Extraordinary Meeting July '11

WILDERN OPPORTUNITY GROUP & PRE-SCHOOL EXTRAORDINARY MEETING

Thursday 21^st July 2011 at 7 The Foxgloves, Hedge End

AGENDA

• Apologies
• Agree minutes of last meeting and matters arising
• Financial matters

1. Fees increase.

• Committee

1. Roles.
2. Early Years Foundation Stage.

• Policies

1. Conflict of interest.

• Marketing

1. Open day feedback.
2. Website and email.

• Any other business.

• Next meeting Wednesday 21^st September 2011 at 7:30 pm at the United Reformed Church, Hedge End.

Minutes of Extraordinary Meeting Thursday 21st July ‘11

Attendees

Kate Clark (Chairman), Jim Mitchell (Treasurer), Kelly Mitchell (Secretary), Lyn Berry, Jo Parfitt, Chris Exton, Kelly Cook, Kerry Passingham and Chris Bird                             

Apologies

Ros Bundy (Book keeper), Kathy Evans (Play leader), Aurelie Hemphill, Shirley Callen and Lucy Smith

Minutes of last meeting/matters arising

To be discussed at the next committee meeting

Financial Matters

1. Fees Increase:  It was agreed by everyone that the pre-school fees will be increased from September to £3.90 per hour.  A further increase will be reviewed in January 2012.

Committee

1. Roles:  Everyone was handed out a guide as to what their roles may involve, it has been highlighted that the committee could do with some help in the following areas:

• Fundraising
• Policy writing
• Marketing
• Finance

Jim and Kelly will design a letter/poster to go to parents asking if anyone feels they have skills to help with these areas.  It was also discussed about putting this in the welcome pack.  Kate was going to order some more PLA leaflets for the pre-school as it was decided that they looked good and would support the letter.  Forwarded by Jo Parfitt, seconded by Chris Exton.

Early Years Foundation Stage

1. There have been some changes to Early Years Foundation Stage, one of which is Stretching a child’s time at pre-schools so they defer their entry into school if they are not ready.  This involves working closely with the schools and parents.  The Wildern Opportunity Group have no children involved in the Stretching scheme this year. These changes will be discussed in more depth at the next meeting.  Also Kate Clark asked if the committee member could read through the EYFS information which has been sent in an email to all committee members.

Policies

1. Conflict of interest policy:  Kate Clark has drafted a new Conflict of Interest policy, this will officially be adopted by the next meeting in September.  There is information available on this topic on the Charity Commission website as well.  Forwarded by Kate Clark seconded by Jo Parfitt.

Marketing

1. Open day feedback:  The feedback from the open day was positive, six parents came to look at the pre-school and 4 took application forms.  It was suggested to give the Usbourne book lady some leaflets to hand out to parents advertising the pre-school as she was very complimentary about the setting.

2. Website:  The new website looks great, and is on page one for all search engines.  Enquiries on our contact page have increased.  We have agreed to include a sponsored by Richmonds logo on our website as Richmonds advertised our pre-school open day on their boards.  Version two of our website will be 100% accessible to everyone including those with special needs. 

Any other business

1. Text messaging:  Chris Exton mentioned a text messaging service called ‘ Teachers 2 Parents’ which allows you to type a general message into a server i.e. Committee meeting reminders, or certain topic days etc, and then it sends it to parents.  Lyn Berry and Kate Clark will look into this service in more detail to see if it will benefit the group.

The next committee meeting will by on Wednesday 21^st September 2011 at 7.30pm at the United Reformed Church.