Cambridge International School

Parents’ Association

Annual General Meeting

Minutes for meeting held on

Wednesday 13^th May 2009

Present: Clodagh Barker, Marion Reusch, Harriet Sturdy, Becka Atkins, Louisa Powell-Owens, Paula Smith, Maria Weglowski, Ros Mills, Stephanie Clements, Karen Mitchell, Fiona Donnelly, Barbara Fernandez, Dorte vom Endtwozny, Vikki Hughes

Apologies: Tracey Stokes and Lisa Butler

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Chairman’s Report

Clodagh welcomed everyone to the second CIPA AGM. She detailed the events that CIPA has arranged and funded over the last year including Summer Fair (2008), a social evening for parents in October 2008, a social event for years 10 and 11 and a Valentines disco for the juniors. We also held a successful Christmas fair 2008 which raised the sum of £1300.

Clodagh outlined the events to come this year: a bowling trip for years 7, 8 and 9, a trip to London to see Mama Mia (Year 6) which CIPA hopes to make an annual event for Year 6’s in the term before they move up to seniors. Our annual summer fair will be held on 7^th June at Cherry Hinton Hall.

Clodagh highlighted the suggestion made by Louisa Powell-Owens previously that we may benefit from having parent class representatives attending the committee. It was agreed that this would be passed over to the new committee for consideration.

Clodagh has decided to stand down as Chairman of CIPA and ended by saying how much she had enjoyed being part of the developing CIPA organisation and thanked both past and present committee members for their support. She also gave particular thanks to Dr. Harriet Sturdy for her constant support and to the other members of school staff who have wholeheartedly supported and helped with CIPA events.

Thanks were also extended to Ros Mills for her work as the first CIPA Treasurer and for all that she did in setting up our financial procedures, keeping our spending in line and generally helping to get CIPA off the ground.

Clodagh handed over to Maria Weglowski who took over as Treasurer after Christmas 2008 for the treasurer’s report.

Treasurer’s Report

Maria reported that over the last year we have raised a total of £2285 and spent £1988 on social events and school equipment.

Our current account stands at £1448 and we are awaiting £500 to be returned to the CIPA account from the insurance money received for the stolen television screen.

£300 has been earmarked for playground equipment.

If anyone would like a copy of the accounts, please contact Maria.

Parents’ liaison officer report

Marion explained that the purpose of this post is to help new parents, particularly those who come from abroad, to access local facilities and get to know other parents. Mary Greer passes on names of new parents to Marion and she then makes initial contact.

Marion has produced a Welcome Information Pack for new parents on local facilities and activities which is available in print and via the school web site.

Marion has set up a Google Message Board for parents and she regularly posts details of family activities taking place locally. It currently has 50 members and she encouraged more parents to join up for updates. It was acknowledged that this was an incredibly useful resource and Marion was thanked for the effort that she puts into sourcing these activities.

Marion is hoping to set up a once a term CIPA cafe where parents old and new can meet up for a coffee and chat. She will liaise with Dr. Harriet Sturdy regarding when the hall can be used.

Election of officers

Clodagh explained that there was one nomination for each of the posts as follows:

Chairman: Stephanie Clements
Secretary: Lorna Anderson
Treasurer: Maria Weglowski
New Parents’ Liaison: Marion Reusch

As there was only one nominee for each post it was decided that there was no need to vote and the committee was elected as above. There were no objections.

Thank you to Clodagh

Dr. Sturdy expressed our unanimous thanks to Clodagh for her sterling work as Chairman and for being instrumental in setting up and championing CIPA when the school was first opened at Brookside. Clodagh was presented with flowers as a token of our appreciation.

Clodagh handed the meeting over to Stephanie Clements the new chairman.

Stephanie Clements

Stephanie thanked Clodagh and said she looked forward to working with the committee and other parents in continuing the success of CIPA. Stephanie explained that she is a relatively new to the school, her daughter Amy joined Ionian after Easter and she looked forward to getting to know both parents and staff better in her new role.

Any other business

Summer Fair: Lorna has agreed to co-ordinate the fair. The following issues were discussed.

• Clodagh will purchase food for the BBQ and provide BBQ and gas.

• Barbara will buy the food for the teas. It was agreed to use some of the cakes provided by parents to accompany the tea and coffee.

• Paula and Marion will purchase some prizes this week to be allocated to stalls

• Vikki has raffle under control. Dr. Sturdy said we had a large soft toy that could be raffled along with hampers and £50 prize. Vikki will liaise with Dr. Sturdy regarding list of families to send out to.

• Eamon and Vincent will provide some musical entertainment.

• Lorna will send out letter to parents regarding list of items needed and request to help on rota.

• Ros Mills will man the plant stall.

• Dorte & Becka will be responsible for cake stall. Dorte will arrange for plates to be sent out to Junior and Infant classes. Lorna will provide plates.

• Clodagh will provide an awning for the BBQ in case of bad weather.

• Kim Clegg agreed to approach Parkside Fire Station to see if they can provide a fire engine for the day. If this is not possible Becka Atkins will ask if her husband can come along with his ambulance.

