Eileen Horton

Lisa O’Rourke requested that Eileen Horton read the proposal on the amendment to the bi-laws: Board Meetings will be held one hour prior to each of the Mothers’ Guild meetings.
All present agreed to the amendment with none opposed.

School Report - Mrs. Mary Ellen LaRose

Thanks all the parents for supporting the school. Grateful for the volunteerism in school, as the school could not operate without parent volunteers.
Thank you to:
- Christina Ungar and chairs of the Craft Fair (Lisa Monaco for the Raffle Table, Margie Dalia & Suzanne Shea for the Kitchen, Linda Edgar & Diane McGregor for the 50/50 table, and Patty Yereance and JoAnne Jempty for the Bake Booth) for a job well done
- Lynn Simonetty & Patty Yereance for organizing and developing the Scrip Card fundraiser
- Maria Lehner and her husband, Eric, for their efforts in organizing and running the Galleria Night of Giving fundraiser
- Diane Madden and Laura Thomas for running the Family Fun Night.
- Barbara Moran and Trish Santiago for the Fall Mum Sale.
Upcoming Events:
- 11/27 Second Grade First Penance
- 12/13 Christmas Concert for grades K,2,4,6,8 and Band
- 12/19 Progress Reports
- 12/20 Christmas Parties for each class
- 12/21 – 1/2 Christmas Recess with early dismissal at 11:30 on 12/21 – No After School Program 12/21

President – Lisa O’Rourke

Motion to waive reading of last meeting minutes: Carol Quaid and Diane Madden
Additional thank you to:
- Christine Hickey for running the BJ Membership Drive
- Suzanne Shea for the 26 Week Club Raffle
- Kim Vidulich & Debra Timmons for the Fall Fundraiser
- Barbara Moran & Trish Santiago
- Christine Hickey & Anne Martin for the Artwork fundraiser

Treasurer’s Report – Mrs. Kim Saba

Current balance: $8,946.57
Fall Fundraiser earned: approximately $3,200.00
Craft Fair earned: $7,351.50
130 26-week club tickets have been sold earning. First drawing on 12/4
SMMG has transferred $7,500.00 to date since the beginning of this school year
$2,000.00 advance went to the Scrips program for the pre-purchase of Hannaford’s cards
$1,500.00 advance to Sabrina Pilon for the Children’s Christmas Shoppe purchases
BJs membership drive raised $380.00
Family Fun Night raised $438.00
Galleria Night of Giving raised $350.00

Financial Secretary’s Report – Jennifer Lindros

93 paid Guild members to date.

Breakfast with Santa Report – Lynn Simonetty & Diane Madden

Volunteers are needed; please check brown envelope notice for signups

Sun Dec 16^th
$5.00 per person or $20/ family of 4 or more
Do not need any additional volunteers
Tanya Rathbun offered the use of her printer as an additional printer
Angela Molina recommended using a Polaroid instead to save time in printing

Cookie Walk Report – Carol Smith

Sun Dec 16^th - Same day as Breakfast with Santa
Brandon Conde to help for community service
Barbara Moran will supply scales again
Carol Smith requested money for 30 to 35 platters for the cookies
No volunteers needed
Requesting homemade cookies (no store bought like OREOs please)
½ hour can be applied to volunteer time if baking
drop off cookies Fri or Sat after mass
Still have plenty of boxes
Carol Smith to coordinate with Kim Saba for table linens

Christmas Parties – Patty Yereance

Santa will come
Grades K thru 4^th will get an ornament from Santa
Grades 5^th thru 8^th will get a candy cane
Trying to reserve the antique fire truck
Barbara Moran said last year she tried to maintain a goal of spending $1.00 or less per child

Box Top / Campbell Soup – Lynn Simonetty

Box Tops has earned $279.00 this year
Please make online purchases through the BoxTop Marketplace because a percentage goes to our school
The Campbell Soup program earned enough for us to be able to purchased a digital camera; it will be kept in the office and could be used for Breakfast with Santa

Thrift Shop

The Thrift shop has raised $5,000.00 since September

Art Fundraiser – Lisa O’Rourke for Christine Hickey

Artwork goods will be delivered on 12/14 and sent home with your children with the exception of ceramic mugs. They can’t be sent home for safety reasons and must be picked up at school
Total earned TBD

