MINUTES OF PAA MEETING September 9, 2009
Attendance: Larry Fisher, Marie J. Meehan, Dan Thornton, Renee Llorente, Elaine Poretta, Marie Pinzone, Liz Babeu, Lynn Viselli, Laurie LeBlanc and Kathy Porter
Website: The PAA website will be managed by Marie Pinzone. Thank you to Kevin Sullivan for all your work in the past. We are looking for one more volunteer to assist Marie.
Spinathon: October 3-4, 2009 from 6:00 p.m. on the 3rd to noon on the 4th. Time to start putting teams together. Coaches have been informed to get athletes together. New this year: The school that peddles the most miles will get a placque or trophy to put on display at the high school. This is PAA’s biggest fundraiser so your support is appreciated.
Program Books:
Chris Smith came to speak on behalf of Sal’s Pizza Amesbury/Seabrook. They took out an ad in the program book but wanted to talk about other fundraising ideas with PAA. Talked about Sal’s catering banquets, giving out coupons at football ticket gate, having a night where PAA gets 10% of proceeds taken in at restaurant, sell pizza at concession stands during regular games and tournaments.
Elaine Poretta would like volunteers to help sell the fall program books when they come in. If interested you can contact Elaine at nat1098@comcast.net.
Proud parents sign up was not mailed out this year as in past years. It was distributed at sports sign-up night this past spring and at the spring banquets. However, sign ups are down. There will be a second chance to be a proud parent in the winter program book.
PAA has decided to raise the price of the program books to $5.00.
There was a question about advertising that came up. Latitude was contacted to send in $250 check to advertise in the program book. Latitude felt that since they ran the Spinathon, which is PAA’s biggest fundraiser, the advertising should be free of charge. Program group consulted with Dan Thornton and amongst themselves and decided in this case only, they would run Latitude’s ad for free.
Press Box:
The press box project was on the way over the summer and came to a roadblock as now the building inspector says it needs to be handicapped accessible. Larry Fisher, Dan Thornton, Greg Hadden (new facilities director at Pentucket) and others will meet with Thomas Hopkins, Director of Handicapped Board for the state to iron out this issue. In case you are wondering why the old press box was taken down, it was condemned by the building inspector and there was an opportunity to have it taken down FREE OF CHARGE.
Girls Basketball – River Rivals Tournament:
Lynn Viselli on behalf of girls varsity basketball has requested $2,500 to get a new tournament off the ground. It would be a pre-season tournament entitled “River Rivals” and consist of 4 varsity games at Pentucket. JV teams would play at Newburyport and Freshman would play at Nock Middle School. They would like to offer a scholarship to one girl on each varsity team at $250 or $500 depending on profits. Money needed would pay for T-Shirts for every player ($8), sweatshirts for winning teams (12@$30), pay referees, concession stand supplies, trophies and a cup to be engraved and passed around to winning school each year. PAA asked Lynn to get more concrete details on where money would be spent and also if Basketball Boosters could pitch in ˝ or some portion of $2,500 as well. PAA members thought that our funds aren’t meant to be spent on apparel and trophies.
Fundraisers:
Girls XC asked to be allowed to have a candy sale fundraiser to buy T-Shirts and/or Sweatshirts. Drive will be September 14-24, 2009. PAA approved.
Sportsmanship
Essay:
MIAA is sponsoring the 9th Annual MIAA Sportsmanship Award. Athletes are encouraged to participate in writing an essay on the topic “How do your choices impact sportsmanship”. First prize is $500, Second Prize is $300 and Third prize is $200. Dan Thornton is coordinating with English Dept. to get word out to students. Deadline for essay submission is October 16, 2009 and presentation will be November 20, 2009 at Gillette Stadium. Go to MIAA.net for more information.
Chris Pinzone gets everything ready for the concession stand but has a son playing football and would like to watch him play. We need volunteers to run the concession stand and one person who can organize volunteers while in the stand. (An e-mail has been sent with dates and times of games for people to volunteer).
Current balance in PAA account is $12,983.17.
Meeting adjourned at 9:15 p.m.