Another fantastic year has gone by at Ross Road! We had great success with our amazing Christmas Craft Fair and tried out new ways of fundraising: most students made beautiful ArtCards, many parents enjoyed a Starry Night at Park Royal and some learned how to incorporate Twitter into their business life. And the list goes on! Our Food Day program was extended, which meant a significant increase in proceeds for the PAC and hopefully pleased the students who were enjoying delicious hot lunches every two weeks. Now we are looking forward to our second big community event of the year, the Spring Carnival, which will take place on June 7. Stay tuned for more info about that!

Our Annual General Meeting is coming up on Wednesday, May 22 at 7:00 PM at the school library.

Consider getting involved! This year’s PAC Executive members have enjoyed being engaged in various activities. We like to know what is going on at our child(ren)’s school, and we like being a part of the decision-making process. All proposals for expenditure of PAC funds originate from the PAC Executive Committee before coming to a vote at a General Meeting, so if you want to have an influence on the direction of the PAC, this is your chance!

For the 2013-2014 school year, we would like to welcome new parents and new ideas to the PAC Executive!

We have a number of positions available for next year, both big and small. While all of them require communication with the PAC Executive, not all of them require you to attend regular meetings. We meet once a month on a week day evening.

For those wishing to get your feet wet, we have a number of smaller positions:

• Welcome Back Coffee — Organize the coffee served by the PAC on the first day of school in September. This is especially appreciated by Kindergarten and other parents new to Ross Road.
• Welcome Back Luncheon for the Staff — Organize the luncheon, which is usually hosted by a parent who lives adjacent to the school. PAC executive members and others donate dishes. You coordinate food donations and a few volunteers to serve and clean up. This is an amazing opportunity to get to know staff members in a relaxed atmosphere.
• Meeting Coordinator — Check with the school administration that the library is booked for meetings, advertise General Meetings and perhaps organize some simple refreshments for those meetings. Work together with the Speakers Coordinator when a special speaker is booked.

For those wishing something a bit bigger, we are looking for people to do the following:

• Adult Night Coordinator – This one is for adults only! We’d like to host a social event at a local restaurant, so parents can enjoy dinner and a night out with each other. You organize the event and coordinate it with the restaurant. If you want, you can add an element of fundraising to it, but keep it small – this one is first of all an adult community builder!
• Bingo Night Coordinator – This one is for the whole family! As this is mainly a community event, the focus is on fun but fundraising is a part of it, so you need to drum up prizes! Plan the evening’s theme, rent the bingo supplies, organize the prizes and the entertainment during breaks. This is a super fun event that always brings in a big crowd.
• Community Outreach Coordinator – We no longer have sponsor children, but would like to continue to support meaningful charity projects that involve our students. Maybe something local? Maybe from school to school or class to class? This is something new for us and so there would be plenty of room to bring your own ideas to the table.

If you are looking for more of a challenge, how about one of these? All of these come with a complete instruction manual and experienced PAC members to help you!

• Christmas Craft Fair Coordinator — Our current Treasurer has co-organized this event for the past two years and has a simple, step-by-step manual to help you. This is one of our biggest fundraisers and community events, and usually takes place the first Friday in December.
• Spring Carnival Coordinator – Our current organizer has organized this twice now, and as for the Christmas Craft Fair, there is a step-by-step manual available. This is a favourite (and successful) fundraiser for Ross Road. It usually takes place the first Friday in June and is our second big, annual community event.
• Website Coordinator – Our current website coordinator has managed the PAC website for three years and would be happy to help anyone interested in taking this on.
• Advertising Coordinator – If you are in the graphic design field, this could be the job for you! You would be involved in creating posters to help advertise PAC meetings and events, keeping the PAC noticeboard up-to-date, taking photos of events, etc.
• School Directory Coordinator — Update the phone and address files from last year (school office to assist with new data), find advertisers, a printer, distribute directory to classes. The PAC provides this as a service to RR parents every two years.

Haven’t found your dream job on the PAC Executive yet, but would like to be involved?

We’d love to have you join anyway – it’s always good to have new voices join the group even if they don’t have a special task assigned to them!  If you would like to help out with any of the activities listed above as a volunteer, but not in a leading role, that can certainly also be arranged! Please contact us at rossroadpac@gmail.com if you would like to get involved or have any questions.

Don’t want to be on the Executive, but would like to go to the AGM to be involved in grassroots democracy, enjoy delicious treats and catch up with other parents? You’re all invited!

Hope to see you there, Wednesday, May 22nd at 7pm in the library! Coffee and treats will be served, babysitting available.

— Ross Road PAC Executive, 2012-2013
rossroadpac@gmail.com