Committees that Support the Fund
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Numerous forms and other materials are availble online. You can also contact Board members for assistance.
Administration - has been combined with Volunteer Management Committee (below)
Elizabeth Mayfield, Chair
Purpose: To support the activities of the Fund by providing human, material and technical resources for the accomplishment of Fund tasks.
Guidelines:
- Work as a support entity
- Board Secretary serves on Administration Committee
Tasks:
- Survey all groups working on Fund activities to determine needs for administrative work.
- Work with the Volunteer Management Committee to communicate volunteer needs to community.
- Supervise the work of Administration volunteers Assist with the procurement of in-kind donations for administrative tasks.
- Develop a budget (if determined to be needed) and submit to Governing Board for approval.
- Report on activities at all Governing Board meetings.
- Keep records of committee work that will facilitate smooth transitions from one year to the next.
Immediate work possibilities include:
- Mailing Founders’ Fund party invitations.
- Writing and mailing thank you notes to donors.
- Compiling and sending communications to Fund Board, Committees, or volunteers via e-mail or US mail.
- Review draft of committee description. Revise as needed and submit to Governing Board.
- Governing Board Liaison is Vice President
Post-Grant Evaluation/Community Priorities Committees
Kent Peterson, Chair, Community Priorities - Responsible for connecting with community to determine priorities, assess needs and make general recommendations for focus of investments.
Mary Bahr, Chair, Post-Grant Evaluation - Responsible for evaluating the actual success of the grants made by the East Fund.
Purpose: Engage the community in the articulation of expectations and in the strategies for deploying resources to meet those expectations (this committee meets on a five-year cycle)
Guidelines:
- Keep focus on and be committed to the Mission and Vision of the Fund
- Be inclusive and broad based.
- Actively maintain outreach
- Develop strong relationships and partnerships among faculty, staff, parents, students and community
- Strive to elevate thinking of community
- Strive to collaborate and build community coalitions
- Be visionary and forward thinking
- Develop strategies that are measurable
Tasks:
- Recruit committee and any sub-committees with broad representation.
- Develop a strategy and timetable to ascertain community expectations for education at SME.
- Execute strategy
- Clarify expectations.
- Develop a strategy and timetable for ascertaining current status of education at SME; strengths, weaknesses, current goals
- Execute strategy
- Articulate current status
- Compare community expectations to current status of education at SME
- Identify needs
- Identify most promising opportunities to make a difference for SME students
- Identify key priorities among those opportunities and articulate a strategy consistent with those priorities
- Evaluate priorities and strategies periodically and make recommendations for strategy adjustment
- Develop Decision Making Principles for Grant Giving consistent with established priorities
- Involve Advisory Board in Committee work.
- Review work with Governing Board. Governing Board approves priorities.
- Develop procedure for grant consideration**
- Committee considers grant proposals and makes recommendations to Governing Board for grants to fund
- Work with Communications/Public Relations Committee to communicate effectively with community
- At appropriate times communicate progress of Committee
- Communicate Grant procedures and Decision Making Principles for Grant Giving with community
- Monitor and evaluate investments.
- Evaluate against developed criteria and against Fund Mission and Vision.
- Keep records of committee work that will facilitate smooth transitions from one year to the next
- Review draft of committee description. Revise as needed and submit to Governing Board.
- Governing Board liaison is President
** Consider establishing a Grant Committee cooperatively with the Development Committee that will assist those wishing to submit a request for funds and will explore the possibility of matching funds from other donors.
Communication/Public Relations
Brent Fuson, Chair
Purposes: Communicate a readily understandable message that effectively compels the community to be engaged with the articulation of expectations as well as with the development of resources.
Guidelines:
- Consider and employ many different communications strategies to reach out to all parts of the community.
- Create an awareness of the Fund and to effectively communicate the principles of the Shawnee Mission East Educational Excellence Fund to the community.
- Inform the community of the activities of the Fund.
- Work with all Fund committees to insure effective and accurate communication with the public.
- Develop strong ties with the community through two way communication. The “community” is defined in several tiers:
- Students, families of students, faculty and staff, at Shawnee Mission East.
- District officials, local elected officials, home owners and business owners in area.
- Alumni and parents of alumni, grandparents of students and alumni.
- District patrons.
- Johnson Country residents.
- Kansas City Metropolitan area residents.
- Review all public communication with the principal before publishing.
- Seek to communicate through Fund created vehicles rather than through the news media.
Tasks:
- Develop a communications strategy and timeline.
- Assign responsibility for all aspects.
- Put resources (volunteers & budget) in place to execute communications strategy.
- Continually evaluate communications strategy and revise when necessary.
- Serve as a resource and coordinator with the media for all Fund activities
- Develop a budget.
- Seek in-kind contributions whenever possible. Budget approval by Governing Board.
