The meeting was called to order at 7:10 p.m. in the Chef’s Hat Restaurant by Laurie Vertefeuille.

Attendance: Laurie Vertefeuille (PFO President), Al Wilder (PFO Vice President), Karen Ford (PFO Treasurer), Corinne Fitting (PFO Secretary), Angie Chirico, Sherri Von Edwins, Kristen Michaud, Lisa Ward, Tina Abell, Fred Ashton (Assistant Principal), Mary-Paule Monks (Guidance Office), Sandy Campbell (Guidance Office)

Secretary’s Report: Minutes from the December 12 meeting accepted with no changes.

Treasurer’s Report: Checking Account Balance is $2,246.23 (although $746 are held for reimbursement to other organizations). Ms. Ford made up keys for the cash box for the President and Vice-President so there are duplicates just in case. Ms. Ford noted that a disbursement to the Student Council from the cheesecake sales was made this month.

Old Business:

Ms. Michaud and Ms. Abell presented an update on the cookbook fundraiser. The initial mailing with forms requesting recipes, a reservation sheet for pre-ordering a cookbook and a form for placing ads went out in the report card mailing as planned, and they are beginning to get responses from parents and WT staff. The due date is January 31, and we should have the cookbooks back by April 15. The contests for students to design the cover, section artwork, and titles are underway. Culinary students have been encouraged to submit recipes for extra credit. Mr. Murad has sent notices to staff encouraging participation. Ms. Hair is looking for help with writing the dedication page. They’re also looking for suggestions for extra pages that are available – history of the school; photos; special on students who win the contests? Is it feasible to get group pictures of each of the 4 classes? Ms. Monks thought the class photos would be fairly easy. Dr. Ashton offered to check with Mr. Murad on getting the electronic forms for recipe submission, etc., onto the web.

Mr. Wilder is working on getting the additional information on an insurance policy for the PFO, will have more info next month.

Discussed the proposed changes to the PFO By-Laws and Constitution. Additional edits were suggested by Ms. Michaud, Ms. Monks and Dr. Ashton: Need consistency in capitalization of officer titles in both documents. Constitution Article V, Section 5: “or” should be “of”. Article VIII: should specify the funds would go to the Student Activity Fund in the event of termination. “By-Laws” needs consistent hyphenation. Article I, Section 4: add language recommending an independent audit of the books annually. Article I, Section 5: delete “They” (begin with “Shall…”). Article III: dues should be a “minimum of” $5, allowing us to increase without changing the By-Laws each time. Ms. Fitting will make the changes and e-mail the revised document to the group. We’ll vote on the changes at the next meeting.

Ms. Chirico is working on the tech-wear fundraiser flyer. However, Ms. Vertefeuille has concerns about the quality of the tech-wear we’ve been receiving lately. She shared samples, and they are just not up to par. The fundraiser flyer is therefore on hold until this quality issue can be resolved. We discussed having the vendor come in with samples of better quality items. Ms. Michaud offered a contact in the same business and Ms. Vertefeuille will talk to them as well. Ms. Monks offered to e-mail the coaches and class advisors to see where they are getting their tech-wear and if perhaps we could collaborate. An issue with changing vendors is the potentially high cost of setting up our logos, etc. with another vendor.

Mr. Wilder looked into the arrangement with the Alumni Association on the bottled water sales. The Association will provide bottled water to the PFO (and other organizations at the school). The bottles are sold for $1 each, which the PFO keeps, and the Alumni Association will then match the sales, dollar for dollar, with a cap of $3000.

New Business:

We want to develop a better contact and support of the athletic teams at the school. We are looking for a volunteer to be the PFO contact person and to link up with Mr. Cervizzi. We want to explore getting volunteers to sell the bottled water at the various sports events at the school. Ms. Monks offered to obtain all the sports schedules and get them to us. Perhaps students in the Leadership Group or Stars program could help with the water sales. Ms. Monks will check on that.

The District-wide PFO meeting is at Central Office on Monday, January 22. Ms. Vertefeuille and Ms. Ford are considering attending.

Ms. Noll, the WT Yearbook Advisor, asked if PFO would be interested in placing an ad in the yearbook. We have money from bottled water sales, so we will take a ¼ page ad for $50. Ms. Ford wrote the check out and Ms. Monks will get it to Ms. Noll. Ms. Fitting will e-mail Ms. Noll and let her know what we want to put in the ad. (Congratulations Class of 2007 from the Windham Tech PFO – Good Luck!)

The next meeting is scheduled for February 13, 2007. There is no school that day, but the school should be open. We may have to switch to the 3rd Tuesday if it is a problem.