MOVERS AND SHAPERS  

HISTORY, VISION AND ORGANIZATION

The Movers and Shapers (M&S) volunteer group was founded in 2005 as a special kind of support team for The Monarch School (TMS). The primary purpose of the M&S group is to support the mission of TMS and to assist the school in a number of creative and innovative ways.The M&S began with a “Core Team,” originally consisting of eleven members, which metseveral times in 2005-2006 with Dr. Marty Webb, Head of School and John Barone, Director of Communications at TMS. This team soon established the M&S volunteer group, defining its goals, structure and direction, described more specifically herein.

The M&S membership presently consists of: M&S Chairman, Justin Fox; approximately twenty (20) active members; including two Monarch School parents who, in their role as parent volunteer coordinators for the school, also serve as liaisons to M&S.

The M&S group still is integrally guided by Dr. Marty Webb and John Barone, who help guide the volunteer group on all important matters and issues to ensure that they are functioning in ways that reflect the group’s vision and guidelines

To serve TMS students, faculty and staff, the M&S group will:

• proactively solicit requests for volunteer projects;
• reactively respond to requests for projects from TMS staff;
• present ideas for projects that can be carried out by M & S;
• take responsibility for projects appropriate to our individual members;
• timely report progress on our various projects to the M&S Chairman;
• periodically evaluate the success of projects and propose improvements.
• Track and report hours spent in volunteer service to the school

To serve all the members of our entire M&S group, we will:

• offer well-organized, positive, and meaningful opportunities to support the work of TMS;
• keep volunteers timely informed of all major M&S activities;
• develop projects appropriate to the talents and interests of volunteers;
• place volunteers’ desire to help ahead of our desire to do things “our way;”
• seek creative ways to involve new people in service to TMS;
• assess volunteers’ experience and use this assessment as the basis for improvement;
• respect volunteers’ time.

One of our primary missions is to recruit dedicated new members for our M&S group to help keep it vital. Each new M&S recruit is first invited to a tour of TMS (preferably on one of the “Tuesday Tours” of TMS). Each M&S recruit also completes an application form and interest inventory, plus a reference check permission form, followed by approval of TMS staff.

From its inception in 2005 through mid-2009, the M&S group was divided into four separate committees, namely: (1) The Builders; (2) The Developers; (3) The Educators; (4) The Heralds. However, in mid-2009 a decision was made to eliminate the formal 4-committee structure. For historical and informational purposes, we now will recount the past activities and accomplishments of these 4 committees:

Each of these four committees was headed by one or two facilitators, whose main job was to convene periodic committee meetings, and to oversee the committee’s activities and projects. The committee facilitator(s) , together with the M&S Chairman and several “at-large M&S members,” formed the so-called “M&S Core Team,” which normally held monthly meetings at TMS Learning Center. During these Core Team meetings, the pending and future activities and projects of each committee were discussed.

THE BUILDERS COMMITTEE: Included any project that involved construction, demolition, remodeling, redecorating, and maintenance of TMS buildings and campus areas. Its primary specific responsibilities were to: (a) clear the TMS trails at the Apprentice Campus; (b) maintain the Apprentice campus flower beds; (c) work in the Discovery Garden of the Houston Zoo. It also oversaw the Monarch recycling program, compiled a TMS scrapbook, and assisted in the development of the new TMS campus, which opened in August 2009.

THE DEVELOPERS COMMITTEE: Included any activity to assist TMS in both fund raising and friend raising. Its primary specific responsibilities were to: (a) periodically work, as requested by TMS, on the new campus capital campaign and other fund-raising events throughout the year, including the annual Miracle Makers Morning (MMM); (b) develop new friends of TMS by recruiting new persons to attend the TMS’s Tuesday tour, make new influential contacts for TMS, and bring in new M&S members; (c) assist in other projects, as requested by TMS, including TMS annual Spring symposium, which entailed hosting an outside speaker.

THE EDUCATORS COMMITTEE: Included all direct service with students and faculty, including academic support, mentorship, internships, guest speakers, special events for students and/or staff, faculty support, and off-campus practice opportunities.

Its primary responsibilities were to: (a) provide volunteers to help with the student reading at the Challenger campus; (b) proof read new sections of TMS website; (c) maintain the M&S blog; (d) oversee TMS input onto The Houston Chronicle website “News From You.”

THE HERALDS COMMITTEE: Included Informational Technology (IT), multi-media advertising, brochure design, photography, public relations, videography, DVD production, web-site design and maintenance, email design, Monarch Learning Center (MLC) promotion, etc. Its primary responsibility was to periodically spread the word about TMS through: (a) various mediums (e.g., electronic, radio, newspaper, mail, literature); (b) making presentations about TMS to influential persons; (c) gathering new email addresses for TMS etap; (d) it was instrumental in establishing “The Monarch Hour,” which periodically airs on KPFT-Radio, 90.1 FM..

In May 2009, at the last formal M&S Core Team meeting, it was the consensus of our group to eliminate the above-described committee structure and Core Team; in its place there now a general M&S membership, which meets on a quarterly basis. Our M&S group still performs the same type of volunteer projects, which have been so well-received and vital to TMS!

On August 19, 2009, an M&S Retreat was held in TMS’s Learning Center within its beautiful new school building. It was a grand event attended by 14 M&S members. We also held our regular quarterly meeting in December 2009, with our next quarterly meeting scheduled for March 2010.

With the move to the new campus on Rosefield Drive, there will soon be even more outdoor and environmental education projects available to the group.

The foregoing “M&S History, Vision and Organization” was compiled on February 4, 2010 by Justin Fox, M&S Chairman.

Are you interested in joining Movers and Shapers? If so, then please contact Justin Fox, M&S Chairman, at jfox45@gmail.com.