Parking Spot
• Star in Next Adventure commercial
• My Big Dream 3^rd/4^th Class Project
• OHSU Life Science Building Tour
• Handmade Row boat
• Kindergarten Class Quilt
• Five Nights in Maui

The top silent auction items from last year included:

• Cloud City Ice Cream Tour
• 6 dozen eggs from Chiara Thayer’s chickens
• Minecraft Creeper pillow
• 2 handmade zipper pouches
• Rachael Austin art
• Portland Thorns tix
• Handcrafted Joinery breadboard
• Your Child Can Be Kathy for a Day
• Manchester United soccer ball

Conclusions

• Local, handcrafted and hip auction items sell very well!

Last year, Amie Wexler contacted about 20 artists on the Craftywonderland vendor list. She received a great response! If you know artists who sell their items at Last Thursday or boutiques, ask them for a donation. If you see something you like in a store, write it down and get in touch with that artist.

• Also, local sports team swag and tickets sell very well.

 

• Restaurants gift certificates are also a big seller. We offer them at face value and people readily purchase them. We want to hit up more restaurants this year. Ask servers at your favorite restaurants or any restaurant owners you may know for a gift certificate donation.

 

• Things that do not sell: personal care (e.g. acupuncture, chiropractic, massage, haircuts, personal training), clothing, shoes (unless signed by an athlete), artwork (unless it’s local, funky art).

The auction committee provides procurement tools to help families procure at least one item. Tools include:

• Printed request letters on school letterhead
• Sample request emails
• Donation receipts
• Donation forms

Also, social media is one of the best ways to make procurement requests – Facebook, Twitter, and email. Regular email and face to face works great too.

To get ideas of who to ask for a donation, think about who your friends are, who they work with, and who they know.

Procurement categories:

• Restaurants
• Local Hotels
• Vacation Destinations
  • Disney
  • Sunriver
  • Ski Resorts
  • Mexico
  • Las Vegas
  • Oregon Wine Country
• Jewelry
• Hip Local Artwork
• Portland Film/TV
  • Grimm
  • Portlandia
  • Laika
• Local Sports
  • Timbers/Thorns
  • Trail Blazers
  • Hillsboro Hops

Sponsorships

Companies who become auction sponsors receive recognition in all community email blasts, press releases, printed materials, auction and school web sites, advertising in our live catalog and on the big screens on event night. This year we have expanded the sponsorships levels. They range from $150 to $5000.

Josh Kirby and Sarah Mutal are working on sponsorships this year, but they are also looking for a 3^rd person to shadow them in order to learn more for next year’s auction.

If you know a local company that might want to be a sponsor, let Sarah know.

The Sponsorship team will be contacting many S. Waterfront businesses and those included on the S. Waterfront Business Association list.

Volunteers – We are looking for many volunteers for this year’s auction including:

• Sponsorship Shadow
• Classroom Art Project Coordinator: Oversee progress
• Classroom Art Project Lead: So many ideas on Pinterest
• Online Auction Coordinator: Runs April 27-May 4
• Procurement Team Member: Pick a sector and start. We need as many as possible!
• Item Input Team Member: One day per week. Enter donations into auction software. Christina Cartwright is coordinating the input team.

Auction Coordinators:

Site & Event Night Chair: Sarah Gilmore

Procurement Co-Chairs: Juli Kirby and Carrie Hartley

Sponsorships: Sarah Mutal, Josh Kirby, Lorien Sekora

Marketing & Design: Lorien Sekora, Chris Beckley

Item Input Coordinator: Christina Cartwright

Classroom Art Project Coordinator: Mandy O’Donnell

Online Auction Coordinator: You!

The second part of the meeting was dedicated to regular Friends of SW Charter business.

Open Forum Community Comments

Marlene recognized Christina for all her hard work. Yeah Christina!

Kathy needs adults to be on safety patrol in the morning. Please contact Kathy if you are interested.

Block Party Recap

Very positive response!

Staff liked the fact that it wasn’t at the school grounds. Parents felt similarly. Mandy did a great job with activities and Melissa did a great job with decorations. Really good mix of ages and alumni.

Amie expressed concern about clowns Olive and Dingo. Some of their artwork is adult. It is difficult to find an inexpensive clown/balloon people. Next year we’ll have more time to plan. Mandy has someone in mind for balloons next year. Red Yarn puppetry would be a good idea for next year too.

Open FOSWCS Positions

• Auction Sponsorship Shadow
• Room Parent for Sarah’s class – Hanne asked whether a student could do the job. Christina will ask Sarah.

Run for the Arts Update

• Went very well!
• Sarah and Adrienne did a great job. Hanne will handle post-event duties.
• Kids ran more laps this year.
• Assembly will be in November
• Idea for next year: Pairing younger kids with big kids so that older kids run a little harder.

Staff Appreciation Committee (Melissa Allen & Christine Bravo)

• Melissa has distributed her wonderful likes/dislikes and classroom needs survey to the staff. We are still waiting for a few more to be turned in.
• These surveys are a great resource for Class Reps who are in charge of getting teacher gifts or coordinating efforts for staff appreciation.
• The Staff Wishlist will go up on Sign Up Genius soon.
• The Staff Appreciation Committee plans staff potlucks for holidays, back to school, and conference days.
• Staff Appreciation Week is in May.
• Melissa is working with Anne to plan another Work Party Day. They will compile a list of things teachers would like done as well as school-wide projects.

 

Fall Fundraising, Chinook Books (Elise)

We wrapped up Chinook book sales last week. We made $1168! That’s double what we made last year. We all liked the collection envelopes that were distributed this year. Elise has a few more books available for sale. Contact her if you would like one.

Community Life Update (Harmony)

Harmony Spangler & Amber Weikel are this year’s Community Life Committee

They are responsible for our monthly morning coffees, restaurant nights, and community building activities.

Coffee will be donated by Marigold Coffee. We are still looking for a tea donation.

Pizzicato “Dough for Dollars” fundraiser will be November 18^th.

Black Friday Roller Skating will be November 28^th at Oaks Park $7.50.

Financial Update (Nicki)

Nicki is our treasurer. Nicki and Christina will turn in our auction and Friends budgets in at the next Board meeting.

For a Google Docs version of these minutes, click here.