[spolym-l]: September Parents Meeting

[spolym-l at news.gocolumbiamo.com]

PARENTS AND COACHES MEETING NOTES



Meeting was called to order at 7:05 p.m.  

Announcement/Calendars

The Area/District Volleyball Tournament is being held this Sunday
(26th) at the Armory.  Volunteers are needed for the concession stand
from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.  We will be serving hot dogs, chips, candy
and bottled water.  Susan Shaffer may be able to help.  If anyone
present wants to call other parents to request volunteers they are
welcome to do so.  Part of the MU Volleyball team will be present for
part of the tournament.  They are bringing the inflatable volleyball
with them to put in front of the Armory.

Fall Classic is October 22-24, 2004 at Ft. Leonard Wood for volleyball
and soccer players.  Opening Ceremonies will be held Friday night, with
competition and the dance on Saturday.  We will request to stay 2
nights.

Unified Bowling Tournament is on Sunday, October 10th at the Strike and
Spare Bowling Alley in Independence, MO.  Games start at 9:00 a.m.  We
will leave Parkade at 6:30 a.m. on the 10th.  

The Area Bowling Tournament is October 30-31, 2004 in Jefferson City. 
The youth will bowl on Saturday beginning at 1:00 p.m.  The adults will
bowl on Sunday, October 31st beginning at 11:00 a.m.  There will be no
bowling practice on October 30th.    The Indoor Classic will be held in
Joplin on December 5-6, 2004.  

There is a mandatory basketball coach's meeting on Tuesday, October
19th at the ARC in the conference room beginning at 6:30 p.m.  From
7:30-8:30 p.m. we will be going over assessments in the gym.  If parents
are interested in helping with assessments meet in the gym at 7:30 p.m.

We are currently taking registration for basketball.  Practice begins
Monday, November 1st for the youth at New Haven Elementary School and
Tuesday, November 2nd for the adults.  Everyone needs to be there at
6:00 p.m. for the first 3 weeks and then teams will be divided into
practice times.

Another mandatory Personal Abuse training has been scheduled for
Wednesday, October 20th at the ARC.  This is for any athlete who plans
to ride a parks and recreation van to competition for any Special
Olympics event.  The training will begin at 6:30 p.m.

Due to the Area Bowling Tournament we will not be participating in the
Tiger Night of Fun this year.



Warm ups have been ordered and should arrive in 4-6 weeks. The old
green warm ups are now for sale.  It is $10 for a complete set and $5
for an individual top or pants.  There are limited sizes and quantities
available.  Checks can be made payable to Columbia Parks & Recreation.

Frances brought in a box of old t-shirts for anyone who was
interested.

Frances is also working on the 2005 calendar and is looking for
suggestions for activities for the next year, as well as what parents
would like to see included on the calendar.  Going to the St. Louis
Cardinals game was suggested.  Frances explained she received the form
in February on what games were available and she will try to pick one in
June and one in July, with August being the month we go to the Royals
game.

Parks & Recreation will set up a Christmas Light Tours trip to St.
Louis around December 18, 2004.  There will be a cost of $12 to ride the
van.

Susan Shaffer asked if there was some kind of daytime activity for the
athletes during the summer.  Rose suggested a Power Lifting class. 
Frances stated she is working on adding Power Lifting to next spring's
sports schedule, as well as working on arranging another weight training
class at the ARC this winter.

Trish suggested having the Rock Bridge Baseball team come to softball
practice again this year.  We are going to try to invite the girls'
softball team out as well and have one team visit a youth practice and
the other visit the adult practice.

Fundraising

Dodge Durango raffle tickets need to be turned in as soon as possible. 
Diane Brimer may need some athletes to help when they pull the Central
Area representative in October.  Frances will keep everyone updated.

Bowl for Gold - Next year more community involvement with this
tournament.  If we change the date to October we will have more sources
to tap into for support.  Susan suggested we look at the website for the
Northeast Area and how they advertise for their tournament.  Frances
stated she would like to see the community support Special Olympics more
financially instead of always expecting the parents and families of
athletes to provide support.

The positive things about the tournament were the funny bowls, like
granny style and buddy bowling, we had media coverage, the amount of
items for the silent auction and the certificates for the winners.

Suggestions for the future were trying to get media coverage before the
event and having different challenges like organizations challenging
each other to raise more money or combining the amount raised with the
bowling score.  It was also suggested changing the name to the Bowl for
Gold Challenge.

Other fundraising suggestions included an area calendar to sell.  Rick
Barker is working on getting corporate sponsors for the cost of printing
the calendars.  We may try selling things like candy, Avon, wrapping
paper, etc.  Having a garage sale was another suggestion.  Susan said it
would be better if we stayed away from events that were less than a
70/30 split.  One day events tend to work better for raising money.

The parents and families from Columbia Parks & Recreation Special
Olympics raised close to $7,000 this year between Trivia Night and Bowl
for Gold.

Jan suggested we contact the MU Greek organization to get teams and
donations for next year.  Frances received a phone call about a fashion
show using athletes as models.

Jim LaRue suggested instead of having a garage sale we use a flea
market space as a way to raise money.  Items can be sold with a
percentage going to Special Olympics for each sale.  It would also be a
way for some athletes to get work experience by sorting items and
placing them in the booth for sale.

If anyone knows of someone getting rid of old sports equipment, let
Frances know.  We need left handed softball gloves, golf putters or any
old golf sets, especially left handed sets, bowling balls, or tennis
rackets.

Frances was able to obtain several youth baseball pants and a couple of
batting helmets.  There may be enough pants for both youth teams next
year.

Questions/Comments

The fundraising committee will meet in December or January to begin to
gather items for our 2005 fundraising events.

If we need more sports cards/memorabilia for our auctions, just contact
Trish.

We need to find a way to get more families involved in our meetings. 
It seems to be the same 15-20 parents each time.  There is a lot of
difficulty in getting involvement from families into Special Olympics
events, meetings and fundraising.

It was suggested Frances make mandatory meetings prior to each sport
season for parents to attend.  Instead of letting everyone call ahead to
register,  pick one night before the start of practice and have a
registration night where parents are required to come register.  At this
meeting go over the rules of the season, the practice and tournament
dates and have the parents' meet the coaches.  Parents would be
required to come to registration night or the first practice.

In an effort to reduce mailing costs, the newsletter stopped being
mailed out in September except to those people who had requested still
receiving it by mail.  The mailing list dropped from 350 to 50, which
has drastically reduced postage costs.

Jeanie suggested we try to do another bowling or movie night with the
athletes.

It was also suggested changing the name of the monthly parents'
meeting to monthly informational meeting to get more people involved. 
In January, February and March 2005 the monthly meeting will be held on
Wednesday and in April it will return to Tuesday nights.

Jan is paying for the use of the university pool for our swimmers and
is requesting donations to help her cover the costs.  The total cost is
approximately $745.  If you are interested in helping, she needs the
money by December 2004.

The next meeting will be Tuesday, October 26th at 7:00 p.m. here at the
ARC.

Meeting adjourned at 8:30 p.m.



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