9/26/12

Agenda 9/26/12
     1. Approval of Minutes
     2. Reports
     3. CG Discussion & Poll
     4. Golden X Motion
     5. Intercom Motion
     6. Bylaw Revision
     7. Notes & New Business

“If you make the tough decisions, people will hate you today.  But they will thank you for generations.” -The Iron Lady

Council Minutes 9/21/12

1. Approval of Minutes
2. Reports:
[Mod] Since the CG proposal wasn’t well known by the school community, the vote will be pushed to next week . We will have a presentation on it today so you can spread the word in common ground and in the school. Make sure you get student feedback.
[Treas] The money allocation on the agenda will be postponed.
[DSB] Meeting next Tuesday the 25th. I hope to see you there!
[PR] We need a picture of the New & Tuition  Student Reps.
[Curric] We are continuing to review the bylaws and are creating a timeline for our goals.
[Admin] We talked about the MLK meeting and the Intercom Motion.
[OEC] We are working on Freshman Class Committee. Any Freshman who want to join email Ethan Gorman.
[SL] We discussed the possibility of sending announcements via school email. As an incentive to read them, the Golden X Motion was drafted. It will be brought next week.
[SA] We discussed the upcoming Quidditch tournament. Remember to help with sign-ups if you volunteered.
[COI] We discussed the 1:1 Tech Initiative. We decided we needed more research on the benefits, the cost, and how prepared the school community is for this initiative.
[Mrs. Addante] The Historical is meeting next Thursday before school. If any Council Members have ideas on how raise awareness of council’s history or its contributions to the school come to the meeting or email Mrs. Addante at Linda_A@Yahoo.com.
[Isaac] There is a race fundraiser in the winter that supports Athletics in kids. $8,000 will be awarded to the school who brings the most kids.
[Catherine C] I have a grant from the Festival Children Foundation to improve the lives of the youth in New Hampshire. If you have any ideas or want to help please come talk to me.
3. Common Ground Presentation:

• There has been discussion that the goal of CG, which is to improve the student-to-student and the student-to-teacher relationships, isn’t being met due to frequent cancellations or distractions. These include announcements, March Intensive meetings, presentations, guest speakers, class meetings, etc. In an effort to improve CG, various plans were drafted. Plan A is currently on the table. The purpose of this presentation is to inform Council Members, so they can then inform the school. When we meet next Friday there will be a poll to gauge the general opinion on Plan A. We hope to hold an open forum Thursday, October 4th  during activity period to answer questions and continue discussions. All Students, Staff, and Community members are encouraged to attend to help answer questions.
• Plan A:

1st Thurs:  full CG as usual

2nd Thurs: half CG:  9&10 stay in CG;  11&12 go to Aud for a program

3rd Thurs: full CG as usual

4th Thurs: half CG: 10&11 stay in CG; 9&12 go to Aud. for a program

Note: The combinations of grades can vary on half CG days.

Morning Meetings:

The program may consist of a guest speaker, a performance, class meetings, administrative issues, club presentations, etc. The half CG present at the morning meetings will sit together and take attendance.

The original intent of CG is not being violated by the new morning meetings. Instead, the goal will be achieved in a new way. In this way students of different grades will still interact in keeping with the goals of CG, but in a different format. We hope to have most of the morning meetings run by students, to promote our students and communication within the school. An example of a student-run meeting would be the Haiti club, which holds a meeting every year to talk about fundraising and their trip to Haiti. Because it would be a student run meeting, clubs could make announcements.

• Questions:
• Will there be a committee to oversee this new process?

Yes. There is a standing Committee on Common Ground.

• Why was this plan made?

There was concern that CG didn’t meet enough; sometimes 5-6  weeks passed without CG meeting once. Also there was concern that with the unstructured time in CG, students and teachers left alone would get bored or sink into awkward silences. CG didn’t seem to be reaching its goal, and there were multiple motions brought to COI over the past years to disband CG. Therefore COI adopted a goal to review CG.

It decided to focus on two areas: “1. That CG time needed oversight, an accountability piece that has not existed, and 2. that if we were going to remove all the things that people felt had bogged down CG previously, we needed a new venue to share that information,” (CG Committee Report to COI).

• What are other ways to get announcements out?

TV monitor, CG Website, email, etc.

• How soon would Plan A go into effect?

If approved, a pilot program would start as soon as we can get it running. It will then be evaluated at the end of the year.

• What would happen if there was downtime in the morning meeting?

There will always be something going on.

• Will the Committee on Common Ground be bigger than council?

