First time sending a holiday card and while it went out later than planned, it arrived in the midst of holidays - in a timely manner. 

There was no cost to the design and it was a feel good addition to build community - Elizabeth considered it a success with room for improvement. While the design was sent to the printer prior to Thanksgiving, the logo was not high res and printer paused printing to replace logo which added a week to the print time. Now we know. If we budget for this in fall 2024, we should plan to have prints in hand prior to the Thanksgiving holiday. Print in hand 11/14/2024. Jonnie Lyn mentioned looking at this project again when the time comes, to assess cost/benefit.

Elizabeth added that we hadn't incorporated Giving Tuesday action items on the development calendar this year. And Jonnie Lyn shared it's importance via email. ER suggested adding to the calendar for 2024 and follow action items on GivingTuesday site which starts in September. This year GivingTuesday coincided with getting the holiday card out and could be more streamlined.

Aimee suggested we connect with the Newburyport High School Aaron Ribidou Smith is the contact for designating an intern who could be helpful in improving/keeping up with data entry. Aimee explained that students are required to do 70+ hours of service.

Jonnie Lyn Evans reviewed the amount collected to date ~$31K, $2K was from effortless giving - a decrease in effortless giving, but this was expected as Amazon is no longer available. We are currently significantly ahead of where we ended the year last year ($16K).

Discussed Next steps in the 25 year campaign

• Video Follow up: 11/28 Video - This was not completed, we need better images in order to get this done - would love the overhead image that Lydia used of the RVCS grounds early on and access to any other images of the school in early years

Elizabeth and Tanya reviewed Habits of Learning - Celebrating 8 C’s in the months ahead

December we celebrated Creativity - Lantern Solstice walk- 12/21- Amazing event

January - Curiosity - No fundraising objective. Discuss with Lydia to see how Curiosity might tie into what she is sending this week. Anything on grounds project - maybe the community involvement and what has happened already with staff and student

February - Courtesy: No fundraising objective, short month and message here is about caring for community members and how best to show each love, respect and kindness.

March - Commitment - this is a fundraiser for the grounds project with PA help - Read A Thon to take place in synch with Read Across America month. Some details from Elizabeth and Tanya: The recommendation is that the read a thon run for 2 weeks - same as NBPT.  Feedback from parents: they would like it to end on a Sunday to get the most minutes logged. 

• Donations are one time either through a student or directly to the school read a thon page. Minutes of reading don’t matter. Number of donors/dollars are the only variables.  
• RVCS will participate in the 80% profit model.  No prizes and non competitive nature of the event makes this a community wide - all boats rise event with a celebration at the end.
• We need to enter teachers' names, email addresses and number of students in each class.   
• Teachers do not have to participate, but if they would like to log minutes for time reading in class or encourage additional reading, take advantage of the read a thon, they can. 
• This is a program to encourage reading, fundraising is secondary and not a requirement.
• Kids can read on their own or be read to. 
• No cost.  
• They will send us a print and ship pack with flyers and posters.  
• Website has a best practices timeline for us to help facilitate and build excitement along with kick off videos if we choose to use or make our own.
• Need to decide on a prize: ice cream social or pods get together to celebrate?

April - Communication - Showing your school spirit!

May- Critical Thinking - Reflecting on the year that has past (Create a Report on Your Impact) and looking ahead to the next school year
 

Lydia Sisson
Development’s participation: Capital Campaign

• Need phases of project with financial scope and timeline from an architect who will create a comprehensive plan.
• Find a way to show the community the funds being raised - growing/giving tree in solarium was an idea
• Request for proposals is going out this week and is due back mid-February
• Request from families to provide input is going out this week as well
• Ideally there would be some progress made this year in the spring/summer. Work on the detention pond is on tap. 
• In order to communicate the project plan a free public event as a celebration/gallery walk & design showcase in concept form for May/June
• As a team we would break down the task of fundraising so that 30% of funds needed are committed ahead of time.

Some disccussion followed re: capacity of the development team as well as tasks ahead. Nailing down the elevator pitch, and sharing our "WHYs" = why we give to RVCS, why RVCS. Deb D. shared that bringing people into the school is a great way to connect community to our purpose and that breaking up the plan into phases would help. Lydia initiated pairing up board members to work together on tasks; the Elevator pitch, Graphic to show fundraising structure were two.

There was some discussion of plausability. Lydia was able to break down the plan to garner funding support; Foundation will help with the cost of the pond rehabilitation, some work will be covered by grants, local businesses and banks, specific alum & families as well as a special family partner will be our targeted audiences for support.

Elizabeth shared past and upcoming opportunities to make relevant connections - chamber events, follow up calls and letter writing.

• In December Erin Irose and Elizabeth Attended the Newburyport Chamber Soiree in December - reconnected with and met a number of new people
• Holiday card was sent 500 printed - this was done with staff help and arrived in mailboxes the week before Christmas. 
• Drafted a letter to reconnect with community partners who made donations for the raffle we held in the fall 2022 campaign “Give One Night for a Better Year” in order to stay in touch and keep those folks in the loop - potential friends for invite to Coffee/Get to know RVCS event at the school. These donors include Flatbread/Jay, Blue Ocean Music Hall/Kathy Aiello, Suzi Maitland, Ted Epstein from Loretta
   

Dates for board and development commmittee to attend Looking ahead: 

• Thursday, Feb 15, 5:30-7:30 PM Salisbury Beach Carousel
• Thursday, March 21, 5:30-7:30 PM Multi-Chamber Legislative Dinner, Blue Ocean Music Hall
• Thursday, April 18, 5:30-7:30 PM Sunset Club