Wellesley POPS - Parents of Performing Students, Inc.

Board Meeting March 3, 2011 Wellesley Free Library Arnold Room Attendance: Beth Perry (Director of Performing Arts), Ursula King, Marietta Boon, Cindy Buser, Carol Lash, Ann Rappaport, Susan Logue, Jane Martin, Anne Mears, Carmel Tuffy, and Amy Zhang. Presidents Welcome Meeting was called to order by President Ursula King at 10:00am. Director of Performing Arts Update Beth Perry 17 students going to All States 38 students going to Junior Districts Guest artist Program Dennis Shafer has been hired to do a sound painting program. Hes already done the program at WMS, and will do it at Hunnewell, Upham, and Schofield. Beths waiting for what she thinks will be a request from Mary Alice, and that would use up the remainder of guest artist funds this year. All the sheet music stored in the tower at WHS will be moved to music rooms in preparation for closing of tower over April vacation. Media Permission Slips Beth will create a slip to be filled out each fall by students with due dates prominently highlighted. It was suggested incorporating wording to the effect that student would not be allowed to participate in concerts until a sheet is turned in. Its hoped that this would encourage students to turn in these forms in a timely manner. Secretary (Cindy Buser substituting for Lucia Lovison) Board Meeting minutes from November 16, 2010 meeting were approved with the following corrections: corrected spelling of Liz Kelleys name; change of spelling from POPs to POPS throughout document. Treasurers Report Marietta Boon Notable items since last meeting: POPS has paid about $569 for additional tux jackets requested by Concert Attire people to fill in needed sizes. POPS also received $686 from sales of one-liners in programs at WMS musicals, and $390 from concession sales. Bank account balance stands at $31,616.92. Concert Attire General discussion Ursula King suggested Concert Attire reps order black shirts for jazz bands next year since they are often difficult for parents to find. Cindy Buser said they arent difficult to order, and would relay this request to CA POPS reps. Publicity Carol Lash

 Carol Lash reported that she has a good relationship with The Townsman editor, which has published three performing articles in the past couple of weeks. There are so many events coming up that Carol cant cover them all. Marlene OBrien wrote a great orchestra article. Carol has asked parents to write articles and send stuff to her for submission to Townsman. Carol particularly needs pictures of events and quotes from students involved in order to write pieces about events she hasnt attended. Someone mentioned that Noam Waksman, who writes for The Bradford, might be able to elicit quotes from students via Facebook. Ursula will ask faculty advisor for The Bradford (Amanda Brown, though we think shes on maternity leave right now) if they might participate. Mentioned that The Wellesley Patch has been disappointing, not promoting PA events as they suggested they would. Steve Scott and Carol both wrote articles on Mingus, unbeknownst to Carol. The Townsman ran Steves article this week, and will run Carols next week. Carol recommended there be a separate publicity person for WMS and WHS since its too big a job to do both. One of the big panes of glass in display case at WHS broke. Since were moving to new high school building in a year and will have lots of display cases, it wont be replaced. Mentioned idea of buying page in Townsman once a month for PA coverage. Will be discussed at Executive Board meeting. Would be nice to find sponsor, similar to the insurance company that sponsors the sports pages in Townsman. Web Site Ann Rappaport Ann reported that she is receiving lots of good content from all groups, both pictures and information, to keep web site fresh. Not putting up video because its a drain on web site and slows it down. Discussed question of putting links to You Tube performances by Wellesley groups. Beth will talk to Rob Ford about this. Presidents Update Ursula King POPS rep job descriptions Ursula is developing a standard online form for POPS reps to fill in to describe their job responsibilities. Her hope is to have a standardized, detailed set of job descriptions with an estimate of the time requirement Ann Rappaport suggested it would be useful to have both a brief and detailed description for each job. Ursula has asked POPS reps to keep track of the number of hours they spend on their job. Feeding information and photos for web site and publicity should be added to many descriptions. Ursula will work with Jane Martin to develop a detailed description of the elementary school POPS job.

 Nominating Committee Ursula asked for volunteers to work on Nominating Committee. We need a slate of POPS officers for 2011-2012 for next meeting in May. Beth will put general request for POPS volunteers in concert programs. Performing Arts Banquet May 19th. Ursula will take lead on organization. She passed around sign-up sheet. We will invite all POPS reps to come. Will use evite for faculty, and extend invitation to WMS faculty. Bella Wong and Andrew Keough should still receive a written invitation. Susie Thonis (former POPS copresident whose son transferred to Walnut Hill in January) will be invited and recognized. Elementary Jane Martin It would be nice to make 5th grade parents aware of POPS opportunities at WMS. Carol Lash suggested a POPS rep might go to 5th Grade Parent Night at WMS to recruit POPS reps for WMS. Middle School No representatives No specific updates Wellesley High School Drama Susan Logue. Winter play, Shadow Box, being performed this week. Will be performed 3/5 in Manchester, MA as part of METG Festival. The play is going as a non-compete this year for the first time. Discussion of online ticketing for fall musical is still under discussion. Choral Anne Mears Kevin McDonald has asked Anne to do a number of jobs in preparation for Acastock on 3/11: print tickets (decided unless they will sell tickets at school, they arent necessary, and we can use programs as tickets), buy concessions (Anne will work on), create poster to publicize concert (Anne will get in touch with Laura Hockett to see if she can do this). Anne is happy to manage and delegate the work, but wishes she had more detailed written notes to refer to about how to go about each of these things. This highlights the need for detailed job descriptions, and for POPS reps to document their work so the next rep has written materials to refer to. Orchestra Amy Zhang. Asked if it might be possible for orchestra to play at graduation. Beth said that if Mary Alice wants this, it would be up to MA to start this conversation with graduation planners. Band no rep But, jazz band parents present. 2:00 Jazz Band had successful trip to Mingus competition in NYC Feb 18-20. Band has been chosen to compete in Essentially Ellington competition at Lincoln Center May 12-14. Meeting adjourned at 11:45am. Respectfully submitted by Cindy Buser Next meeting is May 10th at 10:00am in the Arnold Room of Wellesley Free Library.