Monarch Movers & Shapers

Monarch Movers & Shapers

A few words from your M&S Chairman Fox:

Well, as 2006 comes to a close, we can all look back and take great satisfaction in the fact that our Movers and Shapers group has made some wonderful strides in our formation and development! We already have accomplished some very good projects and have a number more planned for the future through our four standing committees.

A special thanks is in order for the extra efforts put forth by John Barone and Marty Webb, whose brainchild our M&S group is! Also thanks to Emily Reiter and to various other Monarch School staff and advisors for their continuing support for the M&S.

Kudos also to our M&S committee facilitators: Miranda Bennett and Kay Kahl of The Educators Committee; Julie Meaux of The Developers Committee; Penny Weiss and Sara Ranger of The Builders Committee; and least, but not least, FNU LNU (that's FBI lingo for "First Name Unknown, Last Name Unknown") of The Heralds Committee, since we still don't have an official facilitator for The Heralds, despite our persistent efforts to cajole Kathy Graham into that position!

Special accolades also go to Mirianda Bennett for setting up our great M&S blog.

And a special thank you to Penny Weiss for hosting our fabulous M&S Christmas party in her lovely home.

And, of course, a final word of praise for all our M&S members, whose contributions thus far are greatly appreciated by everyone, especially the students at The Monarch School. We have the good fortune to have enrolled some enthusiastic new members, who will help develop some significant projects to aid The Monarch School in 2007 and thereafter.

Here are a couple of important future dates for us all:

On Thursday, January 25, 2007, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at The Monarch School's Learning Center (TLC) an Orientation will be held for any new M&S members who have not yet attended this session. We hope to recruit some new M&S members from our ongoing telephone calls to attendees of the Miracle Makers Morning breakfast last November. An Evite.com invitation will be sent out after the first of the year to these recruits.

On Thursday, January 25, 2007, from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. at TLC a regular M&S luncheon meeting for all M&S members will be held, at which we'll have our 4 committee break-out meetings. A separate Evite.com invitation will be sent to all for this event in another week or two.

Here's wishing you and your families and loved ones a very joyous and prosperous 2007. Happy New Year!!!!!!!!

-- Justin Fox, M&S Chairman

Developers Meeting Minutes - December 7, 2006

Present: Julie Meaux, Justin Fox, Jessica Stoner, Jenny Ferguson, Marion Defalco and Kim Hollard

• We welcomed 2 new members - Marion Defalco and Kim Hollard
• Jessica asked for volunteers to contact individuals in the Monarch data base to touch base with them and ask if they would be willing to provide us with an email address so that The Monarch School can stay in touch with them electronically via 2 news letters each year as well as other upcoming events and news
• Jessica suggested that next year volunteers contact the individuals that attend the breakfast, but do not make a donation, to thank them for attending the breakfast and ask if we can get an email address and add them to the school's data base
• Marion suggested we contact real estate agencies to educate them about Monarch, provide them with Monarch literature they can share with clients and possibly try to get one of the agencies to host an event with the proceeds going to The Monarch School
• Kim spoke in length to Jenny regarding the capital campaign and suggested several possible contacts to help with the campaign
  
  
  

High School High Tech

Has anyone ever heard of High School High Tech? It's a Houston-area program that bills itself as "an enrichment program for high school students with disabilities that encourages the exploration of science, engineering, and technology-related careers." I just stumbled across the website, so I don't know much about it, but it looks very interesting.

Educators Committee minutes from 12/7

The Educators were a committee of one yesterday, but I had interesting and productive conversations with John Barone, Neal Sarahan, and Debrah Hall, in which we focused on possible projects for our committee. Since we're small, we'll need lots of help, so please read on and find something you'd be interested in doing!

• Reading companions for students. Neal clarified that this activity can be scheduled at the convenience of individual volunteers. If you are interested, you will commit to coming to Monarch on a regular basis (can be weekly or less frequently) sometime during school hours (8:30-3:15) to listen to students read aloud. You will work with a given student for about 30 minutes, but you can meet with multiple students during a visit. Penny has done this in the past and says it's great fun! Interested? Please contact me at mhenry4@uh.edu, and Neal will help you set up a schedule.

