Proof (Student Activities Council Members)

[Dr. Sean Neville]

((OOC: This is backdated to late May, after power has been restored to Hammel and Pilot Ridge but before the Plague and final exams.))

One of the perks of being a staff member at Hammel was the ability to serve as faculty advisor to one or more of the student clubs. One of the perks of having been at Hammel for as long as Sean had was that he had long ago staked claim to two clubs, of which he had his pick, and he intended to remain as their advisor until his retirement. Among those clubs was the Student Activities Council, the primary fundraising body for the students, and the organization charged with the task of organizing special non-academic events. The Council worked with other clubs to promote their interests, as well as planning dances and fundraisers, and generally using the psychiatrist as a resource for complaints and ideas.

They met regularly.

Today’s meeting saw the addition of a platter of lemon bars that Josh had baked as part of his homework the night before. It also saw Sean with a whiteboard and markers writing lists for the use of the meeting. He greeted each of his students as they entered the office, setting aside props from the last dance to make room at the table.

“As you all know, our agenda for today is brainstorming fundraiser ideas for this summer. Last year’s car wash was a rousing success, if we want to try that again. Or we can do something entirely different. Just remember that the Art Club has their art sale in the fall.”

[Marnie Sullivan]

Finally, Marnie's first council meeting. It would be a lie to say she wasn't at least a little nervous, being one of the group's newest members, but she was more excited than anything. Accidentally running into Dr. Neville off campus a few weeks ago had given her a head start on brainstorming fundraiser ideas. That effort had largely fallen by the wayside as Marnie had refocused on schoolwork and socializing, but maybe she had a suggestion or two that could gain traction.

Hurrying into the council room, Marnie returned the doctor's greeting and found a seat a few chairs away from the whiteboard, an attempt to keep from appearing over-eager. She opened a spiraled journal for note-taking and helped herself to a portion of lemon bar; she'd missed lunch to study for a science quiz and was grateful for the snack.

As Marnie listened and munched her lemon bar, she glanced around the room at the other students. What kind of suggestions would they have? Would they be more creative than hers? If so, it wouldn't be a surprise. But in that case she could still help out with whatever the group decided.

"...Dr. Neville?" she uttered, raising a tentative hand when the man opened the floor to the students. "I think the car wash is a good idea, but what about maybe a dunk tank? We had one at my old school, and it did pretty well."

[Deleted]

Anthony had been on the activities counsel for over a while now. There wasn’t much of a student counsel here at the school, but the activities counsel was pretty darned close enough for the boy to get his foot in the door and gain some valuable leadership experience that he was going to need for his post-graduation plans…whatever those ended up being. He still didn’t know.

Either way, this was likely to be his first real official meeting and chance to make a difference in the school before he graduated and Anthony wanted to go out with a bang! He wanted to…leave something behind with these students, something that would really make them want to say “Hey! I love this school!”.

“Car wash was a success last year,” he said, reminiscing at the kinds of responses they’d gotten to the wash, everything from a 1970s convertible to a bicycle to a horse. “But I think we can do something really special this year for the fundraiser.” He pointed to Marnie. “I like the dunk tank idea. Maybe we can expand on that some way? Like…I don’t know, get teachers to volunteer to be dunked? It’d be a good chance for all the students to get back at them in a “friendly” manner for all those tests they got throughout the year.” Maybe? “Which makes me think that maybe we can do some sort of small school festival. We just gotta be creative, because the county fair is going to be coming around around the same time, so we don’t want to look like we’re copying anything, right?” Anthony took a breath. “Thoughts?”

[Misaki Kobayashi]

Misaki grasped her Student Activities Council notebook and pencil bag tightly as she hurried for the meeting. If it was one thing she enjoyed, it was organizing events that were as fun as they were productive. And productive in as many ways as possible. She slipped into the room as quietly as possible, offered Sean a smile and returned greeting when he greeted her, then took a seat near the whiteboard.

Settled into her seat, she flopped open her notebook and dug a pen from the pencil bag. Of course, she'd already written down several ideas for fundraisers, and then organized them neatly from best to worst. As Sean opened, she prepared to raise her hand and throw out a few of her ideas, but held back as the new girl raised her hand. There would be plenty of time to give ideas, so there was no rush. After listening to Anthony and the new girl's ideas, she raised her hand, though still making sure she wasn't interrupting anyone.

