Development Report
July 13, 2002
I have been in close contact with both Nancy Ryan and
Walter Sparks during this transition period to ensure
that thank you letters and gift acknowledgements
continue to be sent out in a timely manner. Walter
has been invaluable in setting up the new computer and
will continue to provide training on and support of
the Blackbaud software. I am looking forward to
learning more about generating reports and sharing
that information in the future. It is my sincere hope
that after these initial few weeks Nancy and I will be
able to meet to talk and discuss development from a
more philosophical angle instead of the more immediate
task-oriented communication thus far.
Equipment, files and boxes have made the move from
Nancyís Iowa City office to my new office space on the
upper level of the instruction building. Nancyís
desktop hard drive died during the physical move
resulting in the purchase of a new computer and having
to upgrade Blackbaud to a higher version to
accommodate the newly purchased computer. The upgrade
is something we needed to do eventually as Blackbaud
is discontinuing support of the lower version in
December.
Our first Family Weekend was held June 14-16. Eleven
kids with their families participated and by all
accounts it was a resounding success. The group was
divided into a family camp section (sleeping in the
girlís dorm with parents) and a youth camp (sleeping
in the boyís dorm with Erin Lane and Mike Watson as
dorm sponsors). During the daylight hours kids and
parents alike experienced a mini-Scattergood complete
with helping prepare a dinner meal, clean up crews,
picking fresh produce at the farm, creating art and
swimming in the pond when it got hot. We are eagerly
anticipating having another family weekend next
summer.
Much of the rest of the month of June was spent
wrapping up end of the year duties in the Main Office
and organizing several years of backlogged storage to
create usable office and work space. Both Erin and I
attended Friends General Conference in Normal,
Illinois the first week of July. Scattergoodís
display board and relevant materials were presented in
the designated display area. Erin participated in a
workshop with a mixed group of young adults and teens
exploring Quaker values in competitive sports settings
and I volunteered each afternoon in a play space for
children and families.
This coming fall we are anticipating enrolling four
international students (two from the Ukraine and two
from Rwanda) who have extremely restricted financial
resources. Our special financial assistance fund was
completely used up by the end of last year. One area
of focus in the upcoming months is to gather donations
to cover the expected shortfall between the minimum
tuition amount with basic class and book expenses and
what we can realistically expect the families/sponsors
to pay.
I look forward to working with the development
committee in the months to come.
Respectfully submitted,
Margie Figgins
Director of Development
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