• The "Ultimate Gift" project will involve a major event on February 13. Along with other organizations, Monarch will sponsor special screenings of this film, with an event to follow. Volunteers are needed in various capacities, including planning and organization. Details are being worked out, but let me know if you'd like to be kept informed about this.

• Recruiting mentors and finding internships. We're hoping to get a better sense of specific areas of interest among Monarch students, so you can volunteer yourself and your friends and families to share relevant expertise. Senior students are in the process of choosing topics for their final projects, and after these are selected, we'll put out a call for mentors to support their work, as well.

• Volunteers for the Monarch garden at the Houston Zoo. The Builders have been working on this one, too, but a recent donation of materials will enable new developments in this project and opportunities for more workers. Note especially: volunteers may be able to work in the garden on weekends, as well as during the week.

We're also hoping to improve communication between our committee and Monarch teachers and administrators, so that we can find out about upcoming activities in time to call for volunteers. Watch this space!

Monarch Movers & Shapers

Monarch Movers & Shapers
On December 7th, the Movers and Shapers held an Orientation session in which we added three dynamic new members, namely Marion Defalco, Kim Hollard and Malik Mott. Welcome aboard, Marion, Kim and Malik! Immediately after the Orientation we held a regular M&S luncheon meeting and came up with some good ideas. Although we may not have had quantity in the numbers of attendees, we certainly had quality!

Just another reminder of our M&S holiday party this coming Sunday, December 10th, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the home of Penny Weiss, 8411 Burkhart, Houoston, 713-545-8732. Thanks again, Penny, for graciously hosting this grand event!

-- Justin Fox, M&S Chairman

This Week's Movers and Shapers Events

I just wanted to post a friendly reminder for everyone about this Thursday's Movers and Shapers committee lunch meeting. It will start with a tasty catered lunch at 12:30 and end around 2. Also, don't forget about the Movers and Shapers Christmas Party this coming Sunday at 1 p.m. at the home of Penny and Richard Weiss. If you need directions or have any questions, please feel free to give me a call - 713.933.0568. From what I hear it's shaping up to be a great time so I hope all of you can make it!

A Volunteer Opportunity from Kay Kahl

Upcoming Volunteer Opportunity!
Monarch Movers & ShapersThe Educators Committee is seeking volunteers who are interested and available to partake in Monarch's Challenger Campus holiday celebration on Friday, December 15th from 9am-noon. Volunteers are needed to share information and insight to students about holiday celebrations from different traditions (Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanza, traditions from countries and cultures around the world). The students will be traveling to different stations during this time, and each presenter will offer knowledge to a small group in a fun, fascinating way such as speaking and showing items specific to their culture (menorahs, Christmas pickles, etc.). Speakers may want to present a brief project, recipe, or share stories. Creativity is welcome! Please e-mail Kay (kkahl@monarchschool.org) as soon as possible if you are interested or know of someone who may be interested in volunteering. Even if you are only available for an hour or 2, we'd love to have you! Thanks!

Monarch Movers & Shapers

Monarch Movers & Shapers -- UPCOMING M&S EVENTS!

Thursday, December 7th, 11 am-12:30 pm: New member Orientation at The Learning Center (TLC);

Thursday, December 7th, 12:30-2 pm: Luncheon meeting at TLC for all M&S members, with breakout meetings of all 4 committees.

Date to be determined: Christmas party for all M&S members! Let's choose a nearby restaurant (or even M&S home, if anyone wants to graciously host it).

Please make every effort to attend. Also, if you have any brilliant ideas for the time and place of our proposed Christmas party, call or email your fearless M&S Chairman, Justin Fox, at 281-367-9680 (home), email: jfox7@houston.rr.com.

Movers and Shapers Christmas Party??

Would any of you be interested in a Christmas get together? One of our M & S members (John Barone) suggested that we ask our chairman (Justin Fox) to host!!! Other members (myself, Julie Meaux and Emily Reiter) thought this was an excellent idea!!! (Justin, I would start making and freezing the 'petits fours' now!!!!
Any interest, comments, suggestions as to how we could pull this off?

