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Meeting Location: DAVIS LIBRARY
April 18, 2007

Members Present: Mark, Eric, John W., John V., Walter, Nathalie, Tracy, Jill

Meeting Times - Start: 7.05 pm - End: 8.55 pm

1. Votes
   
   The group was told that Jennifer McClung and Jeff Bleicher had wanted to come back to group, and thereby created a need for voting on the matter whether or not to readmit both people back into the group. The group members, present at the meeting, voted on the matter. The tally of votes of members that were present at the meeting were (The members that were not present at the meeting will be contacted and asked for their votes on the matter):
   
   Jeff: 63% in favor - Accepted; Jennifer: 88% in favor - Accepted



2. Future Activities
   
   Mark took a look at the minutes from the January, February, and March meetings and noticed that the group had discussed, at one of those meetings, possible activities for the summer. Among those suggested activities included:
   
   a) A beach trip to Delaware (also mentioned was also a possible ferry trip to Cape May, New Jersey to spend a few hours in New Jersey and then take ferry back to Delaware)
   
   b) Virginia- There were a few ideas for Virginia. Included in the ideas for Virginia were a trip to Busch Gardens, Water Country USA, Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, Virginia Beach, and finally a trip to Luray Caverns.
   
   c) Tennessee- The other idea for a summer trip, was taking a trip to Nashville, Tennessee.
   
   When the group was presented with all of these ideas, the two ideas that were the most popular were choice b and choice a. Choice A seemed the most popular, but members seemed as if they would like to do both trips. The group just was not sure if doing both trips was logistically possible. Eric brought up yet one more idea, although he still needs to talk to his father about it; having Fun Bunch members down to his father’s place at Lake Anna which is in Thornberg, Virginia.



3. Cinco De Mayo
   
   Group discussed the possibility of getting together on Saturday, May 5th, which is Cinco de Mayo. The options that were presented to the group included ON THE BORDER restaurant in Rockville, Maryland, OR AUSTIN GRILLE at either the Bethesda or Silver Spring location. After discussion it sounded as if people preferred to go to the Silver Spring location. Mark will call to see if there is space at Austin Grille



4. Weekly Walking/Hiking
   
   Mark asked the group, now that spring has sprung, if they want to start up the weekly walking/hiking. The consensus of the group was to go ahead and start walking. The best day for walking/hiking would be on Saturday’s. The group thought that they might want to start walking/hiking on May 5th, a few hours before we go to Austin Grille.



5. DC 101 Chili Cook-off
   
   It was mentioned that on Saturday May 12th the annual DC 101 Chili cook-off will be held in Washington, D.C. on the mall. The group decided that they would like to go to this event. We will determine a location to meet up and time to meet up through e-mails.



6. Andrew’s Air Force Base Air Show
   
   Mark mentioned this event, and the general response was favorable. Most people in attendance seemed to want to go to this event. Mark was unsure of the date of the airshow at the time of the meeting, but since has discovered that the air show will be held the weekend on May 19 and May 20. Let me know on which day you want to go on this event ( Saturday or Sunday?)



7. June 2nd or June 9th Event
   
   Mark had wanted to plan an event for one of these dates, but due to the lack of time left, the group decided to discuss this at the next meeting on May 9th.



8. Past Activities
   
   The group had a nice time at the Tower Oaks Lodge (Clyde’s) restaurant on Saint Patrick’s Day. Mark, Eric, Tom, Martha, Nina, Nathalie, Jill, John V., and Walter attended.



9. Other Items
   
   Update on Dan:
   Since the last meeting, Mark contacted those members that were not present at the March meeting and asked those members for their vote concerning the issue of whether or not to readmit Dan back into the Fun Bunch. After Mark took the votes of those members that were not present at the March meeting, the final vote tally on the matter was 46% in favor of accepting Dan's application, therefore it is declined. Dan has been informed of the decision and the existing members informed that if Dan should still be interested in a period of 6 months from now, he may reapply and at which time the group will take another vote to see if the group is ready to have Dan back to the Fun Bunch.



10. FUTURE MEETING SCHEDULE
    
    Mark announced that Judy had indicated that the Fun Bunch would have use of the large meeting room at the Davis library on Wednesday May 9th.



