Scattergood Friends School Committee
Minutes December 6, 2003

Present:

Minutes of previous meeting:

Approved as written.

Subcommittee goals

Subcommittee goals for the year should be sent to Joe Davison (joda at ieee.org) so they can be put on the web
Those received so far:

Retreat Recap

We discussed briefly the retreat, with Stanley Brown leading the discussion.
Some of the handouts were available.
Committee members are encouraged to review, especially chapters 2 and 5 of the book, Governance Handbok for Friends Schools, and the Trustees Handbook; you should each have a copy of both books already -- if not, contact Lucy.

At the retreat, Jan Luchini presented historical and projected financial information, particularly concerning tuition as a percentage of school expenses. Margie followed her and gave historical information about donations. After Margie, Steve Kappler gave a presentation on marketing. One interesting point he made was that in marketing to students, paper should focus on moving people toward the web, and providing most information on the web.

At the SC meeting, Stan pointed out the difference between Friendraising and Fundraising -- we're doing a good job of Friendraising.
It's also important to collect and use "success stories" in our efforts. Steve had pointed out that promotion is only the tip of the marketing iceberg -- much more of it is building relationships and keeping the product healthy (Marketing a bad company will simply reveal how bad the company is). Jan's projections were based on full enrollment -- which is only realistic if we're doing something different to get to full enrollment...

We spend some time discussing hazards & benefits of pushing for full enrollment. Goal should be to increase the pool of applicants, rather than taking more from the current pool.
Joe's personal, completely unofficial retreat notes

Pendle Hill Conference by Friends Council on Education

Perry-O reported on the conference. Sean Egan, Bob Yeats, and Perry-O Sliwa attended. Perry-O loved the map of the trees on the campus. Irene McHenry, the host, also impressed Perry-O with her hospitality. There were seven presentations on different aspects of being a board member, something to be learned by each of us. She was particularly taken by the presentation on evaluation, not only of the Head, but also of the board. Presenter encouraged use of Portfolio in evaluation -- Head keeps a folder of the kinds of items faced on a daily basis. Also stressed importance of job description -- so Head knows what the basis of evaluation is.

She was also taken with the "force field analysis" -- the forces acting on the head -- restraining and propelling ... often easier to take off restraing forces than to add propelling.

Clerking & taking part in decision making in school board. Presenter had a challenge in clerking a session during the Lunar eclipse, when many were interested in seeing it -- rang bell every 30 minutes, took break to look at it.

Sean also appreciated the session. He had been to a conference in October and corresponded with Irene between sessions, enabling her to ensure the conference met the needs of SFS attendees. Sean was often placed on small groups with people from well known eastern schools, and felt good that we don't see some of the political problems they see. Clerk of Brooklyn Friends Seminary remarked favorably on Scattergood's role in Quaker education. He found the role playing in smallgroups, particularly on fundraising, was quite helpful.

Bob Yeats said he felt like old order amishman at a technology conference -- sometimes out of place but sometimes really great to be here -- Bob has notes that are appreciated by some others. He stressed the importance of building relationships instead of focusing on raising money. Sounds like the discussion of reviews of boards was focussed on individuals and how much money they contributed, instead of effectiveness of the board, per se.

Sounds like it was well worth the expense

Two actions that resulted from it are a weekly meeting between head & sfsc clerk and the monthly communication from sean to the committee

Dan Schlitt points out that the eastern schools have much more emphasis on fund raising on their boards, and the fact that we don't has much to do with our ability to preserve the nature of SFS.

Committee's Reports

The Director's Report formed the basis for the following discussion

Academics

Students seem to have adjusted to the level of work required, and things seem calm at this time, although there are students still struggling. Twenty of our students are going to the exchange with West Branch HS, and 10 of ours will be hosting students coming here. Community outreach is happening... Staff is attending workshops at Grant Wood and conferences in Cedar Rapids. We may be able to capitalize on the fact the we're free from the No Child Left Behind requirements, since we don't take Federal funds. There is a possibility that SFS staff may present examples of experiential learning opportuinties at ISACS conference next year.

There was some discussion of how we help new faculty members prepare to achieve academic excellence, and help students to achieve at the levels expected. Basically, a lot of one-to-one meetings.