- Develop and maintain the SMEFund.org website in cooperation with the webmasters
- Create liaisons with any committee requiring communication with the community.
- Work with any committee producing printed materials to insure consistent communication with public
- Report on activities at all meetings of the Governing Board Develop plans for Annual Report that can be published annually
- Content
- Timetable
- Coordinate with Development for recognition of Fund donors and volunteers
- Keep records of committee work that will facilitate smooth transitions from one year to the next.
- Review draft of committee description. Revise as needed and submit to Governing Board.
- Governing Board liaison is Secretary
Development
Melissa Anthony, Chair
Purpose: To raise monies for the Shawnee Mission East Educational Excellence Fund and support the basic principles of the Fund.
Guidelines:
- Consistently communicate the vision and purpose of the Fund
- Be inclusive and value all gifts
- Work with the Fund treasurer to establish good practices for record keeping and accounting
- Develop programs for giving that offer different ways to give.
- Establish giving programs that are consistent with the tax laws and allow donors to take advantage of those benefits
- Maintain a presence in the community year round
- Communicate the giving opportunity to all members of the community Involve volunteers who are representative of the community on the committee
- Develop supporters of public education and also demonstrate the value of private support for public education.
Tasks:
- Develop a Fund raising plan for approval by the Governing Board.
- Develop a budget for the plan. Consider items below for developing plan.
- Organize one, major all school fund raiser each year – Feast for East
- Take over organization of Founders’ Fund parties
- Work with Fund Treasurer and Shawnee Mission Education Foundation to:
- Establish procedures for accepting gifts; articulate differing categories of gifts and how those donations can be made
- Develop collateral material for donors
- Develop a system for pledging; accepting, tracking and reminding when due
- Form for giving on website (work also with communications committee)
- Develop a program that allows gifts to be made in recognition of others
- Develop programs that allow for seasonal giving; specifically at winter holidays and the end of school
- Work with the communications committee to insure that all printed material and that all presentations give information consistent with other public Fund information and with Fund organization and principles.
- Develop a calendar and targets (goals) for fund raising
- Determine effective ways to motivate people to give
- Determine and develop programs that compel people of all means to become donors
- Develop a recognition program for donors that motivates through recognition yet does not diminish small gifts
- Develop a system to send hand-written notes to all donors.
- Work with the Administration Committee if need be
- Establish committees to accomplish tasks.
- Strive to have committees represent the community we serve.
- Report on activities at all meetings of the Governing Board
- Keep records of committee work that will facilitate smooth transitions from one year to the next
- Review draft of committee description. Revise as needed and submit to Governing Board.
- Governing Board liaison is Treasurer
Administration/Volunteer Management
Elizabeth Mayfield, Chair
Purpose: Develop volunteer resources to enable the Fund to be engaged with the articulation of expectations as well as with the development of resources.
Guidelines:
- Be aware of and follow basic tenents of volunteer management
- Make all members of the community aware of Fund volunteer opportunities and make all members of the community feel welcome as a volunteer.
Tasks:
- Survey all Fund committees to determine needs for volunteers. Some committees will recruit own volunteers.
- Work with committees managing own volunteers to insure that good volunteer management practices are followed.
- When a new activity is launched, contact the leadership at the onset to ascertain volunteer needs.
Write simple job descriptions of all volunteer positions that include the following information:
- Job name
- Statement of responsibility
- Tasks and timeframe for accomplishment of tasks
- Person to whom volunteer is accountable
- Approximate time required for job
- Work with the Communications/Public Relations Committee to develop and maintain the volunteer part of the Fund website.
- Work with the Communications/Public Relations Committee to develop and produce information that makes the community aware of volunteer opportunities.
- Seek to involve persons in Fund work that represent many differing facets of the community.
- Be inclusive.
- Repeatedly reach out.
- Supervise the volunteer program
- Develop systems for interviewing, training, supervision and evaluation
- Develop a volunteer recognition program
- Develop a volunteer data base
- Work with the PTA and other SME support groups to collaborate on common goals and needs
- Report on activities at all Governing Board meetings
- Keep records of committee work that will facilitate smooth transitions from one year to the next
- Review draft of committee description. Revise as needed and submit to Governing Board.
- Governing Board liaison is Vice President
Feast for East
Deb Schneider, Co-Chair
Jenny Wentz, Co-Chair
Responsible for all aspects of Feast for East. Details to come.
Grants
Julie Sykes, Chair
Responsible for developing assessment methods for grants, for evaluating grants, for making funding recommendations to Board, and for following up on outcomes of funded grants. Details to come.
Partnerships
Responsible for exploring opportunities for partnerships with businesses, organizations and individuals to increase the capacity of The East Fund. Details to come.
Updated 1/4/10