11. Dr. Jessie
    
    Dr. Jessie arrived at 8:07 at which time, Mark debriefed Dr. Jessie on the date of the next meeting, followed by what topic the group would discuss for the evening. That topic was ways in which the Fun Bunch can realistically meet their group goals. To be sure, we mentioned all of the group goals:
    
    a) Increase membership by 15%
    
    b) Do new and exciting activities
    
    c) Increase communication with one another within Fun Bunch
    
    d) Attend state and national conferences
    
    Increase membership by 15%- The group had a discussion on how to achieve this goal. Mark started by noting how he thought by doing an onslaught of advertising the group only after the group was running on all cylinders. By running on all cylinders, that means waiting until the Fun Bunch has the group’s coordinator position filled. When this has happened, Mark thought that he could print up a new brochure about the Fun Bunch support group and hand them out to all Montgomery County Public Libraries. Another way of advertising that Mark thought of, was to possibly put a very small teaser about the Fun Bunch in Mark’s church’s weekly bulletin.
    
    There were two remaining thoughts on ways to increase membership or at the very lease increase the knowledge of the Fun Bunch group outside of the Montgomery County, Maryland area. One thought was to contact the GILD group in Baltimore, Maryland and agree to do a yearly joint GILD/FUN BUNCH activity. The catch being that one year, the Fun Bunch goes to Baltimore for an activity, and then the following year GILD group comes here to the Montgomery County, Maryland area for an activity. Mark also emphasized that should this idea become a reality and should it become an annual event, Mark feels that the word will spread around the Baltimore, Maryland area about the Fun Bunch group. Mark also pointed out that perhaps there might be some GILD members who are not totally happy with the GILD Group and might jump over to the Fun Bunch group.
    
    The other remaining thought of how to possibly increase membership in the Fun Bunch was to possibly have 3 times a year an open-house of sorts. Maybe have an activity open to the public for the sake of having a non-stressful way of introducing any person that might be interested in joining the Fun Bunch to meet the members, and to see for themselves if they like the group. The final thought on the matter came from Dr. Jessie, and she thinks that we the group should talk with Nathalie’s father regarding the Fun Bunch website, and make it so that when somebody goes to Google and types in the Fun Bunch, the Fun Bunch support group will come up as one of the first groups mentioned. Dr. Jessie says that there is a way to type in key words from within the website that will enable the Google user, to see the Fun Bunch website pop up as one of the first choices on the search.
    
    Richard's note: Google can't be "bought" and the best way to get the FunBunch website up further in the Search Engine (Google) listings is to have more members and visitors use the site. Currently this website is # 6 from the top which is great - the more members to use it, the better.



12. Do new and exciting activities
    
    Mark informed Dr. Jessie of all of the activities that we had just planned and she agreed that these are definitely new and also exciting activities. She also acknowledged that we are moving in the right direction in choosing appealing activities.



13. Increase Communication with one another from within the Fun Bunch
    
    After a group discussion, it was agreed that we the group would try and make a conscious effort to call one another up at least once a week, maybe twice a week. Another thought was to try and do more activities.



14. Attend state and national conferences
    
    Since John W. was present at the meeting, and this was originally his idea for a group goal, Mark asked John what he was thinking about when he mentioned this. As Mark had thought, John did indeed originally mean for the group to attend state and national conferences as a way to learn about educational issues that affect individuals with learning disabilities. However, when John mentioned to Mark about starting out small and then moving to bigger things, that is when Mark mentioned how some select Fun Bunch members could report to a Montgomery County Learning Disabilities Association board meeting once every three months to give a brief synopsis of what we have done the last three months and where we want to go over the course of the next three months. And then repeat that cycle every three months. Mark also mentioned that perhaps we could attend a state of Maryland learning disabilities association meeting once a year or once every two years. The final step would be to attend a National learning disabilities conference to promote awareness of the Fun Bunch support group, as well as Fun Bunch members to attend workshops/lectures.
    
    Dr. Jessie and the group agreed that the topic to discuss at next month’s meeting would be to talk about everybody’s individual goals.