Lincoln High School Grad Night 2002

Information for Committee Members

News:

There was no meeting in December.
Kathy Allyn got a reservation for our grad night at Camelot Park.
Camelot Park's fax number is (925) 443.3866. Phone: (925) 447-7275, ext. 102 (Patrick, group coordinator), ext. 105 (Judy, birthday party coordinator).
We did not have a separate Grad Night Committee meeting on 1/10/02, the night of the PTSA meeting.
The PTSA meeting for February has been moved from the second to the first Thursday of the month. The next meeting of the Grad Night Committee will be on 2/7/02 at 6:00 pm in the media center.
Mary Ellen, who is on the food committee, cannot make it to the committee meetings on Thursday. She needs someone to help her who can also make it to these meetings.

Update 1/18/02:

Jan Theiss-Guffey said she would be willing to serve as treasurer.
Patrick Johnson of Camelot Park mailed a contract to Kathy Allyn, which she received on 1/17/02 (see below)
The cost this year will be $60 per person, including busing, which is $1 more than last year.

Update 2/5/02

Kathy Allyn signed the contract and sent it back to Camelot Park.
E-mail and phone voting on approving the contract and charging $60 for tickets: 7 in favor, none opposed.
May 10 is the last day for the prom bids. Grad Night ticket sales are likely to pick up after that.
We need to find the receipt book or get a new one.
We need to get the permission slip forms. Check with the PTA or office.

Update 2/8/02

See the Grad Night meeting summaries below for the 2/7/02 meeting.
Ron Horii asked Mrs. Katemopoulos to put a link to the Grad Night Webpage on the parent organization page in the Lincoln website: http://lincoln.sjusd.k12.ca.us/parent_organizations.htm
Contact Ron Horii for a copy of the list of parent volunteers that may be able to help (Lotus 123 and Microsoft Excel spreadsheet).
Reminder: Lore needs flashlights, chairs, and tables for bus-loading.

Update 3/18/02

See meeting minutes from 3/14/02 for details.
Eggroll sales started. Terri Moffatt is running it.
Publicity started by Mary Kay Tocce.
Food donations being solicited by Mary Ellen Cuykendall.
Joanmarie Woertink will handle the keychain purchase.
Ticket sales start next month - Kathy Allyn.
Kathy checked with Camelot Park. They said we're OK. The deposit isn't due until May 1.
Next meeting: 4/11 at 6:00 pm in the Media Center.

Update 3/19/02

Barbara Lepiane reported that there are 329 seniors, of which 90% are on track to graduate.

Joanmarie said that she already ordered 325 keychains.

Submissions to the parent letter are due by 3/26. Ron Horii will write an article on Grad Night for it, as well as for the senior letter.

Update 5/6/02

The minutes from the April meeting are now on the Website.
Next meeting this Thursday 5/9/02.

Update 5/10/02

The minutes from the 5/9/02 meeting are now on the Website.
We need more more volunteers to help with food running, bus loading, and chaperoning on Grad Night itself.
We will have another meeting on 5/23/02 at 6:30, in the Media Center.

Update 5/28/02

The minutes from the 5/23/02 meeting are on the Website.

The new student guidelines and instruction sheet is on the Website.

We need to sell 200 tickets by 5/30. We've only sold 38 so far. We need to put a full-scale blitz on ticket sales and publicity.

We have lots of food donations, but we need to get the food pickup schedule straightened out.

We still need volunteers for food pickup and bus loading.

Update 6/2/02

85 tickets have been sold as of Friday. 8-9 of these tickets were scholarships: 2 full, 1 paid $5, 1 paid $10, and the rest paid $30.

We'll be selling tickets every day at lunch this week and at the Senior Luau on Friday.

Ron wrote a letter to the senior parents about the urgency of buying tickets right away.

Ron asked to have the last week's ticket sales announced in the daily PA bulletin and put in the Web bulletin.

Mary Kay made some more posters.

Patrick Johnson got our last check and liability waiver info. He said it's OK if we're late with the payment, which was due 5/30. Kathy sent him a check anyway. We had enough in the PTSA/Grad Night coffers to cover it.

We still need to tell Patrick how many people we have so he can order the buses.

