Author: Katie Miller

Magis explained that tutoring sign ups are up for this week and next week. She has a meeting tonight at 5pm with the NJCL contest office. She thinks they will talk about virtual awards in place of in-person convention. 

Claire will send out information on JCL elections today. Everyone will send in their election materials by Saturday, May 2nd. She will then send out a google survey the next Tuesday for people to vote. There will be a limit of 20 dollars for bribes.

Ethan reminded us that the CAJCL election page is up on the website. There is a google form for questions and google document for candidate answers to those questions. For state convention, Magis reminded us that Kayla signed up to look at the bios for each candidate. She will find someone else from her Latin I or II class to help. If she cannot find anyone, Sophie will look at the videos. Ethan proposed that Menlo could post information about Claire’s candidacy on Instagram. 

Peridot thanked everyone who submitted for the Lorica. She will send the final copy to Magis and Sophie to post on the website on Thursday. 

Magis asked if we want to do anything for Rome’s 2773rd birthday. Sophie suggested that everyone do celebratory things at home (bake/run/etc). Menlo JCL will post on instagram. 

Magis asked if we want to have a virtual banquet this spring? Ethan suggested that we wait until summer/graduation and have a physical banquet. Sophie said we could limit the number of people to 50 people (no parents, etc). Magis also suggested that MJCL should send Mr. Morris a card because his mother died. Maddie will send a card signed by JCL. 

We need class photos from 2A and AP. 

Magis reminded everyone that the Redwood City Family House is looking for students to tutor the kids who are not going to school. They all have computers, and are now looking for teens to volunteer. Ten people have already volunteered, and Magis added the rest of the board members who are willing. People can set their own hours. 

Claire discussed MJCL elections. They will happen after state elections. She will send out information about it next week. Sophie suggested that if the office is uncontested, the candidate would not have to send in a video. Therefore, we would only vote on contested offices. Victoria asked whether we should hold a Zoom meeting to vote. Claire suggested she could make a google doc and have people vote there. Magis asked if the descriptions of the offices are still accurate. Claire said yes. Claire asked if we would still have a candidate ask for 10 signatures. Every candidate can send out a google form for their signatures. Victoria looked for a google petition form. Magis said she doesn’t think the signatures are necessary this year. We decided Claire will have people submit their signatures, a bio, and a video (only if the office is contested). Morgan asked if the treasurer will handle both the convention finances and Menlo’s finances. 

Ethan then talked about state convention elections. Candidates have until Friday, April 17th at 6pm to submit their video. The election results will be announced on May 1st. He suggested we use our JCL meeting at the end of April to cast our votes. Magis asked who will watch the videos from our chapter. Ethan will watch the video, so we need one other person to watch them as well. He asked if there were any questions. There were not. 

Lindsey then gave an update on the scrapbook. She has received the materials, and she and Jacob will finish it in the next few weeks. Sonia will send a copy of the easter card to Lindsey for the scrapbook. 

Peridot discussed the Lorica. She did not receive any pictures, so people should send those in soon. She asked for movie and book recommendations. Her goal is to finish the Lorica by this Friday, April 17th. Ethan will make the ken ken. Magis will write a letter. Sonia will write a blurb about the easter baskets (and attach a photograph) and send that to Peridot. Claire will write a small blurb about the elections and send that to Peridot by Friday if possible. Ethan suggested someone do research on ancient Roman equivalents to plagues like COVID-19.  

Magis has the results from the National Latin Exam. She is trying to figure out how to distribute the awards. We will discuss the possibility of a virtual banquet in next week’s meeting.

Ethan and Claire discussed MJCL election. Claire proposed that every person interested would email her and send in a video for the entire club to watch. This election will happen after the CAJCL election that Ethan is running in late April. We will now be meeting on Tuesdays most weeks, time-dependent on Claire and Jacob’s rehearsal schedules which are released each Sunday. 

We then discussed the scrapbook. Magis suggested that Lindsey and Jacob work on the scrapbook over break. Magis asked if she could bring the scrapbook materials to Lindsey’s house, including photo paper. Magis will tell everyone to take pictures of themselves with a Latin caption. They will go on google drive, and then on the website. Peridot will handle this. 