Lunch Duty & Price Chopper – Lisa O’Rourke for Suzanne Shea

All positions filled
Question was raised about 7^th grade; 7^th grade may need another parent volunteer
12/17 is the deadline for the Price Chopper shopping fundraiser

Uniform Exchange – Lisa O’Rourke for Trish Santiago

Don’t have to give to take
Located just outside the lunchroom

Script Program – Patricia Yereance and Lynne Simonetty

Program in which gift cards are purchase through the school and the school receives a percentage of the purchase.
Face value sold to date: $10,700.00 which has earned us $716.73 since October
Church angel program is going to buy Scrip Cards
Hannaford has agreed to participate at 20%; Adams at 10%; and Smokehaus @ 12%
Cards can be sold to anyone; however, pick up must be pre-arranged
Patty and Lynn are working to set up a sale for the members of the parish; orders will be taken one weekend after church, and then the following Sunday, cards can be distributed
Working to eventually sells cards direct; need to have more cash to purchase cards up front

Catholic Schools Week – Lisa O’Rourke

Kickoff is Sunday, Jan 27^th @ the 9:00am mass
Carol Cantarella and Sabrina Pilon will head the reception & open house that Sunday
Later in the week the school will have:
- Ice Cream Social (headed by Linda Edgar) and the Grandparent’s Day (headed by Diane Gocha, Lisa O’Rourke, & Suzanne Shea). 8^th graders will also help during the day.
- Also that week the children will have a Class Choice dress down day
- Teacher Appreciation Day headed by Patty Yereance (SMMG provides breakfast for the teachers)
- Open House on Tuesday
Tanya Rathbun offered her husband’s services (he is a chef)

Penny Social – Kim Saba

Saturday, February 2, 2008
All families will have to donate an item of value no less than $5.00 (can be used but preferably in its box). It’s a good time to regift if you got something for Christmas that you don’t want and are willing to donate as your Penny Social item. Families can donate more than one item.
Examples of goods donated in the past are: Games; household items like candles, jewelry, perfume, lotions, soaps, etc. No Clothes or shoes please.
Theme baskets are then made with the items donated
The Kitchen is open that day; simple fare; Carol Smith and Christine Moroney head the kitchen. They solicit donations for the kitchen.

Fashion Show – Carol Quaid and Barbara Moran

Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel on Sat, March 30, 2008; Tickets are $35 / person; full dinner and show
240 people attended last year; 20 stores participated; many models used; more adult models requested for this year
Lydia from Marist will help again this year along with the Marist students
Sponsorships range from $100 to $1000. Anyone willing to sponsor or knows of someone willing to sponsor contact Carol or Barbara
Raffle baskets will be made by Joan Smith & Jane Michnowski again this year
David Cartelli will help out again this year; he will donate another Prada bag
Tanya Rathbun’s mother works at Fashion Bug and will ask her if Fashion Bug would like to participate

Other Items:

Carol Smith posed the thought of doing a Carnival in the month of August
Angela Molina asked why we haven’t done a chocolate candy bar sale; Lisa O’Rourke and Mrs. LaRose said that we don’t do it because it is a forced sale (meaning each family must buy the boxes of candy whether or not they sell or not)
Coffee Pots have been purchased and will arrive in time for the Breakfast with Santa
Angela Zielinski polled the Mothers’ Guild via email regarding pot luck meetings; consensus was that we would not do the pot luck.
Spin art machine was purchased 6 years ago and needs repair; Jennifer Lindros said her husband would fix it
Eric Lehner evaluated Craft Fair raffle table ticket sales to determine what were big sellers; Maria Lehner reported that food (Restaurant Gift Cards or certificates) were the big sellers; even Walmart and Adams card did well.
Maria Lehner and Shauna Erdogan will look into creating a master list of donors that can be posted on a secure website
Sabrina Pilon & Jennifer Lindros will be putting together a central repository for instructions on how to run each of the fundraisers; Jennifer to look into yahoo groups for posting them on a website for only SMMG members to access.
Shauna Erdogan recommended using RNN for free advertising, especially for the Craft Fair, Penny Social and Fashion Show.
Happy Birthday Barbara Moran!

Motion to close was made by Tanya Rathbun and Angela Molina.

Meeting ended with a prayer.

Respectfully submitted,

St. Mary’s Mother’s Guild