[spolym-l]: July Parents Meeting

[spolym-l at news.gocolumbiamo.com]

Here are the minutes to the July Parents' Meeting.

PARENT & COACHES MEETING NOTES
July 21, 2004

Meeting was called to order at 7:01 p.m.  

Frances introduced our new Central Area Director, Diane Brimer.  Diane
transferred from the East Area of Special Olympics Missouri.  She has
experience as a special education teacher and coached for local Special
Olympic teams prior to becoming an area director.

She is hoping to move the area office to Columbia, as it is more
centrally located and more of a metropolitan city.

Diane's goals in her new position are to bring the whole area
together and increase competition in all sports.  She also wishes to get
to know and learn about who the individual athletes are.  Everyone
should feel free to call or email her with questions at:
dbrimer at somo.org 
She will also begin to utilize the state organization website for
postings and updates of area events.

Fundraising Committee Report

A press release went out on Monday, August 19, about Bowl for Gold. 
Bowl for Gold is being held August 21, 2004 from 1-6 pm at Town and
Country Lanes.  A Silent Auction and Raffle will be held during the
tournament.  Registration packets are available on-line, from Frances,
and at Town and Country.  The cost is $15 for individuals with a
suggested pledge of $25 and $200 for a team of five.

The Dodge Raffle ends October 1st.  Tickets are available with proceeds
to Special Olympics Missouri.  Each area will draw one name and then
each will receive a key with one guaranteed to a 2004 Dodge Durango.  

Columbia Police Department is creating a cookbook for $10 each with
proceeds going to Special Olympics.  They are asking the local athletes
to draw pictures for the divider pages of the book.  

The Rolla Rally is this weekend, August 24th.  It travels from Rolla to
Springfield to Sedalia to Columbia to St. Louis and then back to Rolla. 
They will be at the new Harley Davidson shop at the Lake of the Woods
exit on Saturday from 1:30-3:30.  This is a good opportunity for an
athlete to attend and promote Special Olympics.

Announcements/Calendar

Columbia Parks and Recreation Special Olympics is ordering new warm
ups.  They are navy with white accents, the jacket is hooded with zip
front with the CPRD logo on the chest; the pants are available in
scrunch, elastic and straight.  They are available in sizes Youth-6X. 
You may order differing sizes for jacket and pants.  The cost is
approximately $50 if you wish to purchase your own set.  We need sizes
within the next couple of weeks of all athletes for ordering purposes. 
Frances modeled the medium size warm up set.

Sports camp is next week, August 25-29.  Athletes attending are Beth
Brokamp, Sarah Byland, Matt Montgomery, Larry Stephens, and Rachel
Schlossman.  Frances will be out of the office with the athletes, but
Stacy will be in the office.

In June, a Coaches' Meeting was held to compile feedback for Frances.
 It was decided to lengthen each sport season by 2 weeks and not to do
assessments first thing.  The half of the first will be spent working on
fundamental skills with the second half of practice being spent working
on assessments.  The only exception is bowling, where the average of the
first three games is used.  Frances will begin each sport season by
talking to athletes and letting them know expectations of their skills,
behavior, and code of conduct.  Job descriptions will also be made for
volunteers by sport, so that parents and volunteers will know how to
help with practices.  Parents will also be given dates of practices and
when available, tournaments, so it can be determined who will be able to
attend which games; hopefully eliminating the need to forfeit games.

The Summer Sports Award banquet is being held August 14th for
participants of Golf and Softball.  It will be at Oakland Park, Shelter
2.  The awards and banquet will be from 4:00-6:00 pm.  At 6:15-8:15, the
Oakland Pool will be available for $1.50 for Youth 15 and under and
$2.50 for adults 16 and over.  It was determined that the pool party
will be open to all athletes.

Oakland Lanes closes next week.  Town and Country Lanes is the only
facility available in Columbia, so it will be utilized for our bowling
program.  It is not wheelchair accessible, so we must advertise this
when promoting the program. Dave Daly is working with Columbia Police
Department and Town and Country Lanes to get a lift donated or funds
raised for one.  Diane suggested someone contact the Knights of
Columbus; they often have fish fries and other events to donate proceeds
to a non-profit organization.

The Outdoor Classic is in Jefferson City August 6-8, 2004.  This is
held for the state summer competition for golf and softball.  The local
hotels in Jefferson City are airing the Fox Sports Net broadcast of
footage from State Games in May.  It will be aired August 7 at 4:00 pm
and is approximately thirty minutes long.  Trish Wallace is trying to
arrange with Holiday Inn in Columbia for Columbia Parks and Recreation
Special Olympics a room to watch the broadcast together.  The Fox
website has listed additional viewing times.

Jan Stephens arranged for ACS, Inc. to donate 50 Kansas City Royals
tickets for the Friday, August 20th game.  The company is asking for a
picture of everyone attending the game.  There is room for 30 people to
ride the van.  We will leave Parkade at 4:00 pm.

We have 20 tickets to the August 25th Mid-Missouri Mavericks game.  It
begins at 7:05 pm and is a fun activity for the whole family with
special activities for youth.

Questions/Comments

A question was raised by Pat Parry if the T-ball team advancing to
state.  The T-ball game was rained out on Friday and had to forfeit on
Saturday because they did not have enough players.  They will not be
able to advance to state.

Diane said the Central Area does not have any other junior teams for us
to compete against.  O'Fallon had the same problem in the past and
dropped the junior teams from their rosters.  Diane will contact
O'Fallon to see if they are willing to start a junior program
again.

Rose asked if the one sport per athlete for each season was going to
stay in effect.  Diane responded that it is going back to the Sport
Advisory committee.  Athletes will always have to choose between
Bocce/Track and Field/Swimming because of the arrangement at the
University of Missouri.

Trish commented about the Rock Bridge High School baseball team members
practicing with the youth softball on Monday.  A reporter from KMIZ
(Channel 17) showed up and took footage of the players practicing with
our athletes.  It will be aired on August 5 at 6 and 10 pm.  Trish has a
card for the athletes to sign at practice on Monday.

The next meeting will be August 24th, 7:00 pm, at the ARC.  The meeting
was adjourned at 7:58 pm.


Frances McCoy
Recreation Specialist
Columbia Parks & Recreation
PO Box 6015
Columbia, MO  65205
(573) 874-7312
fgmccoy at gocolumbiamo.com