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Email Alerts Change

The Blog Alert system appears to be having some problems accepting new email addresses (as far as I can tell, if you've already signed up, you should still be getting alerts). If you are not receiving email notification of new blog entries and you would like to, please use the "blogarithm" (really, who comes up with these names?) box on the right sidebar. (I'm leaving the Blog Alert box there because I don't want to risk affecting those of you who have signed up through that system.)

Questions? Please let me know (mhenry4@uh.edu). Thanks for your patience!

New York Times article

The New York Times recently ran an article about students with Asperger's Syndrome attending college. "Students on the Spectrum" describes the academic and social experiences of several college students and reports on efforts many schools are making to accommodate their special needs. [I'm not sure how long the article will be available for free on the Times website. If the link doesn't work, please let me know (mhenry4@uh.edu), and I'll be happy to help you get access to it another way.]

Also, if you haven't already, be sure to check out the story about Kate Matthiesen and Adam Farris, two Monarch graduates who are continuing their education at Houston Community College.

Another Volunteer Opportunity Nov. 10th

If anyone is interested in helping stuff about 700 information packets for the Miracle Makers Morning Breakfast I could use a couple of volunteers. We will be meeting the morning of Friday, November 10th at my house (not far from Monarch). If you are interested in helping please contact me at jmeaux1@houston.rr.com.

History, Vision, and Organization

Posted on behalf of Justin Fox.

THE MONARCH SCHOOL
MOVERS AND SHAPERS

HISTORY, VISION AND ORGANIZATION

The Movers and Shapers (M&S) was founded in 2005 as a special kind of support group for The Monarch School (TMS).

An M&S “Core Team,” originally consisting of eleven members, met several times in 2005-2006 with Dr. Marty Webb, Head of School and John Barone, Director of the Monarch Learning Center, in order to establish the goals, structure and direction of the M&S. The M&S Core Team continues to guide the execution of the goals of the M&S, to work actively in the recruitment of new M&S members, and to oversee the M&S committees to ensure that they are functioning in ways that reflect the group’s vision and guidelines.

There are currently 26 individual M&S members. It is anticipated that this number will increase as the M&S further develops. Each new M&S recruit is first invited to a tour of TMS, then completes an application form and interest inventory, and then is approved by TMS staff. Thereafter, the M&S recruit attends a M&S orientation meeting. Then the new M&S member chooses to join and participate in one of the four M&S committees (described below), or to be available for “work groups” for specific projects.

The present M&S Chairperson is Justin Fox.

The primary purpose of the M&S group is to support the mission of TMS and assist the school in a number of creative and innovative ways.

More specifically, the M&S group is divided into four separate committees, namely: (1) The Builders; (2) The Developers; (3) The Educators; (4) The Heralds.

Each of these four committees is headed by one or two facilitators, whose main job is to convene and oversee periodic committee meetings, preferably every month. These meetings may be held at a time and place convenient to its members, such as at a restaurant, residence, office, or TMS. After each committee meeting, a brief summary of will be posted on the M&S Blog: http://moversandshapers.blogspot.com/

THE BUILDERS COMMITTEE: Includes any project that involves construction, demolition, remodeling, redecorating, maintenance, etc.

Co-Facilitators: Penny Weiss and Sara Ranger

Members: Penny Weiss, Sara Ranger

Pilot projects:

• Apprentice: Grounds, pond and trails maintenance (faculty contact: Debrah Hall);
• Challenger: Zoo butterfly garden support (faculty contact: Richard Klein);
• MLC: Painting (faculty contact: Emily Reiter).

Items discussed in the most recent meeting of the Builders Committee on 9/11/2006:

An on-going project that the group will be organizing is the weeding and watering of the Butterfly Garden at the Houston Zoo by selected TMS students, who go there on Thursdays. Volunteers now will be organized to go to the zoo for that purpose at another time on an on-going basis.
Doing some projects at TMS involving renovation and refurbishing. For instance, some shelving will be made for one of TMS work rooms, and weeding of TMS trails will be undertaken.
Postponing of most of the ideas for projects, which were discussed at the last meeting, until much closer to TMS’ move to its new campus in less than two years.