"Car washes are classic, and therefore typically do well," she stated, absently tapping her pen on her notebook. "A dunk tank could be a good idea as well," she added, more out of politeness than actually liking the idea. It seemed too disrespectful of authorities of the school to her. But then again, she'd never much liked dunk tank; she usually found herself feeling bad for whoever had ended up being dunked. Of course, she didn't voice these thoughts, since she was fairly certain they were merely personal preference.

The mention a school festival on the other hand... "I actually had an idea for a festival!" she said, straightening in her seat as she grasped her book. "An ethnic festival-- with food and crafts and demonstrations." She could have gone on, as this was an idea she had been rather excited about, and therefore outlined extensively. She figured if they didn't use it for a fundraiser, she could organize something similar another time.

[Mathis Reeves]

Mathis didn't mind the fact the council didn't actually meet all that often. It gave him time to deal with his other classes and activities. Not that it was a blow off activity --Mathis would never think like that about something he signed up to do- but it was definitely useful. So when he heard there would be an actual meeting today he was equal parts excited and confused. Until he realized they'd be discussing the future fundraiser and then he was just excited.

So to celebrate his excitement Mathis decided he would come to the meeting bearing gifts of food, and coffee. After he came to this conclusion Mathis dove into the home ec room and busied himself making -what else- cookies. Not just one type of cookie either, Mathis managed to multitask so he could leave the home ec room with no fewer than five types of cookies; the double chocolate chip he'd made for Cameron, soft peanut butter cookies, sugar cookies, plain old chocolate chip, and the cookie that took him FAR too long to cook- almond macaroons. He made the variety just in case there would be someone with an allergy. Once done he packed up all the cookies and poured his old fashion made coffee into five thermos and headed out the door only to realize he was late.

His feet pounded into the floor as he ran as fast as he could -while keeping the cookies and coffee safe- and before long he skidded to a stop in front of the meeting room. Once there he pulled open the door and walked inside, face red with embarrassment as he realized discussions were already going on. He did managed to hear the last of it, about the 'ethnic festival' and spoke up his opinion as he walked around the table. He handed a thermos of coffee to Sean before setting down his boxes of cookies, opening them up for anything to take. "Maybe not the ethnic festival.. It's supposed ta be a fun thing and there ain't no way ta get money from a demonstration. If we're gunna do festival 'less we go the traditional route. We can set up stands for games, and yeh we can do crafts. Maybe we can find a way ta throw in cultures or maybe the LGBT community in there. But... It ain't seem smart ta make it the sole reason for the festival."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

With Marnie’s suggestion, Sean turned back to the white board and wrote Dunk Tank in clear letters so that everyone could see it. This was on the opposite side of the whiteboard from the list of what they had already done; these were the brainstormed suggestions.

He then added a checkmark beside the word, when Anthony chimed in with his agreement. This was followed by the words School Fair, a checkmark beside that word, and another checkmark beside the dunk tank.

They Council members were already showing enthusiasm for the fundraiser, which had yet to be decided upon. This boded well for whatever they chose, and it filled with the psychiatrist with pride. His Council members always worked so hard and displayed a rare combination of seriousness and enthusiasm for their charged tasks.

Next came the words International Festival below the other two ideas on the list.

“These are great ideas to start with,” he said, turning back around to face the students. He started with Misaki, since she had made the last suggestion, and because he had a particular topical matter to discuss. “I think the cultural festival idea is a good one, but it would work better as an activity during the year. That way, we don’t have to worry about ticket costs, and we can cosponsor with the Multicultural Club.”

Then with Mathis’s suggestion, he added, “And with the GSA if they’re interested as well.”

That brought them to the dunk tank and the festival ideas. “Let’s talk about the other ideas, but keep in mind that we have to be mindful of startup costs.”

[Marnie Sullivan]

Marnie sat up a little straighter, pleased that the other students were building upon her suggestion rather than shooting it down. An international festival sounded like a lot of fun, even if it wouldn't be effective at making money; hopefully they'd be able to return to the idea once the fundraiser was behind them.

