Meeting Minutes
August 12, 2008
In attendance: Don Jennings
(president), Gideon Carter (Treasurer), Anita Haywood (VP – Programs), Judy
O’Dell (at large), Holly Hart (at large)
June minutes – voted to approve with minor corrections
Reports
·
Treasurer: Balance = $8729 ($106
expense for PO Box Rent). BRAGTS is
an Unincorporated Association and “Baton Rouge Association for Gifted and
Talented Students” (BRAGTS) is registered as a Trade Name with the Secretary of
State. BRAGTS needs to apply for
501C status in order to solicit funds.
With the aforementioned status, BRAGTS needs to use caution with any
political statements – especially during the upcoming election season.
·
Gideon Carter tendered his resignation from the Treasurer position of the BRAGTS
Board, having served the BRAGTS Board in varying capacities (including
President) since 1989. He will
continue to serve on the State AGTS Board and will continue to be an advocate
for Gifted and Talented students.
Bank records and PO Box key were passed to Don Jennings until a new Treasurer is
in office.
·
Programs: Anita would like to
transition this office to a new VP of Programs.
Website
·
Richard Truman has resigned as VP of Membership and from the BRAGTS Board.
Richard has managed the website and will continue to help until a new
site manager can be found. Don had
checked on professional companies – but costs are prohibitive (>$4000).
Richard created the BRAGTS website and has put considerable time and
energy into it over recent years and his efforts are to be commended.
·
Holly Hart and Judy O’Dell will follow-up on options for a new site manager.
Gifted Task Force (Task Force formed by EBRPSS to address March 2008 BRAGTS
Proposal)
·
1st meeting held 5/27/2008. School System staff distributed a DRAFT
report dated May 2008 titled “Staff Report: Gifted and Talented Programs Review
Committee”. This report listed pros
and cons of our 8 recommendations and a staff position statement on each.
·
2nd meeting was held 6/12/2008.
At this meeting, BRAGTS officers distributed the BRAGTS response to the
above-mentioned Staff Report. Our
response was not discussed at the meeting, but we were told it would be at the 3rd
meeting which has yet to be scheduled.
·
Mr. Sam presented a progress report
on the Task Force at the June 19th School Board meeting.
·
EBRPSS School Board is set to discuss Gifted and Talented Programs at the
October Board Meeting (October 16, 2008).
·
Don Jennings is scheduled to present the BRAGTS recommendations and response to
the Staff Report in the third meeting on August 13.
·
BRAGTS Board agreed to a plan of:
Next BRAGTS Board meeting Monday, September 8 – focus: review BRAGTS/EBRPSS Task
Force progress and set plan for Fall Open meeting.
Pending resolution of website manager – post reports on website and use
e-mail to notify membership of reports and Fall Open Meeting.
Open Meeting Tuesday, September 18 – focus: review of BRAGTS
Recommendations and EBRPSS Response.
BRAGTS Officers
·
Elections are needed for some positions.
Plan is to conduct the elections after the Fall Open Meeting – with new
Board members recruited from the meeting.
The members present unanimously approved an exception to the By-Law
requirement of August elections in order to conduct elections after the Fall
Open Meeting.