Current Activities

Periodically, we'll summarize program status. This is mainly intended to support staff meetings and project management. Detailed information about programs, including key contacts and communication history, can be found in google docs or Salesforce.

Please see archived updates of current activities using the menu at left.

Last Update: 10/2/2019

For each item, we provide recent progress and key next steps.

Team meetings

• Tuesday at 10:30 am: team meeting with Mary

• Tuesday at 9am: meeting with Ethan & Peter

Grant Applications

• Recently applied: Cummings Foundation Letter of Inquiry 9/6/2019 ($100k over 3yrs), Cambridge Community Foundation 101/19 ($10k), Braitmayer 10/1/19 ($35k).  

• Next applications: Amelia Peabody Foundation 2/1? Peter look for potential grants to apply for - discuss in 2 weeks 10/15/19.

• Recently done: Barb reupped membership in SNPO for grants database.

• Next steps: Meet to review grant application process - 10/8/19 meeting with Mary. Pull together boilerplate. Get finances approved by board. Meet with accountant. 

Classes, Teams and Events (SF Campaigns)

• Cambridge 3rd Grade PE 4-lesson unit (Ethan)   K-5 classes -- Jamie McCarthy, Joel Burke

  • • Progress: Iso drawings in progress; go to info page for details. Updated the spreadsheet to schedule teachers. Emailed teachers and Jamie & Joel, 9/11/19. MA-HPERD confirmed our attendance and time slot. Ethan sent Grade 3 curriculum out to teachers. 

    • Next: Follow up with Cambridge about $12k invoice - do we need to do anything further? Get together with Geoff re Sketch-Up for iso drawings (order in which to make them). BB work on OUSA map grant program. BB document process for making the isometric drawings. Barb email Joel and Jamie again to confirm we will be taking video and ask Jamie how to make large blown up maps. Peter - call Joel Burke & ask dates for PD for Cambridge PE teachers. Peter contact remaining teachers this week.

    • Financials: close to cost, except isometric drawings and new maps are subsidized by us. Barb providing drawings as volunteer, which is the donation covering the grant we are giving Cambridge.

• Community School classes. (Ethan)     K-5 classes -- Roslyn Shoy, Lissette, ?

  • • Progress:  David Landrigan and Chanah are teaching the Tuesday classes. 

    • Next:  Ethan schedule regular call with David and Chanah; report back with email: summarize plan for the next week, equipment transport issues, who is teaching. Mary schedule meeting with Roslyn Shoy.  

    • Financials: almost break-even if we can limit prep time - do need to continue logging reflections! We have lost a lot on these in the past but were paying lots of prep time and multiple teachers.

• CRLS team (Ethan)     Coaching -- Tom Arria

  • • Progress: Ethan started practices. Three CRLS team members (Evan, Milo and Conor) attended the Pawtuckaway camping weekend. Ethan is getting the campaign up and running. There can only be one administrator (Ethan); he can transfer that to someone. The fundraiser volunteer is Todd Ireland. The transportation volunteer is Anna and Akim. We have permission to train at Fells.

    • Next: NRE events? How are parent volunteers doing? Are kids getting to all practices and races or communicating ahead of time if not? Do the team members know how to apply for national junior program? A main parent volunteer came forward; is Ethan working with them? get parent volunteers up and running. Get paid for uniforms.

    • Financials: Cambridge pays Ethan directly. Barb volunteers; David L volunteers (would get paid if we have enough people); Peter helps occasionally.

• Middle school teams (Barb)    Coaching -- Dan Fusco

  • • Progress: Barb texted Dan 9/9 asking to check in about CSUS fall orienteering; Dan is meeting with Tom Arria 9/10/19. 9/11 talked to Dan; June 9 will be final race for spring. CSUS coach will be Devon Vigoda. The managers at each school are Richardson (PAUS), VLUS secretary, probably Chris Moore (RAUS), and Amigos not sure yet. The fall season with CSUS on Wednesdays will run the second week of October to Nov 6. CSUS team members run free.

