Scholarship & Education Committee

Scholarship & Education Committee Meeting Minutes - Draft Tuesday, October 22, 2019, 6:30 P.M., City Hall Annex, 98 Washington Street Called to Order: 6:30 p.m. Members Present: Tyler Carlton, Elizabeth McGovern, Tayla Rose, Jennifer McAlpine, Cynthia Nina- Soto Staff Present: Dominick Pangallo 1. Welcome and introductions 2. Approval of minutes The committee unanimously approved the minutes of September 24, 2019 3. Financial update The Scholarship Fund received $0 in September and has a balance of $ 2,175.39. The Education Fund received $0 in September and has a balance of $22,543.39. Dominick distributed the four-year trends for June, July, August, and September. The text-to-donate fliers were on the Haunted Happenings shuttles last weekend, but the fund received $0 in donations from them. $1,000 was donated by ATG and accepted by the City Council. Tyler offered to post the text-to-donate fliers in other locations. Jennifer suggested doing a big fundraising announcement/request on a recurring basis, perhaps quarterly. There was also discussion about running online ads to direct people to the fund’s donation page. 4. Old business a. Education Fund grant applications review The committee received three applications for Education Fund grants and discussed each. There was discussion about capping the number of grants awarded each year, the amount awarded each year, and whether to continue accepting them on a rolling basis. The committee decided to amend the application form to require applicants to specify how much they are requesting and to provide a timetable, so time sensitive applications can be acted on promptly. The committee voted unanimously to table the decision on the three applications until they received additional details from Dominick as to the average amount in donations received annually by the Education Fund. b. Status of special act relative to the Education Fund The legislature’s Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government held a hearing on the bill on October 15th and Rep. Tucker and Sen. Lovely sent letters of support. c. Fundraising The fundraiser at the 99 Restaurant on October 21st was lightly attended. The committee discussed methods to boost attendance at the next event, at Flatbread Pizza on November 12th. Dominick will set up a Facebook event and post it on the salem.com calendar. The committee will continue to pursue a date for an event at PZA, but also discussed other opportunities, including a golf tournament, road race, concert event, or tie-in with next October’s kid’s carnival on the Salem Common. 5. New business None. Next Meeting: Tuesday, November 26th, 6:30 p.m., City Hall Annex Adjourned: 7:03 p.m.