SteeringCteeMtg02

**Tuesday, July 21, 2009** **The Clarke’s place, Uptergrove**
 * OMO2010 Steering Committee meeting**

Present: Jeff & Ursula Irwin, Bill Morrison, Greg Clarke, Kyla Kadlec Regrets: Trish Steele, Danielle Blair, Kim Tait

1. **Resignation**. Peter Ryback has resigned from the OMO Steering committee, OMO Contest subcommittee, and the MAC2 council. Many thanks to Peter for his many years of service to MAC2, and for starting the contest committee off in a very positive direction.

2. **Reviewing OMO2009 notes**. Greg distributed copies of his “Brain dump” – notes from his visit to OMO2009, (http://OMO2010.wikispaces.com/OMO2009). A number of points / comments / suggestions arose from discussing the notes, and answers to some of the questions embedded in the notes. //(Note: Answers/Comments appear below corresponding to the order in which they were listed / mentioned in the OMO2009 notes – not in the order in which we discussed them during our meeting)//
 * Q: do want to do a Murder Mystery / CSI event – YES
 * Q: should we plan for an extra event for early arrivers? – YES – have camp counselors organize pickup games / activities if teams arrive too early to begin Murder Mystery
 * Q: do we want to strongly suggest teams arrive close to 3pm ? – YES – also discussion about encouraging, possibly financially, teams to leave before the end of the school day – perhaps helping to pay for supply teacher coverage if needed. (Greg to followup on that)
 * Good idea: Make sure there’s lots of signage to get to the site
 * Q: should team photo include coaches? – YES – photographer to be consistent
 * Good idea: OMO Photographer very important role – needs to be only role person does. Could be a teacher (candidate) volunteer – OR – could be a team of 2 (or 3) from a high school Comm Tech class. Greg and Jeff to check out PF and TLSS for possible students. When we meet with Diane Vetter’s students in September, we can check for a volunteer there as well.
 * Q: Do we keep the Math Performance? – NO - thanks but no thanks. This year’s MAC2 coaches were not keen on it. Singing on Fri night was fun (for Greg), but felt (and was) an “add-on” – doesn’t fit with Olympics theme.
 * Q: Where do we have the big group meetings ? - Not addressed. Bill and Greg will answer this when they next visit the site to see Beccy.
 * Note: Need someone to organize snacks.
 * Greg to ask Danielle if she would handle this, considering her experience with Hospitality and OAME conference food expertise.
 * Need to contact Beccy at OELC to see if we have permission to bring snacks on site – a) so that we can distribute snacks, and b) if kids can bring snacks for their cabins – or if that needs to be spelled out in information letters. (Some camps don’t allow extra food on site because of wild animals scrounging around. Don’t know if that’s the case at OELC or not.)
 * Possible scenario for snacks are as follows:
 * Fri afternoon snack – at reg’n desk – distributed upon arrival after registration / team photo / team chant
 * Sat morning snack – in kids goodie bags (distributed on Saturday a.m.) – Gatorade + granola bar
 * Sat afternoon snack - ??? – either we setup a snack station in a central location – OR – ask dining room to arrange it (and we find out the extra cost – not part of the original quote)
 * Q: Do we have teacher candidates ? – HOPE SO – Diane Vetter is teaching at Georgian College again this year (YorkU TCs) – and is bringing 45 to the fall miniconference – so – there must be a good group of them. Need to get Diane involved as part of the committee. Hopefully some are local, or local enough that they would be willing and able to volunteer on the weekend of the OMO.
 * Q: Do we want chapter ID or no ID during contest ? NO FINAL DECISION
 * Talked about starting the Olympics off with a Parade of Matheletes – each team wearing unique team colours (teams from same chapter could be wearing similar fashions, or variations).
 * Instead of country names, perhaps a variation on the chapter name if multiple teams per chapter. E.g. North COMA, South COMA, Central TEAMS, MAC2 East, MAC2 West, Inner SWOAME, Outer SWOAME
 * What appears on individual nametags ? Not decided upon yet.

3**. Other Discussion Ideas that arose**
 * Jeff shared a neat problem solving activity from Think Fun – suggestion to use an activity / game from Think Fun – either as a Friday activity, or part of the Contest
 * Make deadline for registration mid-April – to give more time for “hounding” if needed, and also to finalize plans for Saturday evening, if any.
 * Parade of matheletes – Sat a.m. to start the day
 * Jeff keeping list of names of people who would be working the full Friday at the OELC to setup – MAC2 to pay for supply teacher coverage if needed for organizers to be there (part of OMO budget)
 * Murder mystery – main Friday event – no other event need be planned - If teams arrive early – have pickup games / team bldg games (camp counselors)
 * 2 counsellors per cabin / 12 kids per cabin à 10 cabins total needed
 * Suggestion: Bill and Greg visit OELC to get recruits (will need criminal bkgd check)
 * Organizers will be staying on site (not driving home)
 * Question from Danielle – what to organize for Sat evening ?
 * Masks activity sounds good – also want a campfire to end the evening
 * HOWEVER – until we know for sure that there will be some teams staying overnight (all left this year after contest was over, Saturday afternoon – even Thunder Bay NWOAME team left Peterborough and stayed in Toronto hotel before taking Sunday flight back to TBay) – shouldn’t plan anything solid.
 * Q for Danielle: How much notice would you need to prep a Masks activity? (Campfire could be organized by counselors)
 * Wondering if teams KNEW there was going to be an organized evening event if they’d stay – possibly.
 * Suggestions for extra helpers to recruit : Diane Vetter, Bruce McKay, Paul Szokan, Guy (run contest questions by – only teaching up to gr 6), PF / TLSS math dept, Betty Nelsons

4. **Next Steps** – including items that were brought to our attention to do, based on the timelines set out in the OMO Planner. Link from OMO2010 wiki home page – or ([])


 * Finances Committee (Jeff) - apply for $5000 grant from OAME – could use this to help offset supply teachers
 * Need a chair for Awards / Packages committee – Kyla kindly agreed to chair this committee. Suggestions were given to Kyla for local contacts.
 * Kyla also agreed to help Bill out with the Sponsorship committee. (Thanks Kyla!)
 * Draft letters to sponsors should be prepared in the next month, to be sent out in September to potential sponsors, according to the timeline. There are copies of letters in the material from PRMA that we can modify.
 * Greg to email steering committee members OMO guidelines as assembled by OAME board committee over past few years. (one big zip file)
 * Contest Committee – new chair – Jeff Irwin (thanks Jeff!). Next contest committee meeting – Aug 5th – 1:30pm @ The Clarke’s house.
 * Next Meeting of the OMO Steering Committee : To Be Announced