    • Next: First practice 10/2. Work with CSUS coach to set them up, Devon Vigoda. Contact other schools with plan and requests; get a meeting with them. Encourage racing on Wednesday evenings. Peter: Call David at PAUS about whether he recruited 8 people for PAUS team. Try getting a final race with another school (Cambridge Montessori? Shady Hill?). Peter: Cambridge Montessori & Shady Hill - compete in champs Nov 6?

    • Financials: Cambridge pays coach directly. Barb and other NG people help with designing practices and final race. 

• Wednesday night score-Os (Barb)    Public events  -- CSU (Ed Despard, Larry Berman)

  • • First Event: 9/18!!! Need to: update Fresh Pond map (Ethan); advertise on NEOC

    • Progress: Met with MIT OC (Nico). Got permission for Danehy, Fresh Pond. Filed permit application for North Point Park.

    • Next: Check back with Nico to see if he is up for the MIT map & get his phone number (Peter) & find out the date of next board meeting; could do letter of understanding with CSU. Web pages. Registration. Permissions final. Marketing. Follow up with Harvard OC; propose we attend the meeting. Send flyer out through Community schools.  Peter -- call Ed today about getting map by next week.

    • Financials: Ideally net positive

• Chelmsford PE (Ethan)  Grade 6-12 classes; Professional development -- Katie Simes

  • • Progress: Ed got back to us with $1500 for map (which means $1700 with NG added work). Mary said to charge $1000/day for delivering programs. Barb sent email to Katie 9/11 with invoice and summarizing the plan. Added details to the Chelmsford page.

    • Next: After confirmation from Katie that they will pay for the map, have Ed make the map. Agree on date for middle school intros and implement.

    • Financials: cover costs; net positive

• Morse School Program (Ethan)  K-5 classes -- Julia Bishop

  • • Progress: Peter sent email to Julia asking to schedule a meeting.

    • Next: Check in with Julia and schedule fall portion of the program. Get to Julia's parent night to talk with the parents. Barb meet with Julia on Friday. 

    • Financials: cover costs; net positive

• Peabody Terrace Sunday 9/15 5-6pm (Ethan)  Private Children's Events -- Eva

  • • Progress: Barb and Ethan discussed format. Ethan sent them the COI and cost.

    • Next: Check with Ethan on amount of request ($300 + $2/participant) and invoice them. Plan party.

    • Financials: should cover costs. Track negotiation and prep time carefully.

Kits, Materials, Lesson Plans

• Videos (Peter)   Lesson plans

  • • Progress: drafts of 4 videos

    • Next: finalize videos; post them along with lesson plans on our google site.

    • Financials: Direct loss but indirectly helps us sell our consulting and PD programs.

• Publish update to curricula and lesson plans (Barb) Lesson plans

  • • Progress: Ethan made updates to 3rd grade curriculum after discussion with Barb.

    • Next: Ethan make updates to K-5 afterschool. Barb review/revise 3rd gr lesson plans and publish. Barb & Peter publish other series like Forest Team Games. Goal: updated curricula end of December, including marketing and print version for sale. Connect to PD and consulting. Ideally, roll out over the fall so there are numerous announcements and we get credit.

    • Financials: Direct loss but indirectly helps us sell our consulting and PD programs.

• Professional Development Workshop for teachers  (Brenda, Ethan) Professional Development

  • • Progress: Brenda and Ethan have been working on it.

    • Next: Review progress; make timeline for completion. Start working on test run, and scheduling actual PD for the spring?  Peter -- contact Brenda about meeting next Wed

    • Financials: Estimate for Brenda's time: $XXX; Estimated income: $XXX / workshop

• Accreditation to give PD credits (Brenda, Barb)  Professional Development

  • • Progress: we've looked at the application

    • Next: Barb draft next draft.

Outreach

• Land Access (Mary)   Land manager relations

  • • Progress: Mary met with rangers and leadership at DCR about the permit denial on two days 9/4 and 9/5. She was hoping to hear their decision on Friday and will follow up.

