2008 MPE Graduation Summary
We want to begin by saying that we were blessed with many capable and responsible families who took their committee responsibilities seriously and completed tasks on time without complaint. They should all be commended! It was a privilege and a blessing to work alongside this group of graduates and parents.
The 2008 ceremony was held on Friday, May 16th at College Church of the Nazarene in Olathe. We had 56 graduates from 55 families. The ceremony began at 6:30 p.m., with the slide show and music beginning at 5:30 p.m. It concluded at approximately 8:15 p.m.
The ceremony followed the traditional pattern of MPE graduations (see the graduation program), with the additional feature of allowing parents to choose whether to deliver a live message to their graduate during the ceremony or pre-record the message beforehand.
The reception in Uphaus Hall began immediately following the ceremony, and reception clean-up began at 9:15 p.m. in the food service area, and at 9:30 in the display area. The goal was to be finished with clean-up by 10:00 p.m.
Total cost of the ceremony (facility, decorations, refreshments, flowers, diplomas, caps & gowns, music, meeting facilities, video production, and gifts of appreciation) was approximately ____________. MPE gave __________. See the Financial Report from Bev Kolins for details.
We began communication with the Class of 2008 members by e-mail following the 2007 Ceremony. It was later suggested by a parent in the class that MPE consider establishing a website where all the graduation information could be easily accessed. The parent, Tom Laflin, provided the following information:
$25.00 would get a domain and website hosting for one year. mpegraduates.com is available and could be continued from year to year. Obviously someone would need to be able to take over from year to year. I might be able to help out by getting it started and then helping out. I could see a simple design so that it is not complicated to update with new newsletters and email information. And forms. And meetings.
It’s just a thought. But I know that with the flood of information that was coming at us…. Some of it got lost. This would be a great way to consolidate all of the information in a single place.
It’s definitely something worth considering!
Our first organized function was an August picnic (potluck at Leawood City Park) where we went over initial information and had the seniors vote on class T-shirt designs that were submitted by the students.
Our other monthly meetings were held at Emmanuel Baptist Church. We tried to alternate between Tuesdays and Thursdays, but sometimes we changed the date if we knew of an activity that would involve a large group of seniors/parents. (Organizations we tried to plan around included: Christ Prep, Metro Academy Mavericks, and Greenleaf.) We reserved the church from 7:00-9:00 p.m., although most meetings ended earlier than 9:00 p.m. The church doesn’t charge a rental fee, but accepts donations. We paid $50 per meeting. Our contact at EBC was Darwin Ball.
We collected $10 per graduate at the September meeting and requested that the remaining $90 be paid at the October meeting. The deadline to sign up for graduation is October 1st, and a list of graduates needs to be submitted to the MPE Office by that time. After October 1st, families need to appeal to the MPE Board in order to graduate with the class. If a family withdraws from graduation, the initial $10 fee is not refundable, but any other money not already spent may be refunded.
At the first meeting, we had families sign the MPE Graduation Policy and Family Agreement (see notebook) and fill out a Contact Information page. Families who registered later were also asked to fill out these forms and submit them with their fee.
A general outline of meetings and schedules is attached to this summary. A few important items to note are:
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Class colors are always BLUE & SILVER.
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The MPE Board does not allow the election of class officers. (You’ll see from our notes that we didn’t realize this until we had begun the election process. We ended up forming leadership and secretarial committees rather than voting on officers.)
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MPE money is not to pay for activities, with the possible exception of the talent show.
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Student speaker auditions need to be scheduled with the MPE Board. The Board votes on this decision. (Do this early enough that the program committee won’t have to wait for the information — February is probably ideal.
Graduation Planning Schedule
Spring of Junior Year
Summer
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If the Junior Coordinator will not be the Graduation Coordinator, send the contact information for the students to the Graduation Coordinator.
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Choose a (parent) treasurer for the class. Transfer the MPE Graduation Account into that person’s name.
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Begin e-mail contact with the class. Give them the date of the ceremony as soon as it is confirmed.
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Schedule the first meeting and let families know the date and location. (You could tentatively schedule all meetings. Schedule the April meeting at College Church.)
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Give information about committee choices by e-mail. If you have particular needs (i.e. someone with technical expertise), let the class know. You can even have people submit their committee requests at this time and begin to form committees.
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Choose a couple of responsible students to help on the Finance Committee since they’ll need to help collect money at the first two meetings.
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Recruit members for the T-shirt committee at this time.
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You can give the Communication Coordinator role to a student during the summer if you know someone who is willing and responsible. That person serves as the “hub” for all information being distributed to the class, so choose carefully! Our Communications Coordinator (Ashley High) set up an e-mail address for the class (mpeclassof2008@gmail.com). Ask families to add the address you set up to their address books so the messages will not end up in a “JUNK” folder. (We didn’t choose our coordinator until September, so I handled all the e-mail through the summer.)
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Look over the “Things for the Coordinator to Do” list
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If you would like any of the previous year’s paperwork on the computer, contact the previous Graduation Coordinator. (This saves a lot of time because you can re-use a lot of forms just by changing the date instead of re-typing everything!)
Summer Picnic Information
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Reserve a shelter 2-3 months in advance.
