Category: Minutes

Sonia, Ahna, and Magis have written a tentative program for convention, which they will share with the board for edits.  There are some unknowns regarding Nationals. Magis suggested that a board member connect with NJCL to find out what is happening when. We need to find out the deadline for preconvention and the logistics of the dates/time for the online convention in July. Sonia will email Claire to ask if she will do this. We need this information before we start encouraging people to attend. 

Victoria is working on the Nuntius. She has been adding a lot of puzzles to make up for lack of content from the State Convention. She will share the final product with Magis for Magis to edit. 

There was nothing important to report from the State Board Meeting. We need to relay news about state convention. Sonia and Magis will send out emails.

 This Friday, May 19th, is the due date for submitting articles to the May Lorica. Ahna will take over writing Sonia’s article. Magis will send Kayla the list of awards and her odes to the Seniors. Kayla has not received any articles yet, but when people write their officer farwells/other articles, they should be sent to her and not to Peridot. 

Sophie is trying to figure out if the evening of June 5th is available for the banquet. She emailed Chris Young to find out of that date works. Sophie and Victoria will take the lead in running the banquet. Ahna will make a slideshow for the banquet with photos from this year. Magis asked if any of the seniors could make a dance/vocal/musical tribute to share at the banquet. For food, Magis suggested that everyone eats Italian food at the same time to mimic a normal banquet. We could also all have the same virtual background. Sonia and Magis agreed we don’t need a theme. Magis praised Ethan’s virtual background, and suggested that we follow his example. 

Kayla told Magis that her phone number on the master list of JCL phone numbers is incorrect. Magis fixed it. 

Magis reminded everyone that Paideia has summer courses for Latin, English, and beginning Greek. 

Ethan shared the meeting agenda with Sonia. Welcome to all the new officers! Claire will post on social media about new officers. Everyone who is new will have a big role in convention. Ahna shared the list of committee members. We still need a head for Agora, chess, decorations, graphic arts, videographer, and workshops. Evan Kitt will do more research about cheap and accessible virtual reality rentals. He will start a spreadsheet with company and cost. Magis will ask Allie to work on decorations and signage. She also needs to find someone for treasure. She will ask Mr. Morris for recommendations and for someone to run chess (maybe Henry K). Sophie Reynolds came to the meeting. She gave us the Twitter and instagram passwords. Lucas Allard will do workshops. We want That Entertainment to be bigger at the Convention; maybe we could move other events away from Saturday night.

Kayla will work on the next Lorica with Peridot helping her. We will assign articles now. Magis will look for a package with NLE awards. She will give the list to Kayla for the Lorica. 

Nationals is planning an online convention during the same week it would have been. Sonia will write an article on Nationals once we get more information. Ethan will compile a list of seniors and their college destinations for the Lorica.

Sonia and Ahna will have a meeting with Magis (maybe with Sophie and Victoria as well).

Sophie will find a date for a virtual banquet sometime in June.

There were no contested office positions for MJCL elections. Old officers will reach out to new officer in their position to explain the positions.  Ahna Kim and Sonia Agarwal are the new consuls. Claire Lenden is first vice president. Evan Kitt is second vice president. Lucas Allard is the Parliamentarian. Anika Porteous and Cate Pittman are the historians. Kayla Davis is the Lorica editor. Jacob Halabe is the webmaster. Maddie Levin is the secretary. Luke Yuen and Elliot Kinder are the sports commissioners. We are still looking for a Treasurer. 

Magis then read through the positions for the Convention next year. We need four people to run awards which are a big commitment on the day of convention. Kayla is interested in leading the awards. Claire will run academic testing. Maddie will organize hotels. We need one head for Agora. Luke and SCL will run athletics. Ahna will send the form to all the new officers for people to sign up for the rest of the positions.

Peridot and Kayla will work together on the last (May) issue for the Lorica. Jacob will write a tribute to Mr. Morris in the Lorica. The April Lorica will be on the website soon for people to look at. 

We might be able to have an in-person banquet in August. Otherwise the Lorica will include NLE awards. 

Kayla wants to do advanced certamen online on May 23rd. She will email Soda to ask if he is interested. 

We do not have an update on Nationals but it likely will not happen. 

Sonia and Ahna need to meet with University High School on Saturday the 9th. 

Sonia will make a MJCL group chat for next year. 

We voted in the CAJCL online elections. Sophie Reynolds led the meeting. Cate Pittman and Kayla Davis were the voting delegates for CAJCL elections. We voted to dispense of the minutes for this meaning to allow everyone to speak freely about who they wish to vote for.

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.