It’s an open committee, but for the pilot program we want to keep a tight group. Students are welcome to help though.

• What is council’s role in this process?

Council will be the catalyst for discussion. By next Thursday in CG we will be able to answer questions and help create discussion. We want to get the school’s opinion.

Meeting Adjourns.

9/21/12

Agenda 9/21/12
     1. Approval of Minutes
     2. Reports
     3. Common ground presentation
     4. Money Allocation
     5. Bylaw Revision
     6. Notes and New Business

“Say yes if your instincts are strong, even if everyone around you disagrees. Decide whether you want to be liked or admired. Decide if fitting in is more important that finding out what you're doing here.”  -Eve Ensler

Council Minutes 9/14/12

1. Approval of Minutes
2. Reports

• [Mod] Thank you to everyone who helped at the Open House. Remember no eating. Also look over the goals for your committee and try to create a timeline to get things done. Freshman are coming to Council Sept. 28th. Start coming up with fun motions!
• [Amod] Bylaw Notification for next week: I move to amend the Bylaws by replacing the title 2011 with 2012.
• [DSB] The next DSB meeting is Sept. 25th. Be there!
• [PR] Council Board is still being updated. Please share our facebook page.
• [SL] Bylaw notification for next week: We want to strike the climate committee because it’s goals are already taken care of in SL. Other committees such as Terms of Service Committee, Wellness Committee, and the Drug Use Committee will also be removed. We have now changed the sprinter van compaign to the mini-bus campaign. We also want to create a ping-pong club.
• [SA] We need people to man the Quidditch sign-ups during activity period from Sept. 24-28th. Sign up please!
• [Curric] We are continuing to review the bylaws.
• [OEC] We had new and tuition student elections! The new members are Brendan Amos, Santiago Navarro, and Meredith Ferneau.
• [Admin] We discussed the MLK assembly and the Skip Bean Democratic Award. There will be a document about the Staff Appreciation Award sent out shortly.
• [Mr. Bourne] We need volunteers to help with the Red Cross Blood Drive Sept. 18th.
• [Fifi] March Intensive proposal forms are due Sept. 28th. The March Intensive Committee meets Tuesdays during Activity period and after School. If you have any questions talk to Mrs. Stevenson, Mr. Prince, or Fifi.
• [Rowan] There needs to be more research on the intercom motion. I am going to make an amendment to the referral so that the motion goes to Admin.
• [Brendan] There’s a neon dance Oct. 6 from 8-10:30PM!
• [Mr. Berube] The USSYP (United States Senate Youth Program) takes two students from every state down to Washington D.C. for a week and offers a $5,000 scholarship for college. Hanover is allowed to nominate one person, so if you are interested Mr. Campbell has to write your recommendation by Oct. 14th. The only requirement is that you must be in an elected official in a leadership role. Talk to Mrs. Stevenson or myself if you have any questions.

3. Intercom Motion

• Amendment: I move to amend the referral to read “I move to refer the Intercom Motion to Admin”.
• SL seems busy at the moment, and this motion needs more time and communication between all parties.

Debate closes.
Motion passes.
4. Other Committees
Below are the current members of ad hoc/other committees:

· Nick Beard Opinion Board Committee: Mrs. Doyle, Katherine Bradley, Catherine Collison, Elizabeth Sachsse, and Henry Butler.

· Athletic Advisory Committee: Mr. Jackson, Fifi Walker, Jeffrey Li, Valentina Sedlacek, Brendan Barth, Molly Cornell, Grace Croituro, Wiley Little, and Liesel Robbins.

· Historical Records Committee: Mrs. Addante, Ford,  and Chan Kim.

· Technology Committee: Mrs. Patten, Mr. Berube, Rowan Dunfey, and Eleanor Patten.

·Committee on Common Ground: Mr. Smith, Henry Butler, Christopher Washington, Molly Cornell,  and Kelsey Smith.

· March Intensive Committee: Mrs. Stevenson, Jin Kim, Fifi Walker, Valentina Sedlacek, Henry Butler, Ethan Gorman, Liesal Robbins, and Erica Hinck.

· Environmental Impact Committee: Mrs. Kornfeld, Mr. Lavigne, Wiley Little, Simon Turkington, Liesel Robbins, and Valentina Sedlacek.

*If you want to join any of these committees talk to Katherine Bradley.
Meeting Adjourns.