Bowling trip for years 7,8 and 9: Dr. Sturdy will send out a reminder to parents after half term. She and Mrs Young will accompany the children and we will need one other parent to go along. The bowling has now been paid for in full by Maria. We will be paying for one drink per child and Dr. Sturdy will provide Maria with the invoice for this after the event.

CIPA Google Account: Lorna has set up a Google account so the committee can share and work on documents such as Summer Fair Task List and the rota for stalls. Parents can now contact the committee via their individual email addresses or via the CIPA email address: cipacommittee@googlemail.com

Date of next meeting: Monday 1^st June 2009 at 7.30pm (Cherry Hinton Hall) to finalise plans for the Summer Fair.

Minutes for meeting held on
Wednesday 7th May 2008

Present: Clodagh Barker, Ros Mills, Harriett Sturdy, Vikki Hughes, Kerry Sexton, Becka Atkins, Barbara Fernandez, Fiona Donelly, Lisa Young, Nadja Shaw, Alison Dye, Monica Krylander, Inger Marie Sarenson, Dorte vom Endtwozny, Zorina Pintar, Gilles Chevallier, Claire Cameron.

Apologies: Lorna Anderson, Kim Clegg

Chairman’s Report:

Clodagh welcomed & thanked everyone for attending the meeting & then explained that Cambridge International School Parent Association (CIPA) had been unofficially formed last year by a small group of parents. The group, with the kind help of some of the parents & teachers hosted some very successful events. These included the Summer Fair, Blues Night, Lantern Festival & the Christmas Fair.

Clodagh stressed that it was important that to be able to continue with these events it was necessary to formalise CIPA so that we could lay down good codes of practice which would help us to control spending & profits & also to comply with bureaucratic requirements & legislations.

Clodagh told us that a steering group had been working on setting up a more formal parents association.

CIPA has joined the National Confederation of Parent Teachers Associations through which we have obtained insurance & guidance on good practices.
It was decided not to form a charity as it was not a legal necessity & would have burdened CIPA with too much legislation & costs.

It was decided that CIPA would adopt a constitution. Clodagh asked if we could vote to adopt this later in the meeting. All parents had been sent a copy of the constitution last week.

Clodagh also said we would like to ask & vote for nominations for the various officer posts to run the association.
Two sheets were handed round for volunteers to forward there details offering to become a Committee Member or a CIPA Helper.

Clodagh expressed that the steering committee had identified the primary responsibilities of the new committee. These are: to ensure that each event complies with legislation of licences, health & safety, child protection & the correct spending of the monies raised.
Clodagh expressed the committees desire to continue with the school summer & Christmas fair but would also like to hold some discos for the children.

Clodagh expressed great thanks to all those who have helped & supported events in the past and special thanks to DR Sturdy & members of the school staff.

Clodagh handed over to the treasurer Ross Mills.

Treasures Report:

Ros handed out a financial report showing profits & expenditures for the year, April 2007 to April 2008.

This showed that the profits were as follows:
Summer Fayre    £983.40
Blues Night   £393.00
Xmas Fayre   £742.98

Purchases for TV, Catering equipment, stationary, notice board & NCPTA membership amounted to £1139.75
With the donated opening balance being £250.00 interest being £1.57

This gives CIPA a grand total of £1231.20 ( £2.18 is held in cash )
Anyone wishing to have a copy of the financial report please see Ross Mills

Ros reported that sadly the big screen TV that was bought by CIPA for the school was stolen last term. Fortunately the schools insurance policy would replace it.

Ros stated that allowing for upcoming expenses & cash flowing the summer fayre CIPA could afford to spend up to £800.00 & would welcome any ideas as to what we could spend it on.

Ros also reported that she was in the process of drawing up treasurer guidelines & had found two parents willing to check & sign off the accounts.

Vote on the Constitution:

Clodagh pointed out the two main objectives of the proposed constitution

To raise funds in order to supply extras or organise events for the children that would not ordinarily be provided for by the school.
To organise social events for both parents & children.

The vote for the constitution was unanimous.

Vote on the committee members:

The Nominees were as follows:

Chairman – Clodagh Barker
Treasurer _ Ros Mills
Secretary - Lorna Anderson
Liason Officer – Marion Reusch

As there was only 1 nominee for each post it was decided there was no need to vote.
The new committee was elected as above.
There were no objections.

Expenditure of funds:

Clodagh raised a discussion regarding how the committee should spend the funds of £800.00

Ross suggested catering crockery i.e. mugs for our social events.
Lisa young suggested some wall games for the playground. Lisa had very kindly down loaded some information on various games off the Internet. Harriet said she would check with the council as to whether we could put games on the wall. There may be a problem as it is a listed building.

Other suggestions were book cases, tables & benches (possibly with games on the tops of the tables), shade canopy, more sports equipment, interactive white board & a climbing frame for the infants.

It was agreed that the children’s school council could make some suggestions as to what they would like to spend the money on.

It was agreed by all present that CIPA should go ahead & buy some mugs.

The next meeting will be on Monday the 12th May 2008 at 7:30pm at Cherry Hinton Hall.

Clodagh expressed thanks to all who had attended & the meeting was drawn to a close.At