Sophie will update the photo albums on the website. Currently, Ethan is putting up events on the calendar. We need that job to be assigned to someone for next year (maybe the webmasters or consuls). 

Magis proposed making masks to donate to hospitals. There are design ideas online. Sonia will do research on this. Magis also thought we could tutor some kids at the Redwood City Family House (or Menlo Freshmen) who are at home.

The discussion then turned to State Convention 2021. Ahna created a survey for people to sign up for tasks, but very few people have responded. Magis noted that it might make sense to conduct these sign-ups after the MJCL elections. Finally, Peridot shared her ideas for the upcoming Lorica issue and assigned some preliminary tasks. One idea was to have students post pictures of their pets during Spring Break, with accompanying Latin captions.

All members met on a Zoom meeting. Sonia shared the Convention ‘21 folder with everyone. Victoria is leading the meaning. She asked all members to share their current emotional stability levels. Ahna could not attend the meeting. Sonia sent an email to the Redwood City Family House for the Easter party, but has not heard back. Magis suggested bringing gifts to the house in person. Sonia suggested Easter kits and chocolate bunnies. Victoria said that most online stores are closed until around April 7th. Magis will go to a supermarket to get the gifts because online shipping will not be available. Sonia and Sophie raised concerns that sending food at this time might not be in the shelter’s best interests. We are going to wait until Sonia hears back. 

Magis asked Jacob (JCL Historian) if he will be able to pick up the scrapbook from Menlo. 

Ethan discussed his plan for elections. His idea is to ask candidates to post a video online and then have voting commence after a week. School sponsors will be in charge of voting. Ethan will record a video of himself explaining constitutional amendments. He is concerned about inequality among contestants if people know how to use iMovie special edits, etc. He will require that nobody edit their videos and instead just film themselves once. 

Peridot (JCL Lorica Editor) is thinking of asking people to send it photos of them baking/doing fun activities around the house in the next week. She will also include photographs of class/club Zoom calls. 

Ahna will send out a sign up list for volunteers for the Convention. Sophie will ask her mother to be the parent volunteer leader. 

Clair might run Menlo JCL elections over the summer. 

MJCL got another Publicity award: the recruitment award!

Magis asked all members who will still be at school next year to sign up for Convention positions. Maddie will coordinate the hotels. Sophie will send her the information. 

We will meet again next Wednesday!

Current Menlo Co-Presidents Sophie Reynolds, Victoria Wat, and Ethan Yan; Nuntius Editor Peridot Park; future CAJCL Co-Convention Presidents Sonia Agarwal and Ahna Kim; and Mrs. Vasquez conferenced via Google Meet. We are trying to figure out how we can stay engaged with the Redwood City family house given the shelter-in-place orders; Mrs. Vasquez asked if we could at least try to ship some materials to them. Sonia will do some research as to whether this is possible. Mrs. Vasquez thinks that the Lorica should be repurposed as a tool to reach Menlo JCLers and provide forms of entertainment in the form of puzzles, sudokus, etc. Peridot will begin thinking about how to achieve this objective.

We then began discussing what different roles to assign Menlo students for State Convention 2021, cognizant of sports commitments in lacrosse, Mock Trial, etc. There was a discussion about Agora and informing people ahead of time so that they have time to prepare. Additionally, we discussed which sports we wanted to have and concluded that it might be better to have Menlo-related individuals (as opposed to SCLers) be in charge of tennis and swimming. Given the historically low turnout for soccer (partially because of the shin guard requirement), we decided to eliminate that and allow soccer-interested individuals to instead use their talents in bubble soccer. We also decided to eliminate the piano competition due to inconsistency in judging and fold it into That’s Entertainment. Ethan suggested that the individuals who are working with academic testing could also be involved in awards. Mrs. Vasquez suggested that Sonia’s mother might be a good fit for coordinating parent volunteers (and Sonia agreed).