9/14

Agenda 9/14/12
  1. Approval of Minutes
  2. Reports
  3. Intercom motion
  4. Other Committees
  5. Notes and New Business

“Have convictions. Be friendly. Stick to your beliefs as they stick to theirs. Work as hard as they do.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt

Council Minutes 9/7/12

1. Approval of Minutes
2. Reports
• [Mod] So food is not allowed in the auditorium. Also, we need somebody to say the pledge of allegiance each morning.
• [Amod] Make sure you take a few minutes to read the minutes before we approve them. Also, please come to Exec, Wednesday at 7:30!
• [DSB] The next DSB meeting is Sept. 25th.
• [PR] Thank to everyone who helped with Civitas presentations! We got 6 new likes on FB! Keep spreading the word.
• [SL] We discussed the possibility of sprinter vans.
• [SA] We are working on Winter Carnival. We also have dates for various school spirit days.
• [Curric] We set a timeline for working on the bylaws.
• [OEC] We worked on New/Tuition student elections. We will have new members next week.
• [COI] We discussed a motion on common ground.
• [Mr. Prince] Get involved with March Intensive! If you want to run or be a part of one: see the March Intensive committee, get a faculty advisor, and devise a plan by Sept. 28.
• [Mr. Smith] Know the CCCC; We passed it, so stick to it.
3. Intercom Motion
• Motion: I move that after the morning Pledge of Allegiance, there be no intercom interruptions during the school day, except in cases of emergency.
• The intercom is disruptive, except in cases of emergency. To get announcements, we could rely on: sports captains, coaches, CG announcements, the TV monitor in the atrium, visits to individual classrooms, and personal responsibility.
• clarifying questions:
• What classifies an emergency?

Fire drills, lockdown drills, bus changes, etc.

• When are classes interrupted?

For reminders for sports games, recycling, club meeting times, etc.

• Debate:
• Let’s encourage personal responsibility. It’s up to captains, teams, and individuals to be responsible for their own schedule.
• Most teams have websites,emails, phones, and word of mouth to spread announcements.
• I don’t think the 30 seconds used to interrupt class for an announcement outweighs the benefit of finding out if a game is moved. The captain might forget to tell players, or some individuals might not find out in time.
• We should have guidelines defining essential v.s. nonessential information.

• Amendment: I move that after the morning Pledge of Allegiance, there be no intercom interruptions during the school day, except during activity period, passing time, and in cases of emergency.
• Clarifying Questions:
• How would captains get the message during the middle of class? How would they get to word out to the entire team?
• Debate
• It’s hard to hear announcements during activity period and passing time.
• We should refer this to student life to get a more specific plan.
• We don’t communicate very well as a school. The administration doesn’t announce every piece of information that gets passed along to them. The intercom is used with great constraint.
• Amendment: I move that after the morning Pledge of Allegiance, there be no intercom interruptions during class time except for last minute sport cancellations, bus schedule changes, or in cases of emergency.
• It is unreasonable to expect athletes and captains to run all over the place trying to find out information when they don’t have the time.
• Motion: I move to refer this motion to Student Life Committee.
• There’s more to be done, and we need more input from the student body and teachers.

Meeting Adjourns.

Agenda 9/7/12

Agenda 9/7/12
           1. Approval of Minutes
           2. Reports
           3. Intercom Motion
           4. Notes & New Business

“Whatever life holds in store for me, I will never forget these words: ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’ This is my gift, my curse. Who am I? I'm Spiderman.”

-Peter Parker, Spiderman

Council Minutes 8/31/12

1. Approval of Minutes
2. Reports

• [Mod]Welcome back! I’m excited for the new year. As of now, no food in the auditorium; I will try to work it out.
• [Mr. Campbell] I’m excited to work with Council this year. It is on my schedule, so hopefully I’ll be able to make most of the meetings. I look forward to getting to know you individually as the year progresses.
• [Amod] Thank you Mel for such a great Council retreat!
• [DSB]The DSB met last Tuesday. I’ll  send out an email before the next meeting.
• [PR] Civitas Presentations! Please sign up if you are free next Thursday. Also the Activity Fair is next Friday!
• [Curric] Our COI rep is Rowan, alternates are Valentina and Matt.
• [Henry] COI meeting next week will be about CG; come see me for more info.

3. Community Rep Approval:

• Motion: I move to approve Linda Addante as a community representative.

Debate closes.
Motion passes.
4. Meet in Committees

• Committees met to decide meeting times and places, as well as goals. Committee Chairs, meeting times, and meeting places  can all be found on the Hanover Council Website.
• https://sites.google.com/a/hanovernorwichschools.org/hhs-council/committees

5. Council Photos

• Council members took photos by class.