THE DEVELOPERS COMMITTEE: Includes foundation relationships, grant writing, support for fundraising and friend-raising events, recruitment of new members, support of school outreach, etc.

Facilitator: Julie Meaux

Members: Julie Meaux, Stephanie Wheatley, Carolyn Trozzo, Susan Meek, Justin Fox, Scharlene Fox

Pilot projects:

• MLC: Solicitation of off-campus workshops (faculty contact: John Barone);
• Development: Tour recruitment (faculty contact: Jessica Stoner);
• Events: Training in raising more money (faculty contact: Shannon Woodruff).

Items discussed at the most recent meeting of the Developers meeting on 9/11/2006:

Confirmation that the Developers Committee would serve these two purposes: (1) development of external contacts; (2) development of TMS parent community.
The following six (6) methods of developing external contacts were discussed:

1. Established that networking is the most effective method to publicize TMS.
2. Contacting school districts, particularly special services personnel.
3. Personal contact will be made by Development Committee members with friends and acquaintances in the education community.
4. Agreed that health professionals need to be contacted. One suggested method would be for TMS to donate books to doctors’ offices, with these books having details of TMS placed inside them.
5. Car decals with TMS logo and email address were discussed, and estimates from printers of these decals will be obtained.
6. It was suggested that these decals would make an excellent gift for the upcoming TMS fundraising breakfast on 11/14/2006.

It was suggested that an electronic “TMS Parent Newsletter” would be an effective method of building community spirit and school support among the Monarch parent community.


THE EDUCATORS COMMITTEE: Includes all direct service with students and faculty, including academic support, mentorship, internships, guest speakers, special events for students and/or staff, faculty support, off-campus practice opportunities, etc.

Co-facilitators: Miranda Bennett and Kay Kahl

Members: Miranda Bennett, Kay Kahl, Ami Felker, Chassidy Andrew.

Pilot projects:

• Challenger: Reading room (faculty contact: Neal Sarahan);
• Apprentice: Summer program support for out-or-town parents (faculty contact: Debrah Hall);
• MLC: AV/DVD mentorship (faculty contact: John Barone).

Items discussed at the most recent Educators Committee meeting on 9/11/2006:

Upcoming opportunities for volunteers to work with TMS students, to include internships for the students to learn new skills and to increase their confidence.
Mentorships: Speakers are needed to give presentations or mini-workshops to TMS students. These mentors could address students’ interests and/or discuss their life experiences, with an emphasis on making decisions and overcoming challenges. Lectures, demonstrations and hands-on instruction are encouraged.
“The Ultimate Gift”: TMS students are using this curriculum to reflect on their gifts and the legacy of their family heritage. Later in the fall of 2006 volunteers can assist students with the writing and recording of their reflections.


THE HERALDS COMMITTEE: Includes Informational Technology (IT), multi-media advertising, brochure design, photography, public relations, videography, DVD production, web-site design and maintenance, email design, Monarch Learning Center (MLC) promotion, etc.

Co-Facilitator(s): None at present.

Members: Dennis Woods, Dwight Wolf, Cathy Graham, Gala Edwardsen, Chris Edwardsen

Pilot projects:

• IT: network infrastructure design (faculty contact: Kyle Nguyen)
• IT: website proofreading (faculty contact: Marty Webb)
• MLC: email newsletter design (Faculty contact: Emily Reiter)

Items discussed in previous two Heralds Committee meetings on 5/3/06 and 9/11/06:

Website ands email content issues, including perhaps adding a calendar section to help TMS parents, committee members and others to keep up with various events at school;
Distribution of email newsletter to interested parents and committee members;
Development of speakers bureau for TMS;
Ideas for spreading the word about MLS upcoming symposium, such as making connections with leaders of local professional groups, using TMS website to promote the event, and focusing on target audiences when sending out the material, especially when contacting individuals within an ISD.

The foregoing “M&S History, Vision and Organization” was compiled on October 30, 2006 by Justin Fox, M&S Chairperson.

Interested in joining M&S? Please contact Justin Fox at jfox7@houston.rr.com

Volunteers Needed for Reading Program!

Dr. Neal is looking for volunteers to listen to students read. If you'd like to help out and are available during school hours (specific days/times not yet available), please let me (mhenry4@uh.edu) know.

