Community Building @ FSP - -use comments to share your thoughts and new ideas!

PLease Send to the Parents... The Fun & Games (AKA community building) meeting notes 1) We believe that the community is diverse, interesting, and full of fun possibilities. We hope all community members will feel free to create spontaneous suggestion and invitations for various activities and outings. We'd love to see the parents group have some money available to support these projects. Many smaller chances to come together feels like the most sustainable model for creating an ongoing sense of community. 2) We feel like we need to choose simple and easy-to-execute ideas for now, perhaps building toward a few larger annual events. We'd like to put forward the idea of a holiday sing-a-long on the last day of school before the December break as a first event -- we are wondering about inviting Hans back to lead it. 3) We'd love to find a way to have a chunk of the parents meetings allow for more socializing, and dialogue, perhaps through a more traditional Quaker Meeting approach or through other shared activities or ice breakers. We suggest opening the next Parents Meeting with the Queries on Giving that the kids are thinking about. 4) Here's the list of brainstormed ideas, in total -- feedback, more ideas, etc. would be great - (I'll also post it on the blog) ... After School Activities * more arts & crafts * Ski Club -- shared transportation * Soccer Game was great model for community building -- more of those kinds of events * Community Service projects -- island clean up (weekly, monthly, quarterly?) -- adopt a school internationally -- Roots & Shoots * Choir * Sing-Alongs (Holidays?) * Peace Pals Club Evening Activities * talent show * art show (kids) * parent education -- reading groups, speaker series, conversation series, etc. * Games Night (at homes, at schools, as fundraiser or not) * Adults only party * Matt Loosgian Concert (see also in-service days) Bigger Annual Event Ideas * Ferry ride around the island (guided) * Common Ground Fair Retreat (would need this to be built into the schools calendar - go to Friday of CGF and stay in Friends Camp cabins) * Camping together * Winter Carnival * Spring Thing (need to debrief) * Children's Book Festival organized by Kirstin Cappy in June In-Service Day Ideas * community skiing -- shared transportation and participation on a weekly basis and/or a community trip on the March in-service day * Invite an artist in for an enrichement program * Matt Loosigian concert : He has his own website, and does his own parties and concerts completely separate from Music Together. His tagline is: "Teaching peace, compassion and environmental justice through silliness and song." He played at Common Ground this year. -- maybe for Earth Day? Other * Work on physical space together -- some parents have talent and expertise in the physical space and could help lead a beautification process inside and out * Strategies for welcoming new famllies -- concern that the pot-lucks aren't safe for kids (the hallway) and kids get bored with adult talk * Tidy up the lounge in the back (old entrance) as a family lounge Some of these ideas could be up and running with the ummph of one person, other ideas are fairly resource intense and would need more buy-in and resources. Again, please encourage kids to put ideas in the suggestion box and please share any of your best experiences from other schools / best ideas -- it is fun to capture the big list and then we can all be inspired to take action...