Meeting Notes
Radish Roots Co-op
Sept 13, 2011 6:30 pm
Rivergate
No. of families in attendance: 9
(Names withheld for privacy)
What we discussed:
· The vision that Anna & Amoreena have for the co-op, as described on the blog
· Ages of the kids involved (so far)
o Girls: 15, 8, 7, 5, 4, 4, 4,
o Boys: 9, 7,7,7,7,6,6,6,6,5,3,3
· What types of classes/activities our kids are interested in:
o Arts & crafts
o Dragons, spaceships, bugs
o Robots, legos, Star Wars
o Reading
o Cursive writing
o PE/Group games
o Theater/Performing arts, theater sports
o Music
o Harry Potter
o Latin
o Yoga
o Math and Science
o Chess
o Spanish
o Fiber arts
o Cooking
o First Aid
o Geocaching
· We talked about the possibility of hiring outside people to teach classes. Darkbot and Monique Turner were mentioned.
· Talked about having just an open crafting time
· We talked about having some open time in the day for clubs/on-going activities, etc.
· It was mentioned that the Book Store in St. Johns gives a 20% discount to homeschoolers
· It was mentioned that there is free cooking classes available through the “eco project”
· We talked about some of the volunteer jobs that would be available
o Teachers, child watch—younger and older kids, clean up, administrative tasks, scheduling, website maintenance, church liaison, budgeting, volunteer coordinator
o Beverly volunteered to take care of the website
o Amoreena will take care of calendar/scheduling and administrative duties
o Anna will act as church liaison and take care of money management
· We discussed money matters
o We don’t want to turn anyone away for lack of $
o An annual membership fee will be charged on a sliding scale. Each member can contribute whatever they feel is a fair amount for their family.
o We suggest $50-$100, payable in installments if needed
o Half of the money will be used as a donation to the church for letting us use the space
o Half of the money will be used for supplies and materials needed for co-op classes
o We will also ask for donations of materials, as needed
o And we are open to fundraising
o We expect that some classes will come with an additional fee to cover the cost of materials used in the class or to cover the cost of an instructor if one is hired from the outside
o Anna will keep track of the money and do the budgeting
· We discussed the daily schedule and agreed on the one that was proposed earlier, with the expectation that more class periods will be added as we grow
o 11:00-12:00 First Period
o 12:00-12:15 Announcements/Group Sharing time, etc.
o 12:15-1:00 Lunch and social time
o 1:00-2:00 Second Period
o The time before and after the regular schedule can be used for workshops, funshops, clubs, on-going activities, etc.
· We agreed to the yearly calendar that was in the agenda, which includes 7 terms for the 2011-2012 school year, with the first term beginning on Oct. 20th.
· KEY CHANGE: We decided to change the co-op meeting day to Thursday instead of Wednesday
· We decided to have another meeting on Thursday, September 22nd at Rivergate from 6:30-8:00 as a follow up to this meeting and also for anyone who wanted to attend the first meeting and couldn’t make it.
· We decided to meet for a potluck lunch on the first 2 weeks of October. This will give kids a chance to get to know each other and will give parents a chance to do any planning and preparation that still needs to be done.
o Emily offered to have hula-hoop making materials for the kids on one of these dates.
· Amoreena will create a yahoo group for further communication among parents. We will try to finalize our plans for the first term via the yahoo group.
