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Writer's pictureLindsay Semph

November 2020 FOGS Meeting Notes

Wednesday, November 11, 2020, 7:30pm


Intro & welcome to all attendees - 7:35pm start


Board members present:


Angie Yarusso

Lindsay Semph

Jamie Militello

Omari Bektemba

Mary Nisi

Joanna Miner

Hilary Scharmann

Nicole Dalesandro

Genevra Knight

Derek Becker

Andy Distel

Amanda Bull (7:39pm)


Follow Up On Actions from last meeting

Omari sent teacher and principal appreciation dates


Website Updates have begun - email database is migrated and first email was sent via Wix. Additional work begins this week.

  • www.FOGSchool.org

  • If you haven’t received an email that went out, please subscribe through the FOGS new website

  • Website will include a place for volunteer opportunities

Survey & parent outreach - Nader connected Angie with BAC and PAC leaders so we can start sharing efforts and getting more insight from the bilingual community.

  • Meeting w/BAC & PAC next Tuesday to share initiatives, also were invited to our meeting tonight. The Tuesday meeting is 1pm; Andy will join Angie

  • Jamie and Nicole helped with how to handle this

  • 3 key things Admin wants: Food for families in need, funds for families in need, and clothing for families in need - Barb has a decent amount of little kids’ clothes but in need of older kids’ clothes; we could use registry.com that can share what’s in need and wouldn’t commingle with FOGS accounts; Admin is asking us to help with especially with sharing out, not us actually doing the legwork

  • We can add the school’s logo to the flyer and not the FOGS one because it’s not a FOGS initiative

  • Different partners are on registry.com like Kohl’s

  • Would it be better to connect Goethe to orgs like Cradle to Crayons who do this for a living? We could reach more families that way. Lots of options -- we’re advocates helping and trying to get others involved

  • Jamie will reach out to Cradle to Crayons to see if they could add Goethe to the list

  • https://www.cradlestocrayons.org/chicago/


Initiatives Status /Updates:


New Annex Building - Jamie & Amanda

  • As a committee, we did the thank you letter

  • Could we get kids saying thank you in a video?

Recruitment - Joanna

  • Went really well virtually, definitely went better the second time; will jazz it up more in the spring after acceptance letters go out; planning on doing a video too

  • Hillary and Joanna will connect about this

STEAM - Angie

  • Waiting on feedback to come in from teachers


Fresh Market Sponsorship

  • Fresh Market is IN on sponsoring ALL of our fundraising events AND wants to help us get $40k through his communities! We would get space in the store to sell things like tickets or a donation centers; we have access to his store that we could help with

  • Could have a weekly recipe feature from the cookbook

  • Need to think about how we want to leverage this

  • Could use Fresh Market parking lot for a drive in event, would supply snack bags for families for our events, etc (Goethe’s Got Talent could be popcorn, candy bar, apples, etc)

  • PNC Bank would also be able to be leveraged


Cookbook Committee - Mary

  • Met last night; there’s a cookbook fundraiser site we’re looking to use

  • how we made the yearbooks is what we can use to use this; will definitely need a proof of concept first (have an annual subscription for the yearbook program)

  • Made a recipe form for folks to fill out; will need someone to translate into Spanish; 75 pages, 200 books, online companion, potential YouTube channel

  • Price: pay-what-you-can for our immediate Goethe community

  • Deadline: Feb 1 for recipes and have them ready by April 21 Report Card pick-up

  • We could sell ad space or get local restaurants to share recipes; ad space could be sold to parents to send little shout outs for their kids.

  • How do we get kids as involved as possible? Could ask them to edit YouTube videos, do a contest for the cover

  • Next step - write the copy about how we want to tell people about what this is and add to the website

  • Rick will be working on branding pieces for all of our great fundraisers

  • Will need to ask teachers, other Goethe parent groups to help with sharing

Walk Bike Run A-Thon - Omari

  • Working on scheduling a meeting still

  • This is likely something for springtime

Goethe’s Got Talent - Angie

Goethe Game Night - Angie

  • Haven’t had a meeting yet, but Derek started pulling together a draft

  • Angie will schedule a call for next week to start pulling pieces together; need to figure out the best way to coordinate this logistically

Goethe Fest - Rick & Derek

  • Sound & lights quote

  • Mary offered her sound and DJ expertise and materials; Mary and Rick will connect to figure out what we need from the sound/light contracted individual and what Mary can provide

  • Let’s wait until January to really kick off planning since social distancing will really control what we can and can’t do

  • Goethe space isn’t maybe as easy to navigate than a parking lot like Fresh Market; Goethe has ~26000 sq ft of usable playground space (but some is dirt)

  • LSC would have to vote on the event

Apparel Design & Merch Shop - Hillary

  • No movement here yet, Hillary is working on it

Finance Update - Genevra:

  • Total assets after gift cards given to teachers: $131,304.92

  • Recent revenue: $7500 of sponsorship revenue from last fiscal year because it’s something that came in late for LBOTS

  • Sales of the yearbooks: $810

  • Costs: printing charges related to yearbook; flex seating purchases, ipads, STEAM items for Library, and Amazon gift cards = $17,715 spent so far; still waiting on the volleyball net system which will be a few thousand dollars

  • Angie will share financials at monthly LSC meetings for transparency purposes; Angie or Genevra will get FOGS report to LSC 48 hours in advance of each meeting; finances are and will also be available publicly via monthly meeting minutes on website

  • Considering a year-end org report that includes financial aspects


FOGS Funding Requests:


Follow up from last years requests (all need quotes to propose a vote)

  • New chairs for the gym

  • Rolling floor cover for the gym

  • Risers for the stage

Do we want to do a social push for Giving Tuesday on Facebook?

  • Angie proposes a vote on a social push for Giving Tuesday since Facebook will match all donations

  • Andy seconds

  • Vote passes, 12-0

Main & Principal office needs

  • Blinds

  • Smart TV for presentations in conference room


Meeting close: 9:33pm


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