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MINUTES OF THE MEETING OT THE FRIENDS, PARENTS, TEACHERS ASSOCIATION OF THE BESG HELD ON TUESDAY JANUARY 8^TH AT 6:00PM IN THE SCHOOL HALL

Attendants:

Opening Remarks and Welcome

1. Lale opened the meeting and thanked everyone for attending. She mentioned how successfully the Autumn term events have been performed. The Term’s end report will be prepared for the next meeting for all to review. However on updating FPTA web site we haven’t worked closely so in the Spring term this will be a subject to work on.

Emergency Messaging System Backup

2. Schools emergency GMS messaging system is working properly and the only weakness of the systems is in the early morning before school opening hours emergencies. But reaching the system from a distance for sending messages will be resolved with the service provider. Although the questionnaire prepared by FPTA had been circulated for this purpose was not responded by all. Dawn said that the existing system is working well so no need to go ahead with a backup. And after numerous reasons for the abandonment of the backup were quoted which led to a general consent to drop the idea and concentrate on other tasks.

Spring Term Planning

3. Bingo, Children’s night out, Dinner party for adults are the events decided to be held at this term.

4. Bingo Afternoon was agreed to be held at the School Hall on February the 3rd 15-17h. Lale mentioned that Rob Dix who has experience and specific ideas of how exactly to run it, has already volunteered for performing the event. Core Committee will make the necessary preparations to realize the event.

5. Dine-and-dance evening for the kids was also proposed, like the Italian evening held last year. Dawn suggested St. Valentine’s day (or around then) as a possibly appropriate date. Everybody’s consent was that this time around it could be combined with a presentation of another world cuisine. Saturday March 1stat the School Hall is decided upon.

6. Adults Dinner party was an idea approved by everybody too, and Saturday, March 8^th was found to be a good date. Lale recommended “Wine House” in Oran as a pleasant venue.

Summer Term Planning

7. Easter Egg Hunt, Children’s Day, Year End Show were the event’s accepted to be held and decided to be detailed on the coming meeting.

8. Egg Hunt was indisputably on the agenda. The questions are still open as to how exactly to organize it. Mark made an important input reminding everybody of the last year’s experience when plastic eggs with sweets inside were scattered around in the woods for kids to find but the concern was how to avoid the way some children abused the game by just taking the sweet out and leaving the empty eggs for the others to find. Mark will be heading the organization of this event. As date and time Saturday, April 5^th 15-17h was agreed upon.

9. For the National Children’s Day April 23^rd Lale expressed the idea to get in touch with a Turkish school like Maya College and organize joint events and celebrating it together with them. Going to the performance of the international delegations of children which is held at the Stadium and / or going to a classical music concert of Doğuş Children’s Orchestra were the few suggestions she made. The idea of holding a ball on the occasion, which appears to be a tradition, was not really supported by the ones present at the meeting. Maybe calling it just a party would send the right message to kids. No

10. To finish with, the Year End Show was brought up. Dawn’s idea of organizing a talent show again was largely supported and so was Lale’s plan to take it out of the school and hold it on a proper stage, thereby add a flavor of authenticity to it. Saturday, June 21^st is the date. The show would be followed by a socializing opportunity. ?????Summer Fair/ would also be a nice idea adding to the fun of the Yearend, the usual time for it being a week before the actual end of school.

Year Book

11. Looking a bit further ahead, Lale suggested it was time to start preparing the Year Book. New ideas are still welcome. The “hottest” relevant issue was the price, as maximum by general consent 20ytl was fixed but how far down it can go remains to be seen after the calculations of cost. Good team work will be necessary to finalize its content and this will most probably be done by a small committee of (no more than three) parents, printing will be commissioned to professionals.