Minutes Of Our February Meeting

The Early Childhood Club welcomed all members, new and old, to our first meeting of the spring semester on Tuesday, February 28 at 3pm in room V118.

After inviting everyone to have some pizza and hot chocolate, our president, Reyna Richman, discussed the club's procedure for electing new officers. She then introduced Mary Gentile, the club's nominee for treasurer, who gave a brief talk about her background and involvement with the club. Mary was elected unanimously, and was then invited to come up to the officers' table for the remainder of the meeting.

Theresa Maresco, club co-secretary, gave us an update on one of our exciting spring projects: a celebration of the NAEYC "Week of the Young Child." Theresa informed us that we will have a table in the breezeway in between the cafeteria and the clusters from 9 am to 3 pm on Wednesday, April 5. Literature will be distributed; our banner will be displayed; and a video celebrating NAEYC's 75th anniversary will be playing on a nearby VCR. Volunteers are needed to help staff the table and perform other tasks. Please leave a note in our suggestion box in V118, or e-mail us at profnleggio@aol.com, if you can help with this event.

Theresa's role as co-secretary is to handle the set-up for meetings, take attendance, and keep club records. We need another club co-secretary to create, xerox, and post flyers; and get the club's mail. Candidates who are interested in the position are currently submitting their names to the nominating committee, and we will report on this next month.

Doreen Brittingham, our vice-president, announced the annual "T-Shirt Party" to be held at our next meeting, on March 28th, at 3pm in V118. Once again children and parents from the KCC Child Development Center will be invited to attend, and we are looking forward to another great experience with them. The club will provide all necessary supplies, including t-shirts in many sizes, fabric markers, music and refreshments. We received special additional funds to our budget for the t-shirt party from the KCC Public & Health Council, which recognized the value of this event for both the club and the child care center families.

The next item on the agenda was our club survey, which Doreen passed out for new members to complete. She welcomed them to participate in any club projects that interest them.

The club's faculty advisor then welcomed students to take free resources from the club's library, which has dozens of NAEYC brochures and pamphlets (to keep) and books on a wide variety of topics (to borrow). Plans were announced for a special field trip for the club on Saturday, May 13 to "A Child's Place," a wonderful early childhood program in Queens founded by KCC instructor Joan Gallagher. A committee will be formed under the leadership of Doreen Brittingham to help organize this event.

The club discussed having a guest speaker at our April meeting to talk about creating and maintaining a portfolio. The faculty advisor will work on this and will report back to the group next month.

Door prizes were awarded as follows: Vanessa Pusey received a pen from NAEYC; Lastenia Catuy won a star-shaped teacher pin; and Nicole Torres received a "circle of children" pin. Congratulations to all of our winners!

The meeting concluded with an impromptu hula-hoop performance by the children who were attending the meeting with their parents. It was delightful to see the little ones dancing, twirling, and rolling the hoops to each other. Several students joined in the fun also!

We look forward to seeing you at our next meeting on Tuesday, March 28 at 3pm in V118.