In terms of volunteers, there was a discussion of how to further recruit them; Ethan suggested finding a way to attach community engagement credits to volunteers while Mrs. Vasquez said that Mr. Lapolla would give teachers credit for being involved as well. Mrs. Vasquez will also begin looking for a potential date for the State Convention. In terms of scheduling, Victoria suggested scheduling events to overlap, as individuals rarely stay for the entire duration of activities. Ethan suggested involving other local schools in the running of convention activities such as pre-convention, Kahoot, escape room, etc. Possible suggestions for partner schools include Harker, Menlo-Atherton, and Live Oak. There was a discussion about potential new activities such as virtual reality, mini golf, or laser tag; we will research further into these possibilities. Ethan said that we need to pay special attention to the needs of middle schoolers and to start brainstorming new ideas, given that we hosted recently. Overall, we created a preliminary draft of the numbers of people we need to oversee each task. One important note is that we probably will need a technology czar who will oversee all technology-related needs beforehand and respond to challenges the day of. Also, Ethan mentioned working with non-Menlo members of the CAJCL Board, for example with the Tech Challenge, taking advantage of their interests and talents. In terms of next steps, Sonia will create a document with blurbs describing all the tasks, in preparation to send out to students for signing up.

Menlo will not let us travel to LA for state convention. We are still considering Carcer. Victoria will cancel hotel bookings and Sonia will email the Redwood City family house to cancel the Easter party. Maybe we will make an Easter basket for each family. Or we could make wreaths for their doors. Sonia will ask the family house how many kids/families there are and what their names are. We have enough money as of now to fund this without the ability to do waffle sales. Ethan will figure out how to run the election without being present. Ethan will skype/zoom to explain amendments. Isabel or Athena will take over other duties. Ahna will make a video to advertise state convention next year. 

Ahna and Sonia are going to be convention presidents next year. We discussed Jacob’s room at states. Four people paid for a (now) five person room, so Magis now has an extra 100 dollars. We are not going to buy Disneyland tickets until we arrive. Sonia is making stickers for promotion. Magis proposed we put the stickers on lollipops. We need to write a thank you note to the Flick manager Thien Hoang. The Lorica is out! Thank you to Peridot. It will be distributed to all of the Latin classes. Sophie will post this news of the Menlo JCL Twitter and other social medial platforms. Ethan reminds us that Pre-Convention entries are due this Monday, March 9th. Ethan also proposed starting a project or going on an outing before the end of the year. Book your flights and send them to sophie! Luke is thinking of costumes for cheers; maybe gloves in addition to the clocks. Maybe purple or black gloves? We need to take down the Valentine’s Day decorations in Magis’ room and put up spring themed decorations. People are signing up for classes soon so we need to talk to middle schoolers/high schoolers who don’t like their language. We need to find the date that middle schoolers sign up for classes. Sonia will ask Mrs. Nguyen when we should come speak in her class about high school latin. We need to prepare for the Easter Party on March 24th. Cookies and easter egg hunt? Ethan will get catapult back for state convention. Luke needs to assemble the chariot/make sure its in working condition.

We need to get cover sheets from Lindsey, Sonia and Jacob. Historians could possibly send out a survey like they did last year to get to know the officers. This could be used on the website with pictures of the officers. Peridot needs to email PDFs of all the Loricas to Ahna, Sophie, and Elizabeth so we can put it on social media and the website. We discussed the State Convention for next year. Ethan proposed co-hosting the convention with Harker, because they have the number of students but they do not have the facilities. However, it may be too much work for us to co-host (maybe more work than just hosting). We had a discussion about whether we want to host alone. First we will ask if Saint Ignatius can host. Magis will talk to Ms. Altieri. The middle school wants to cheer with the high school at states. There are 16 middle schoolers and 22 high schoolers. They would need to come practice the cheers with us. Ahna thinks it’s time to do the video announcement at assembly. Ahna will have video ready by next week.  Photo of the month is due on the 27th of February. Sonia will submit that. Everyone needs to book flights for states. We will remind Morris about pre-convention competitions that are due on March 9th. We decided to renew Flickr now. Sophie has been emailing schools to come to the state convention. Do we want stickers/bookmarks for the publicity process? Ahna will think about that.  Thank you to Victoria for the Nuntius!