Spiritual and Community Life

Interesting bubbling within the community concerning meeting for worship -- meetings for creativity, performance, ... have led both to calls for more "standard" meetings for worship and spontaneous(or nearly so) called meetings (for creativity) among the students...

There's a movement among the students for more open dorm time, with some appropriate restrictions. Staff is not completely enthusiastic, the topic remains open for discussion. Staff is well aware of hazards. Committee expressed concern that privacy needs of quieter students be respected, and concern that the committee not stop the discussion prematurely, as the process is educational in itself.

Facilities

Farm

Cows have not arrived yet -- truck wasn't available. Plan is to have them come on Sunday Dec 7. "5 year wishlist" is very rough -- these are what we're thinking of, details are NOT considered. The school committee encourages such sharing, as the work is seen as very important.

We approved selling the donated stock as requested

Dan Schlitt pointed out that in his experience, donated stock should be sold at the time it is donated, as a matter of policy. (The donation is realized at the value the donor thought it had, for one benefit).

Consultation

Discussed financial report and Nominating committee report. Insurance payment is low, because the umbrella policy has not been renewed -- we were surprised to discover on calling the broker! We are being penalized by carriers because we do not have sprinklers in our living quarters, and some other places where we differ from urban codes. We may need to take a $25,000 deductible for $18,000 premium! The broker had assured us of seamless coverage, but it seems it was somewhat less! There will be representatives on campus next week to assess the campus so they can find an insurer. The importance of this coverage is recognized and the problem is actively being pursued. We were dropped by the previous company because new Indiana law prevents them from insuring schools in Iowa. Finding a new insurer is a challenge. Finding a new broker may also be pursued. May need to consult with Friends Council on Education for advice. The current broker was recommended by ISACS, but has made some changes within the past year. Adding sprinklers will be a major capital expense -- big issue would be water supply, since we're not on city water.

Did not transfer funds from Westwood this time, allowing it to grow as we can. We probably won't need the money until February. We're not borrowing money at this time. The fund will be closed in June in any case.

Development

No report yet on fall appeal, as donations are just beginning to come in. School is planning to work with a web developer from Chicago to get our new website up in January. We had worked with a different company in the past, on the graphic parts, but discovered we weren't clear enough on our ideas to be able to communicate them. Now we know what we want it to look like, but we need to get it translated to web pages. The documents we want to have available are already written, the graphics are done -- implementation is what's needed. The costs for phase I are covered under the previously approved amount. Details in Admissions report. We still plan to use LeepFrog as our webhosting company.

There was a significant amount of disussion on the process of thanking friends for donations and of soliciting opinions about listing donors.

Admissions

Technology

Capital Campaign

Discussed efforts with capital campaign effort. Approached two other organizers, neither was interested (only one actually conducted this type of campaign, they recommeded we work with Hoeksema, as they did not operate in this region). We are proceding with the feasibility study with David Hoeksema's Rennaisance Group We are planning an initial focus group for late January, and additional meetings with monthly meetings and a subset of members. If we decide the campaign is feasible, the committee will have additional responsibilities. The committee reaffirms its willingness to support a capital campaign if it is shown to be feasible. The question was raised as to whether a letter has gone out to the community detailing what was accomplished by the campaign 2000. The general feeling is that the information has been shared.

There was a call for a one-sheeter history of capital campaigns.

Long Range Planning Committee

Do we still need a committee to create a long range plan? We decided to drop the ad hoc long range plan subcommittee. We are NOT dropping the long range plan, of course, it is an important component of the working of the school. Subcommitees are asked requested to set goals for the coming year and submit them to Joe to be put on the web, to assist in evaluating ourselves at the end of the year.

March Retreat

We need suggestions for the march retreat -- particularly something that might assist with the ISACS self study. Dwight had a suggestion for a "Scattergood Dreaming" event -- where would you like to see SFS go -- it might be part of the feasibility study for the capital campaign -- perhaps David Hoeksema would be interested in knowing we're planning a day for such discussions.

Dan T. suggestion was shadow a teacher -- we've shadowed a student before, but not a teacher... Perry-O liked the idea -- perhaps we can share some learning experiences -- students, staff, and committee members -- learning as a life-long process...

Sean recommends Irene McHenry as facilitator.

There was general agreement that it didn't make sense to have a retreat when the director is not able to be present, and he's probably gone the block.

Upcoming Events

Closing

Closed with silence at 2:30 pm.