Mary Ellen will be divvying up the food pickup assignments.

Next (and last) meeting: Monday 6/3/02 at 6:30 in the Media Center.

Update 6/5/02

The minutes from the 6/3/02 meeting are on the Website.

We will sell tickets every day this week, at the Senior Awards, Senior Luau, and possibly the Estetica performance on Saturday.

Food pickup assignments have been made.

Still need:

2 large ice chests

1 card table and chairs

2 alternate volunteers for bus-loading check-in

Chaperones (depending on number of tickets sold, see minutes)

No more Grad Night meetings. There will be a PTSA potluck at Jan Finger's house (contact Kathy or Ron for directions).

Update 6/11/02

We have 191 tickets sold. We may sell a few more at bus loading.
We gave 36 scholarships. All but 2 were partial. The total scholarship amount was $1300.
Including the 9 unsold tickets, the total deficit for ticket sales was $1840.
The buses that have been ordered can hold 235 people.
We received 200 wrist bands.
Chaperones: Kathy Allyn, Georgia Schaff, Lorraine Campbell, Michael McGuirk, Carlos Aguinaga, Adrian Philips
Final Food donation/pickup list:

Terri Moffatt (also doing eggrolls and Costco shopping):

Antonella's - 1701 Park Ave. (bread and bruschetta for 50)
Zanotto's - 1970 Naglee Ave. ($40 gift certificate)

Sue Suttle:

Coco's - 330 E. Hamilton Ave, Campbell (20-25 muffins, leftover pies)
Gunther's Deli - 1601 Meridian Ave (1 vegetable tray)

Lorrie Silva:

Aki's Bakery - 355 Meridian Ave (150 pcs cookies, pastries, brownies)
Midtown Safeway Bakery - 1300 W San Carlos St. (baked goods)
Queen Donuts - 196 Race Street (2 dozen donuts)

Judy Frazier:

Round Table Pizza- 2615 The Alameda, Santa Clara (5 large pizzas)
Tony & Alba's Pizza - 3137 Stevens Creek Blvd. ($20 gift certificate, can buy 1 large pizza)
Greenlee's Bakery - 1081 The Alameda (10 dozen butter cookies)
Pasta Pomodoro - 1205 The Alameda at Race Street (garlic bread)
Mountain Mike Pizza - 2011 Naglee Ave. (2 pizzas)

Ron Horii:

Una Mas - 856 Blossom Hill Rd. (1 chicken, 1 vegetarian 4-foot burritos)
Giorgio's - 1445 Foxworthy Ave (5 large pizzas)
Round Table Pizza -1175 Lincoln Ave., Willow Glen (5 large pizzas)
Noah's Bagels - 15996 Los Gatos Blvd., Los Gatos (leftover bagels, ~75-125)

Joanmarie Woertink:

Starbuck's coffee (pre-brewed in containers)

Ice chests with ice (remember to put your names on it):

Bus loading:

Card tables w/2 chairs each:

Update 6/16/02

We survived Grad Night. We had just under 200 going. There was tons of food. The kids had fun.

Now to prepare for next year. I put together a Lessons Learned page.

Sue Suttle said she'd chair the committee next year.

Documents:

These are documents that were scanned in and converted to HTML files. Most are from previous years and have been modified slightly. The text can be copied and pasted into a word processor and modified to create new documents:

Sample donation solicitation letter.
Sample publicity flyer, modified from the 1998 flyer.
Sample parent letter in English and in Spanish.
2001 Grad Night contract with Camelot Park: Page 1, Page 2. (Note: cost of busing is not included in this contract)
2002 Grad Night contract with Camelot Park: Page 1, Page 2. (Note: cost of busing is included.)
Ticket sale information and notes, 1997: page 1, page 2, page 3.
Ticket Sale Instructions, 1997.
Ticket Sale Notes, 1999.
Guidelines and instructions for students for Grad Night 1999.
Guidelines updated for 2002.
Sample 1999 Grad Night Ticket (printed 10 to a page).
Grad Night Guidelines for Chaperones, 1998.
Check-in and registration instruction sheet for 2001. Updated for 2002.
Grad Night budget for 1999-2001.
Grad Night Budget 7/16/01.
2001 Ticket Sales Summary
Eggroll Sales Summary
2001 Grad Night Chaperone List
PTSA Budget 11-8-01
Bus insurance certificate, 2001