"What about a raffle?" she asked, feeling a little bolder. You couldn't have a fair without a raffle, after all. "Maybe we could get some of the local businesses to donate stuff as prizes, or if they're not interested we could..." As Marnie paused to think, her gaze fell to the enormous helpings of cookies that Mathis had set out. "We could have baked goods as prizes! Everybody loves homemade food, right? And we could get the culinary club involved, or even just have anyone who's interested sign up to donate something. That way the cost gets spread out and there'd be a lot of variety."

[Deleted]

Anthony was all for the fair/festival idea, especially an international one. There was just so much they could do with the idea. However, it was a good point that it probably should be something held off and executed as it’s own separate event. But just the same, “Actually, there’s a lot we can do to raise money with an ethnic festival, especially if we turned it into and ethnic food festival. We would basically just sell food, small stuff, easy to eat things from around the world. I know we have a pretty strong ethic community here, lots of students from China, England, Australia, India. It’s just a thought that maybe we can narrow it down to just food.”

Anthony’s ears perked up at the word raffle and he jumped on it as easily as he did with Marnie’s first idea. “Yeah, I like that! Getting donations from the businesses around town, but you know…” He panned a glance around the room. “We can probably also exploit some of the natural talents that a lot of our student body has as another way to gain prizes. Like get each of the clubs and classes to contribute a few things, that way it’s more of a school wide effort.” Like the sewing club could make simple purses or something. Anthony himself was willing to make some high-end plushies. He even knew a guy out there who could manifest pastries.

[Misaki Kobayashi]

"Waiting until a different time for the ethnic festival would probably be a better idea," Misaki agreed after brief reflection on the reasonings. Something like that would require a lot of work and collaboration for it to make a profit. "Narrowing it to foods might help, though," she mused, thinking aloud. "Especially if we kept it on a small scale, and only picked a single particular food from each country we decided to represent."

She switched gears to consider the raffle idea, and how to build on it. "We could do jewelry too-- good things from a secondhand store that we can clean up nice." She tilted her head a little as another thought occurred to her. "Theoretically, we could raffle student services as well, the ones who have been here for a while. For example, if a pyrokinetic agreed to do a display of his talents as a fire show for a party or something. It could give students who wanted to a chance to show off their powers, as well as give metas more 'street cred' for being fun and giving and using their power appropriately."

She took a breath, realizing she'd been rambling for a little longer than she'd intended, and on a subject she hadn't really considered before now. She bit her lip, hoping that on second thought it wouldn't turn out to be a horrible idea. Sometimes, actually all too often, that happened when she didn't carefully think through everything she said. But if she did that, then oftentimes perfectly good things were missed as well. Oh the pros and cons of social interaction methods...

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean added Raffle to the board, before adding arrows to connect it to the School Fair suggestion, as it was a subset, although it could serve as its own fundraising idea. “That’s an ambitious idea, Marnie.”

The psychiatrist then turned back around to face the students. “By a show of hands, how many of you are staying here during the summer recess?”

In terms of logistics, the number of students on hand would determine what they would be able to do for their fundraiser, given that the fundraiser occurred soon after summer break. If most of the students were going home, then they would need to do the bulk of their leg work during final exams, or otherwise err on the side of something that involved a bit less work upfront.

“I don’t mean to say that we can’t raise money with a cultural festival. But we have comparatively little time to pull it off by the summer fundraiser, especially with final exams and summer break. It would be limiting to the number of clubs that could co-sponsor and everyone would be on short-notice. But if we made it a massive event for during the school year, everyone would have the ability to participate and plan, and we would have cash in hand to float it, because we’d have pulled off our first fundraiser.”

That was his standard advice, particularly since they always had the least amount of money at the end of the year, before the summer fundraiser. “During the summer break, teachers can help with securing favors from local businesses but that’s harder to do with on-the-ground participation.”

Moreover, he thought that a cross-sponsored multicultural faire would be a great bonding experience, something to work towards for the entire year.

At Misaki’s suggestion, he nodded, and then turned back to the whiteboard, adding Services as a subset of the Raffle suggestion. “If we keep it clean and legal, I see no reason why we couldn’t include services like that.” That, too, would be good for bonding.