FYI: This is also a great opportunity to interest new recruits in Movers & Shapers. However, because this activity involves direct contact with students, new folks will need to go through the initial orientation before participating. If you find someone who would like to get involved, just send his/her contact info to Justin, and he will start the initiation process.

For projects not involving direct student contact, non-M&S people are welcome to take part before getting oriented. (All this policy stuff comes from John Barone; I'm not just making it up as I go along!)

By the way, thanks for making such great use of the blog! (I knew I'd hook you sooner or later....)

-Miranda

Developers Meeting Minutes - October 30, 2006

Present: Julie Meaux, Justin Fox, Stephanie Wheatley, Carolyn Trozzo, Susan Meek, Shannon Woodruff, Jessica Stoner

• Stephanie Wheatly updated everyone on the progress of a parent newsletter. It was decided that creating a parent Blog would be a good place to start for Monarch parents to interact and share information.
• Discussed the possibility of having a book drive to collect books to be donated to doctor's offices (especially pediatricians) with details of the school inside the front cover. This could possibly be a service project for the kids.
• Suggested that some type of thank-you event would be nice for all of those that make pledges at the breakfast on November 14th. Possibly a dinner or party.
• It was suggested that Monarch might benefit from offering an annual open house in the evening.
• Discussed reaching out to preschools, especially through the different churches, to help educate the community about Monarch.

Thanks to Our Awesome Volunteers

A huge thanks to all who helped yesterday at the Learning Center by sticking labels on about 7,000 news letters that will be going out this week. We had several parent volunteers, Monarch staff and Movers and Shapers members who showed up to tackle this task. The work that we thought would take 1 1/2 days was completed in only 4 1/2 hours. Way to go volunteers!!!!

Builders Committee Project

Members of the Builders Committee recently rolled up their sleeves and with hammers in hand, responded to a need in the Monarch Life Academy for more shelf space. Penny Weiss and I spent two afternoons hanging shelves along two of the walls in the Life Academy. As you can see from the picture, the shelves look great, and are being put to good use! The Building Committee is incredibly appreciative to Penny for driving this project. Life Academy- how are the new shelves working out for you?

Volunteer Opportunity October 30th and 31st

If anyone has some free time on Monday, October 30th between 8:30am and 3:00pm and/or on Tuesday, October 31st between 8:30am and 11:30am we will be stuffing and labeling approximately 10,000 envelopes in the Learning Center for a mass mailing and could use your help. If you are interested in helping with this task please contact me. If you find you have some time to spare at the last minute feel free to just show up - I'm sure there will be plenty of work to go around.

Computers and Laptops

If you have not already heard, I wanted to share the great news with all of you. The Monarch School is a member of a program called Gifts In Kind. This program allows non-profits like us to "Shop" (we don't actually pay anything) for items that we need. These items are typically donated by large corporations. These items can be anything from furniture or computers, or even office supplies. Upon hearing that ExxonMobil had donated over 400 desktops and laptops to the program, I immediately asked for 32 desktops and 10 laptops. And guess what?!?! We got ALL of them. This is great news because these computers can replace all the student computers on both campuses.

Also, we recently received a generation donation from the Viereck's (Monarch parents) to pay for a defibrillator and cabinet for each campus, and for pediatric pads for the Apprentice campus. We are thrilled that they did this for us, especially with all the news going around about schools that do/do not have them. All staff will be trained at the beginning of November on how to use them.

Studio Saturday: cARTography

The Blaffer Gallery at the University of Houston is offering a free program this Saturday, October 21, which may be of interest to some Monarch students and teachers. The schedule includes guided tours of the exhibit "A Fiction of Authenticity: Contemporary Africa Abroad" at 1:00; an art-making activity, in which participants will create maps of their personal histories, at 2:00; and an opportunity to share these maps and discuss the exhibit and project with Leamon Green, a fine arts professor from Texas Southern University, at 3:30. According to the flyer advertising the program, "All art-making materials provided and refreshments are served--just bring your imagination."

Interested? Please RSVP to Katherine Veneman, curator of education (what a cool title!), at 713-743-9526 or kveneman@uh.edu.