Meeting Summary - 11/8/01

Attending: Mary Ellen Cuykendall, Lore Osaki-Horii, Ronald Horii, Sue Day, Kathy Allyn, Terri Moffatt, Mary Kay Tocce, Diane Marley, Jan Theiss-Guffey, Sue Suttle, Melanie Fox (last year's chairperson, visiting), Barbara Lepiane (school administration).
Grad night is 6/12/01. Buses leave from Lincoln at 10, get to Camelot Park at 11. They leave there at 5-5:30 am, arrive back at Lincoln at 7 am.
Last year, Camelot Park charged us $59 per person. We charged $60.
We have fundraisers to help defray other costs and to provide "scholarships" for low-income students who want to go but cannot afford it.
We had about $2K-$3K carried over when we started last year. This year, we have $5901 in the bank carried over. We need to have a carry-over each year to help next year's committee get started.
Camelot Park has a contract with McDonald's. We can either use McDonald's or provide our own food. In the past, we have provided our own food, mostly donated by local restaurants.
The chairperson needs to divide up the work and make sure the committees are doing what needs to be done.
The publicity committee needs to get posters and flyers out. They need to get notices in the school newsletter. They can put a full-page flyer into it.
The publicity committee needs to work with the food committee to acknowledge and publicize the food donations.
The food committee needs to get started after New Year's to arrange for food donations.
Last year, the eggroll sales made $200/week. They charged $1 each, which meant they made a 50 cent profit on each.
We can recruit students to help.
There are 337 seniors this year so far, vs. 319 last year.
Last year, the Outreach Office called Spanish-speaking parents and talked to them about grad night, reassuring them that their kids will be supervised and will not be allowed to leave on their own. They can do the same this year.
Kathy Allyn will call Patrick Johnson at Camelot Park and arrange for a contract. The contracts need to be signed off by the PTA president and committee chairpersons. Camelot Park typically requires a $1000 deposit.
Ron Horii said he can act as a point of contact for E-mail. (Email: [email protected])
Mary Kay said she can help with publicity. Sue Day said she can help with anything.

Meeting Summary 2/7/02

Committee members attending: Ronald Horii, Lore Osaki-Horii, Kathy Allyn, Mary Kay Tocce, Diane Marley, Jan Theiss-Guffey.
We had 2 new people come to this meeting: Joanmarie Woertink and Marlene Wintink-Snell.
Lore had a list of potential volunteers, which she took from the school's parent volunteer list. We passed copies of the list around, which can be used for soliciting help from potential volunteers. The first section of volunteers might be able to help with the eggroll and the ticket sales since they are daytime activities. The list of volunteers helping with "student of the month" might be able to help with the night activities: chaperoning, food pick up, or bus loading. If you call these people, make sure you check to see if the volunteer has a senior. You can say, "if you have time" or "I know you have a senior, but would you be able to help....?"
Next time, we need to get the school to put a spot on the parent volunteer form for Grad Night. It was not on there this year.
We reviewed the contract, last year's budget, and this year's proposed budget.
The contract includes unlimited video games, but $5 in tokens towards redemption games. Last year, we told the kids not to bring any money, and a few kids used up their share of tokens. This year, we should tell them they can bring money if they like to play these redemption games. We can put this in the senior letter, maybe advising them to bring no more than $5-$10 if they want to play these games.
We voted to have keychains as mementos again this year from the same vendor. We need to order early. Last year, they came late. If we get it early, we can give it when the students buy their tickets.
The Senior Prom is May 18. The last day to buy bids is May 10. The students will tend to buy the prom bids first before buying Grad Night tickets, so Grad Night ticket sales typically pick up after the prom.
Ticket sales are at lunchtime. Volunteers need to arrive by 12:15 and stay for an hour.
Ticket sales will be once a week starting the second week in April on 4/16.
After May 21, ticket sales should be twice a week.
Marlene said she could help with the ticket sales on Wednesday.
Kathy Allyn has a blank receipt book. Does anyone know the whereabouts of the one that we used last year?
We need to get permission slips. (Later in the PTSA meeting, Karen Jolly offered to help look for them.)
June 7 is the Senior Luau. We can sell tickets there.
All seniors are eligible to attend Grad Night. SJCC and Lincoln-Plus students are also eligible. We need to get the word to them somehow.
Only Lincoln seniors can come. No other guests are allowed.
Joanmarie said she could help chaperone.
Our major fundraiser will be eggroll sales. Terri Moffat is handling the eggrolls. She needs helpers. Diane Marley said she can help with the eggrolls. Eggroll sales are on Friday.
Publicity:

Mary Kay Tocce is working on publicity. She could use volunteers to help her.
We need to publicize the eggroll sales first, then the ticket sales.
The PTSA meeting did not have a quorum so they could not approve funds for publicity materials. However, Ron Horii can provide plenty of colored 8 1/2 x 11 paper. We can also spend now and get reimbursed later.
Posters should be put up near the senior lockers on the main floor and on the kiosk. Other good places are the gym and media center. Be wary that the posters might get thrown out.
Outdoor posters may get wet. (Thermal overhead foils can be made of the posters, which will be waterproof. Ron Horii can help.)

Note from Mary Ellen Cuykendall, who could not come to the meeting, but needs help on the food committee. If you can help or know people who can, contact her:

I have a list of 12 possible food donors, all from last year and some others. I am in the process of calling them.

If anyone on the committee has connections with restaurants that might want to donate, have them get in contact with me.

Any chance that the Chinese restaurant that we get the eggrolls from would be a possible donor source?

As you know, I'm looking for helpers. I will be able to do a lot of the advance work, but I will be busy with out of town guests at graduation time, so we need someone who can handle food pickup and transportation to site.

Meeting Minutes 3/14/02

Meeting Minutes 4/11/02

Meeting Minutes 5/9/02

PTSA Meeting Minutes 5/9/02

Meeting Minutes 5/23/02

Meeting Minutes 6/3/02

Contacts:

Click on the names below to send an E-mail note.

Committee Meeting Attendees/Volunteers:

Other Contacts:

Melanie Fox (last year's chairperson)
Barbara Lepiane (school administration)
Chris Heller (school activities)

Current Committee Members

Co-chairpersons: Terri Moffat, Ronald Horii
Treasurer: Jan Theiss-Guffey
Entertainment: open
Food Committee: Mary Ellen Cuykendall
Ticket Sales: Kathy Allyn, Lore Osaki-Horii, Marlene Wintink-Snell
Publicity: Mary Kay Tocce
Fund Raising (eggroll sales): Terri Moffat, Diane Marley
Chaperones: Kathy Allyn, Joanmarie Woertink
Bus Loading/Check-in: Lore Osaki-Horii
Webmaster: Ronald Horii

Committee Advice/Instructions

Chairperson:

Calls meeting with committees.
Contacts school to announce meeting in newsletter and principal's message.
Make sure committees are on schedule and know what they are supposed to do.
Facilitates communication between committees.
Make sure paperwork, such as contracts and insurance, is taken care of.
Conducts meetings to hear committee reports.
Reports on status at PTSA meeting.

Treasurer: See here for instructions for the duties of the treasurer.
Entertainment/Extras:

Read the Grad Night contract with Camelot Park to see what is provided. Last year, a DJ, karaoke, and a character artist were provided.
Decide on extra entertainment at Grad Night, if any.
Search for and hire entertainment. Examples: face painter, magician.
Decide on and purchase extras. Examples: T-shirts, keychains, souvenir pictures.
1998 ordered keychains from Boda Products, Claycomo, MO, 816-453-8659

Food:

Plan and arrange for food at Grad Night.
Solicit food donations from local businesses. Recruit Pepsi and water donations from Pepsi (ask Chris Heller), Una Mas (giant burrito), Gunther's or Zonotto's (vegetable plate), Safeway (gift cert.), Walgreen's (gift cert.), Togo's, Willow Glen Roasting Company, pizza (Papa John's, Mountain Mike's, Tony & Alba's, Pizza Hut, Giorgio's, Round Table - Willow Glen, Alameda, Lincoln Ave), Aki's Bakery (brownies), Coco's (muffins), City Donuts (bought w/school discount), corporate donations.
Purchase food or drinks not donated. In the past, bought strawberries, donuts, chips, cookies, candy.
Can use McDonald's at Camelot Park, but will cost more.
Not popular in the past: bagels & cream cheese, juice, muffins.
Get volunteers to pick up food on Grad Night and deliver it to the buses.
Purchase plates, napkins, flatware, paper cups, decorations, etc.
Borrow ice chests, tables, chairs, serving utensils, hot trays & crockpots (if needed) etc.
Set up food at Camelot Park.
Arrange for 1-2 volunteers to cover food table at Camelot Park.
Clean up tables and leftovers.
Arrange for return of borrowed items.

Ticket Sales:

Decide on ticket sales schedule: start date, times of day, number of days, locations.
Recommend ticket price, to be approved by committee as a whole.
Work with publicity committee on publicizing ticket sales.
Get tickets to sell.
Get volunteers to handle ticket sales.
Give instructions to volunteers. See 1997 instructions as an example. Also see the notes and instructions from past years (see above).
Give money to treasurer.
Work with school on giving free or discount tickets as scholarships to needy students, paid for by fundraiser proceeds.
Get final list of student names to Camelot Park.

Publicity:

Get information on Grad Night plans from other committees, especially ticket prices and ticket sale dates.
Help fundraising committee with fundraiser publicity.
Decide on publicity strategy: what, where, when, how.
Create publicity materials, can solicit student help (may qualify for service credit).
Examples: posters, flyers, letters to parents, articles in school newspaper, senior newsletter, community newspapers, contests, information booths at school events, PA announcements, radio announcements, principal's phone call, phone tree, student skits, music, presentation at senior assembly, show pictures or videos of past Grad Nights at Camelot Park.
Solicit donors for prizes for incentive events.
Help food and fundraising committees by thanking donors in publicity materials.

Fundraising:

Decide on fundraisers.
Organize fundraisers.
Purchase materials for fundraisers.
Examples: flea market, food sales at school (chicken, eggrolls), magazine sales, candy sales, car wash, T-shirt sales, license frame sales, sales at school and sporting events.
Solicit donations - private and corporate.
Search for and apply for grants from school district, city, state, etc.
Give money to treasurer.

Chaperones:

Number of chaperones stipulated in contract, depends on number of students (typically 3 per 100 students).
Coordinator arranges for chaperones (usually freshman through junior parents, can be teachers or staff).
Chaperones accompany students to Grad Night and stay the entire time.
1-2 chaperones required per bus.
Chaperones collect cards as students enter bus. Students are not allowed to leave once checked in on bus.
Coordinator prepares chaperone rules, rules for students.
Coordinator will assign areas for chaperones to cover.
See the 1998 Chaperone Guidelines for examples of what to do, though some details may change.

Bus Loading & Registration:

Get to school early, set up 2-3 tables and lights for registration near the bus stop.
Bring cell phone.
Need 4-5 volunteers.
Prepare signs for last names. Divide up registration materials by last name.
Get lists of students who have purchased tickets, emergency cards.
Get wrist bands.
Check in students, give emergency cards, memento (if any), rules, put on wrist bands.
Handle problems with lost tickets, last minute ticket purchses, missing emergency cards, late arrivals, calling parents of no-shows, etc.
Organize bus loading.
Click here for instruction sheet for 2001.

Budget Analysis

See this page for a budget model projection. This is based on last year's income and expenses with assumptions for other parameters, such as the ticket price charged, the amount of projected income, expenses, and the amont of carryover to 2003. The balance is then used to calculate how many "scholarships" we can afford. The bottom line is the following:

Assumptions:

$60 ticket price
200 tickets sold at full price
Same food sales profits as last year.
No donations
$3500 carry-over to next year

Based on this, we can afford 33 full scholarships. This should be enough.

Notes on scholarships: We do not want to advertize that scholarships are available. The school administration will decide who and how many get them.

Return to the Grad Night home page

For questions or comments, E-Mail Ronald Horii.

Last update: 6/16/2002 by Ronald Horii, Webmaster

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