Meeting Commencement
Co-Vice President Kristin McDonald opened the meeting at 6:35pm with 13 parents present.
 

Secretary's Report
Brenda Brown presented the Secretary's report. Motion was made, seconded and approved to accept the secretary's report as presented with the following corrections;
. BJ's is issuing the PTO a membership card and not a credit card for future PTO purchases.
. Family Movie Day was to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and not Harry Potter and the Quest for Fire.
 

Treasurer's Report
Kim Gauvin presented the Treasurer's report. A copy of the latest bank statement was included in the report. Motion was made, seconded and approved to accept the treasurer's report as presented.
 

Old Business

RISE Textbooks
The 5th grade RISE program booklets arrived and are currently being used with great enthusiasm!

School Address Books
The J.R. Briggs Elementary School Address Books are ready to be copied. We sold 107 copies. Due to limit constraints on the copiers we are on hold for copying and thus delivery to the parents. We hope to have the books copied by the end of next week. If not, we will do our best to have them done and ready for delivery when school reopens in January. We are giving serious consideration to offering next year's books as early as October for the 2006-2007 school year.

Grade Level Raffle Baskets
Raffle ticket sales are low but still coming in. Ann Horgan and volunteers will have tickets available at the concert on December 15th. The winners will be drawn at the Holiday Concert on the 15th as well. The number of donations that came in, for the baskets, were less than in the past but still bountiful. The baskets look great!

BJ's "Adopt a School" program
The teacher "wish-lists" have been gathered and delivered to our BJ's "Adopt a School" program representative. She will get back to us on which requests they can fill. It is likely that BJ's will still provide gift cards for the Father/Daughter and Mother/Son dances this spring.
 

Mini Grants
A committee has been formed to evaluate the requests and allocate the appropriate funds to each teacher or grade. There is still room for a few more people on the committee. If interested please contact Kelly Behringer through our mailbox at school, at 827-6009 or RFBEHRINGERCPA@comcast.net. Once the requests have been reviewed, the committee will make recommendations to the members of the PTO. The PTO will review and discuss the recommendations and the teachers will be notified of their mini grant allotments. The PTO is allotting approximately $5,000.00 for the mini grant program. If, at the end of the school year, our spring fundraisers are successful consideration will be given to offering an additional mini grant to the teachers.

Spring Fundraisers
The Dippin Dots franchise has approached a member of the PTO and volunteered to host a "Dippin Dots Day" at any of the Ashburnham schools as a fundraiser. The J.R. Brigg's PTO discussed the option and its benefits and decided to decline the offer at this time.
Raeanne Clark will have more information on a Pampered Chef fundraising program at the January meeting.
Ann Horgan will have more information on the J.R. Briggs T-shirt fundraiser at the January meeting.
Becky Pilsbury presented a brief overview of Katherine Beich's Cookie fundraiser and Yankee Candle's Spring Fundraiser. After discussing the items offered, time frames, profit percentages and interest we decided to decline the Cookie fundraiser and ask representatives from both Yankee Candle and Genevieve's to come to the January PTO meeting and provide a 15-20 minute overview of their fundraising programs. Becky will contact both Yankee Candle's and Genevieve's representatives.
** The next PTO meeting will begin at 6:00pm to insure enough time
for fundraising presenters and our regular business.**

PTO President Opening
Letters of interest were received by Ann Horgan and Michele Gianino to co-preside the J.R. Briggs PTO for the remainder of this school year. A motion was made and seconded to accept the letters of interest and elect both Ann Horgan and Michele Gianino as Co-Presidents for the remainder of the 2005-2006 school year.

Wizards Basketball Game
The Wizards (basketball) game against Ashburnham and Westminster teachers, players and volunteers is scheduled for Sunday, January 22nd at Oakmont High School at 2:00pm. Presale ticket flyers will go out once school resumes in January 2006. The Muggles team players are being solicited from all the schools in the district. The PTO will purchase Tshirts for the team. The Westminster Elementary PTO is helping in all areas of the event as well. Hotel accommodations are being supplied for the Wizards team. Gay will be working with the Wizards, Lisa Westbrook, Dan Dubrule, local papers, and Channel 8 on the event publicity. Ann Horgan will work with Oakmont to ensure we have the correct facility, technical and audio supplies/equipment for the day.
Volunteers are STILL needed for several stations that day. If you are interested in any of the following stations, please contact Gay Houghton at: 827-1248 or kootzleska@yahoo.com; Concession Stand, Ticket takers, Set-Up and Takedown, Clean-Up, BJ's stock run and coordination of baked good donations.

Bring a Loved One to Lunch
The annual Bring a Loved One to Lunch has been successfully attended. Parents, Grandparents, and special adults have enjoyed the opportunity to have lunch with their children!

Teacher Holiday Gifts
Teachers created wish lists for their classrooms and these requests have been sent home to the parents. The PTO's suggestion of presenting gift cards to the teachers seems to have been well received.
 

New Business

Father/Daughter Dance
Tammy Johnson is chairing the Father/Daughter Dance scheduled for Friday, February 3rd, 2006. The photographer and DJ have been booked. The evening's program will be more structured to ensure more interaction of daughters with their fathers. Due to rising costs in all areas, the ticket prices will go up slightly to $15.00 a couple and $8.00 for additional daughters. The Garden Shed will be approached to see about pre-ordering corsages and flowers. Ticket flyers will go out in early January and baking donations will be solicited for as well.

Fall Fundraiser
Katherine Beich is interested in presenting their program for us to use in the fall of 2006.
Genevieve's is interested in presenting their program for us to use in the fall of 2006.
We will be reviewing both these company's programs in January and February of 2006 for the Fall Fundraising programs. If there are any other programs that you would like the PTO to review please let us know by dropping a note in our mailbox at school or sending an email to beckymp411@yahoo.com

Meeting Closure
Co-Vice President Kristin McDonald closed the meeting at 8:15pm. Thanks to all the parents who came to the meeting. We look forward to seeing your return to future meetings and the upcoming PTO events and invite parents, teachers and staff who missed the meeting to attend the next PTO meeting on Thursday, January 12th. If you wish to be removed from the minutes email distribution please let me know.

Please note that the next meeting; Thursday, January 12th will begin at 6:00pm in order to allow enough time for fundraiser program presentations and our regular meeting business.


Respectfully Submitted,
Brenda Brown
PTO Secretary