Minutes Of Our January Meeting

The Early Childhood Club's first meeting of the winter module was held on January 31. Reyna Richman, our President, opened the meeting by welcoming everyone and inviting them to have some pizza, hot chocolate, and free brochures from the NAEYC. The next item on the agenda was a brief review of the club's procedures for nominating and electing officers. Reyna then introduced Theresa Maresco, our nominee for the new Co-Secretary position. Theresa was elected unanimously, and we welcomed her aboard.

Reyna then distributed and discussed our spring calendar of events, which include the Club Fair in February; the annual T-Shirt Party in March; the "Week of the Young Child" event in April; and a possible field trip in May. Volunteers are needed to plan and coordinate all of these events; if you can help us out, please e-mail us at profnleggio@aol.com.

Reyna then shared an item from our suggestion box (located in V118): "Why doesn't the club meet twice a month, instead once a month?" Reyna explained that time constraints prevent us from meeting as a whole group more often. However, the club officers do meet once each month in addition to the general meetings, and members are welcome to attend any time to participate "behind the scenes" as the officers prepare for club meetings and special events. The officers' meetings are held two weeks prior to the general meetings, at 3 pm, in the club room (V125). She announced that the next officers' meeting will be on Tuesday, February 14 and the next general meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 28 at 3pm in V118.

The next item on the agenda was a discussion of after-school program job openings listed on our website, and the monthly job bulletins from the Day Care Council and Bank Street College, which the faculty advisor posts in V115. We then unveiled the latest additions to our club's professional resource library, a wonderful new assortment of books from the NAEYC. We now have dozens of books and hundreds of brochures from the NAEYC on a broad range of topics available for our members. One of the new NAEYC books is about creating a portfolio, and there was a brief discussion about the importance of creating and maintaining a portfolio while enrolled in the ECE Program. We plan to continue this discussion and provide additional resources and information about the portfolio at our next meeting.

Our racks of NAEYC brochures and books are now located in V125, which is our club room. If you need any material or want to borrow a book, please see Nancy Leggio in V115 or send us an e-mail at profnleggio@aol.com.

We concluded the meeting by awarding our three door prizes: A colorful calendar from the NAEYC was awarded to Vanessa Posej; a lovely pen from the NAEYC was given to Helianne Duke; and a book entitled "Caring: Supporting Children's Growth" was awarded to Reyna Richman. Congratulations to all of our winners!

Please join us at our next club meeting on Tuesday, February 28.