Nov 02, Wednesday
Directories are In!
Directories and Excuse Pads -- creatively designed, painstakingly edited, and beautifully printed through the PTO -- were delivered to parents in October.
Did you ever wonder what went into producing these items, especially the massively popular and useful directory? Like most PTO successes, it starts with a great committee. This one, chaired by Betsy Ryan, included: Pamela Mok, Christine Gleason, Betsy Ryan, Kristin Brophy, Melissa Acker, Leslie Maurer, Victoria Kane and Susan Edni (not pictured). Members of this team spent many hours, more than a few late nights that lasted until 4 am, and dozens of miles shuttling between Dover and the printing company. The long days, late nights, and tedious, hands-on work have always been part of the process.
Adding to the work, this year's effort included numerous technical changes, so that the directory itself could help families "get connected" in keeping with the PTO's theme this year. The committee established its own database -- a massive and long-planned undertaking with almost 400 families. The process started with those simple "pink forms" each family filled out at the end of last year followed by the pink "confirmation" forms each family received. There were many questions, and clarifications needed!
"Our work was cut out for us!" declared Betsy Ryan, who helped make the phone calls and emails necessary to pester people over missing form information . But after 1,000 pieces of paper were verified and double-checked, the work was completed. "It was a huge challenge," said Leslie Maurer, "we would never have gotten through it, had it not been for the hospitality and humor of our committee members."
On top of those vital system changes to the directory, you may also notice some design changes. Popular requests led to a new spiral binding which enables parents to flip to pages and fold back the directory, without sacrificing the integrity of the document. It also provides a stronger exterior page to feature our town's generous businesses whose advertisements covered much of the directory costs.
"Just as importantly, no one wants to lose their cover art!" said Leslie. This most cherished aspect of the directory is the annual cover art contest. This year's winning pieces celebrate Chickering's 10 year anniversary and were created by Drew Dummer, Jacquelyn LoDato, and Rose Gillio. Runners up, featured on the last page, were Alex Thompson, Addie Atwood, and Alexandra Handrinos. And anchoring the student art is a beautiful photograph of the mosaic mural which was taken by parent and professional photographer, Udi Edni, husband of Directory Committee member Susan.
The directory was a huge PTO success and the feedback from parents so far has been tremendously positive. When you see members of the
Directory Committee, be sure to thank them!
