This Monday, Forum Council (FoCo) began its meeting with an announcement by new PTO chair Jill Stephenson. Stephenson asked for the forum representatives’ input on the color and design of the long and short sleeve t-shirts which the PTO will be selling as a fundraiser. She also stated that Forum Council now has a $300 budget for Commstock, and an additional $300 for anything else that is needed throughout the year.

After Stephenson left, the meeting picked up where it had left off last week, with the discussion of Multi-Culti guidelines, specifically about a possible theme. It was decided that an overarching theme was not necessary, as forums tend to choose their own theme, although multiple artsy options could achieve a similar, desirable, end.

A few other parts of Multi-Culti were discussed, including whether a forum could learn about something not related to a particular culture. For this, FoCo decided that one of the main goals of the day was to learn about cultures different than our own, so every forum should do something related to a culture, although “the importance of corn to cultures worldwide” or something similar could fit this guideline. FoCo also talked about how decorating is an important part of the experience for many, and that forums need to strike a balance with staying green and keeping forum leaders’ time commitment reasonable—but still having fun.

Along with continuing to focus on drawing on boards and windows, it was suggested that a way to help keep things green would be to possibly keep decorations up for the entire school year. Forums needing to show the background of their subject, no matter how divisive or ugly, was quickly re-explained., to which Dean Marci connected the Ted Talk, “The Danger of a Single Story” which all forums watched last year.

Forum Council then approved reusing last years schedule and all guidelines — the edited version of which was sent to forum leaders Tuesday. The meeting finished with Dean Marci recruiting a few members to join her subcommittee to organize a blue ribbon award ceremony sometime in the future that will include district level administrators and members of the community.
FoCo meets next Monday to approve forum’s Multi-Culti plans.