    • Next: Mary, Barb plan strategy - Barb wants to get back to NEOC and also have access to Boojum, and have a plan for regaining that. Check in with NEOC and CSU.  Less urgent: check in with land managers for all land we use, and work on partnership.

    • Financials: Boojum Rock and Long Pond are the most convenient forest maps to train on.

• November conference for School Committees (Mary) Develop new opportunities

  • • Progress: got a free table via Fred Fantini

    • Next: Thank Fred. Plan how we'll use our space. Reply to email from conference person.

    • Financials: Expense - registration fees and staff time. Indirectly helps us network and sell our fee-based programs.

• MAHPERD (Ethan, Mary)  Develop new opportunities; Staff education

  • • Progress: We confirmed our spot. Requested to see what our application was.

    • Next: Plan how to use our slot.

    • Financials: Expense - registration fees and staff time. Indirectly helps us sell our fee-based programs.

• NPEN Extravaganza

• Middle School Network

  • • Ethan attended meeting 9/11/19.

      • • Structured introduction: Ethan talked to Cambridge Community Center, Rachel. Gave her a card.

        • Got a flyer about Danehy Park Family Day 2019 9/14, 11-4.  Ethan did it once before and did not get yelled at. It was very popular. Ethan was the only person there, so it was chaotic. Ethan not available to go this Saturday due to NEOC event, but perhaps Barb could go. We should get Easygec going, which would make it... easier. Bring flyers with fall event schedule.

        • Dates for back to school nights for all of the schools: Thursday Sept 26th; CSUS also has a second one on the 19th? Doublecheck this.

        • MSN: has been around for 10 years. Lots of discussion was networking and connections. Then connected with other people in the room. Goals for next 5 years - want to see students coming to the meetings; talked about how to do more effective outreach; diversity and (un)equal opportunities. 

Organization

• Finance Committee (Barb)

  • • Progress: David Gibbs and David Yee said they'd be on the committee

    • Next: Start meeting and set out goals. Barb Prep for board meeting

• Business Plan (Mary, team)

  • • Progress: Mary and others are drafting the plan in a google doc. Gint worked on comparables for corporate events and proposed a rate ($400 / 2 hour event...). Gint drafted a Gantt chart (purpose: stage work so that we effectively prioritize our available resources). 

    • Next: Pull together 1-page program descriptions, cost/price/budget for each. Flesh out community outreach. Gint review 2018 $ doc draft and suggest changes. 

• Board Meeting (Mary, Gint)

  • • Progress: We have pre-meeting scheduled at Dave Gibbs' office Wed at 4pm. Board members have RSVP'd; Deb won't be there.

    • Next: Schedule phone calls with Deb (Barb) before and after the board meeting.

• Operations and processes (Peter, Barb)

  • • Progress: No objections from Peter or Mary to using this google website for project summaries, so we'll stick with that. Barb added Peter to "admin" email address, and documented how to send mail from that email address - we should use that for communication with clients where more than one of us needs to be in the loop. 

    • Next:  Review content with Mary.

• Financials (Barb)

  • • Progress: Redesigned the program accounts for Quickbooks. Drafted the 2018 Financial report. 

    • Next: Finalize 2018 Financial Report; do first half of 2019. Meet with John Merchant after 9/15.

Opportunities (we are in communication with partner or are considering a project)

• CMS & Belmont Day (Ian Applegate & Alex Tzelnic follow up/reach out)

• Belmont Boys & Girls Club. Mary

• Newton PE. Need to call/email this week - Barb.

• Boston Public Schools. Schedule a meeting with Outward Bound. Peter check with Brenda about that meeting.

• Outward Bound. See above.

• Constellation Pharmaceuticals. Street-O is planned for October 15th ish. Barb will do this pro bono. Hope: plant seed for larger outing.

• Patrick O'Connor birthday party

Leads (possible partners, but we haven't communicated with them or heard back from initial outreach)

• Corporate event.

  • • Progress: Gint pricing

    • Next: Plan it! Put timelines around the planning.

• Birthday parties

  • • Next: pricing - plan. Marketing materials. Find out permission process for birthday parties in parks.

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