Meeting Minutes, June 8, 2005

Attendance:

Wendie Howland, President, Karen White, VP, Ann Prete, Secretary, Cathy Cotti, Treasurer,  Maureen McClellan, Bill McClellan, Ann Marie & David Stoica, Harry Wood 2nd Treasurer, Howie Howland, Jim Parker, Hospitality, Donna Berthelette, Alistair Brown, Lee Casey, Mary McLaughlin

Welcome

Ann Prete called meeting to order at 7:45PM with brief introductions from members present.

Secretary’s Minutes

Meeting Minutes of March 16, 2005 were accepted as is.

Treasurer’s Report

4/2/05 Welcome Aboard brought in $811.  Thank you to all the “youngie” parents who visited the MMAPA table and purchased T-shirts.  Paid out 6 $1,000 MMA Scholarships.  3 final bills included Sea Term mugs, Sea Team mugs (paid for only what we sold) and Patriot Tickets.

Admissions Liaison Report

No report at this time, however, Fuji Fulgueras, MMA Admissions, stopped by and reported 325 deposits have been accepted for the class of 2009.

Website Update

Thanks to Skid Schermerhorn, MMAPA website is looking awesome!  Parents of incoming cadets are signing up.  Many thanks to the parents who submitted FAQ information.  The information is proving to be valuable to incoming moms & dads.

Hospitality Update

Requested vacation guides from the local Chamber of Commerce for future Welcome Aboard day.

Fundraising Ideas

Patriot Tickets – We successfully purchased 2 tickets thru the New England Patriot’s Charitable Foundation.  The tickets are for November 20th, New Orleans Saints with a game start of 1PM.  An MMA parent donated 2 Red Sox tickets for a game in October.  All tickets will be raffled off at Youngie Orientation, Open Houses, Homecoming and any other events between now and game starts. The MMA Foundation has graciously offered a spot in their table for MMAPA to sell raffle tickets at their events.

Falmouth Road Race – SBLI (Savings Bank Life Insurance) are the sponsors of the Falmouth Road Race.  Rich Sherman is one of the co-directors and very supportive of having MMA Cadets run the race.  We look to next March 2006 to recruit any 10 cadets interested in running for their comrades and acquiring pledges from MMAPA.

Christmas Ornament – Stephen Napoli, a parent from RI, assisted in finding manufacturers that would be interested in creating an ornament for MMAPA.  Ann Prete will contact the one of the manufacturers to get pricing and possible sample.

Ann Marie and Karen recommended we purchase a dozen very large duffle bags to have on hand for 1st day of “youngie” orientation.  Those “youngies” who pack in large plastic tubs may want to swap out for a duffle bag.

Karen is working with travel agent on a cruise trip for April 2006.

Other Business

Karen and Wendie have been invited to attend the 3 “meet the candidate night” dinners bringing with them the questions raised by MMAPA.  June 8th was the first night meeting with Commodore Rick Gurnon.  Thursday is Rear Admiral Peter Long and Friday is Rear Admiral John Tozzi.  We were all pleased to learn the voices of parents are important to administration and the Board of Trustees.

On Saturday, June 11th beginning at 10:00AM everyone is welcomed to attend the public interviews of all 3 candidates.  Each candidate will have 1-hour to answer questions asked by the Board o f Trustees.  Immediately following the interview process, the Board will then take a vote (not a secret ballot) and the new President will be announced.  This will take place in the Bay State Conference Room near the Mess Deck.

Karen provided an update on Parent’s Handbook.  She had 100 printed for Welcome Aboard and all were scooped up.  They were a hot item.  Karen and Skid will work on getting this uploaded into PDF format onto MMAPA website.

E-Mail addresses of incoming class need to get.  Karen will work with Fuji.

Wendi presented MMAPA moneys raised a few years ago were given to the MMA Foundation for disbursement.  It was only recently MMAPA took back control of the funds.  From a meeting with an MMA Foundation representative, MMAPA are being encouraged to place the money back into the MMA Foundation to enable them to increase their total funds raised for the purposes of obtaining matching grants from the Commonwealth and other sources. Wendie Howland has been nominated for membership in the Foundation. We are concerned that if our funds are pooled into the Foundation that we would lose the ability to identify criteria for our scholarships and that they would lose the designations of being from the MMAPA. Wendie will get more information on this point and attend the September meeting with a foundation representative and/or Dean of Development, Gary Lowe, providing details of fund uses.

Officers 2004-2005 President, Wendie Howland Vice President, Karen White Secretary, Ann Prete Treasurer, Cathi Cotty Admissions Liaison, Open Hospitality Liaison, Jim Parker

Elections -- Officer for 2005-2006 President, Karen White Vice President, Sandra Parker Secretary, Ann Prete Treasurer, Harry Wood Admissions Liaison, Jim Parker Hospitality Liaison, Open

 

Next Meeting:  Wednesday, September 21st @ 7:00PM, Blinn Hall