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Leawood City Park costs $50 for shelter rental if a Leawood resident makes the reservation and pays. We used the Lions’ Shelter, which holds 120+ people, and we had 120+ attendees! (We included grads, parents, and siblings.)
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The Leawood location was convenient (right off I-435), but it was difficult to hear because of highway traffic. A portable PA system would have been nice!
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The shelter has tables, but we brought several (3-4?) long folding tables to use for food service, and we needed ALL the space.
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We had people bring their own paper products, but we brought extra in case anyone forgot.
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Use name tags — it’s a great help!
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You can look at the meeting agenda to see what we covered at the picnic.
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We were glad to have volunteers that day who offered to MC or speak at graduation. It was our goal to decide those roles early in the year. One thing to think about it how you will decide if you have more than one volunteer for those roles. The decision is made by the Graduation Coordinator(s) and not by the MPE Board.
Committee Assignments
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We assigned every student and one parent from each family to a committee. Parents who serve in some capacity during the ceremony (speaking, praying, etc.) don’t need to serve on a committee. We also didn’t require the family of the Communications Coordinator to serve on another committee. (We made a few exceptions about parent service based on difficult family circumstances.)
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We had people give three committee choices, ranked by preference, and then Julie Phillips worked diligently to sort people into committees. Most people ended up on one of the committees of their choice, but there were a few committees that no one signed up for (video and senior banquet).
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Another way to do this would be to create sign-up sheets for each committee and put them out on tables at the picnic or first meeting. People could sign up for the committees of their choice, and if a committee was already full, they could go with their next choice. This would save a lot of work for the coordinators.
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If you have someone with particular expertise in an area, you could go ahead and put that person on the committee to begin with. It’s really nice when someone already knows what to do in a particular area. (In 2008, Denise Harris did decorations and Damon Taylor worked on the program — both have 2009 grads and are willing to serve in those same areas.)
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One of the “issues” we ran into when we had people rank their choices is that we had A LOT of people listing the same choices (poster, music & activities). Once those committees were full, we had to contact people to see where else they’d be comfortable serving.
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We didn’t designate committee leaders, but it would be good either to assign a committee leader or ask the committees to choose one at the first committee meeting and let the coordinators know. It’s good to have one main contact person and someone who feels responsible to make the assigned tasks are accomplished.
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Our committees generally met during the monthly meeting and then kept in contact by phone or e-mail to accomplish their tasks. It’s a busy time, and we didn’t want to burden people with too many meetings.
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At the first meeting after committees are assigned, give each committee a few copies of last year’s committee report.
September meeting (See agenda for more details)
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E-mail families before the meeting to remind them about signing paperwork and paying the initial $10 fee. (Use receipt book for cash only. Checks are made to MPE Graduating Class; don’t list the year since it’s the same account every year.)
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Use name tags.
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Have seniors and parents sign in and pay $10 initial fee.
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Handouts: MPE Guidelines/Family Agreement, Contact Information, meeting agenda
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Ask someone to open the meeting with prayer.
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We had seniors introduce themselves and tell one interesting fact about themselves. (This was a fun way to start the meeting. It helped “loosen things up” a little and gave the kids a brief opportunity to find out about each other. We had some form of “get acquainted” game at the beginning of most of the meetings. These were planned by our leadership committee.)
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Explain what is covered in the $100 graduation fee (facility, reception, diploma, cap & gown, DVD, etc. but NOT senior banquet or graduation photos)
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If you haven’t already assigned committees, have the committee sign-up on this night.
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Remind families about senior photos — photos will be needed by FEBRUARY for the program, slideshow, and MPE poster.
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Also remind families that announcements are sent individually.
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Ask seniors to submit ideas for class quote and verses, to be voted on during October meeting.
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If you already have a “secretary” or committee, have that person take notes and e-mail them to families in the few days following the meeting.
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Communicate the date for the next meeting(s).
SEND GRADUATE LIST TO MPE OFFICE BY OCTOBER 1
October meeting (See agenda for more details)
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E-mail families before the meeting to remind them about meeting and paying remainder of fees.
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Give each family a copy of the class contact information (include parents’ names, e-mail address and phone number). Have families check their contact info and make any necessary changes.
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Vote on class verses and quote. (Give this information to Program Committee once a decision is made.)
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Allow time for committees to meet.
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Meet as a group after the committees meet so you can answer questions and make any new announcements.
RECRUIT JUNIOR COORDINATOR BY DECEMBER.
(No meeting in November or December. Communicate any necessary items via e-mail.)
January meeting (See agenda for more details)
February meeting (See agenda for more details)
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Cap & gown measurements
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All photos turned in by this meeting (Slideshow, Ceremony, Program, and MPE Poster).
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“Senior Showcase” after meeting.
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Five-minute recording sessions take place before, during, and after this meeting. Reserve a separate room at the church for this purpose.
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Ask families to send their seating requests for immediate family members to the Seating Committee.
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Practice music
March meeting* (See agenda for more details)
*Plan around JCCC spring break and Homeschool National Basketball Tournament
April meeting at College Church (See agenda for more details)
May rehearsal (See agenda for more details)
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Arrange for Joel Speck (audio director for College Church) to attend rehearsal.
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Photographer takes group/individual photos on this day.
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Give families a copy of the seating chart for graduation.
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Go through music selections one time only.
Graduation