SGS 50 MINUTES OF MEETING 5pm 20th September 2007   Present:  Avril Pollock; Victoria Stirling; Stephen Birkett (chair); Philip Faithful; Norman King; Apologies: Austin Hunter, Jean Hunter, Lewis Lacey; Valerie Lindsay & Heather Sayers   The meeting was to sort out the arrangements for the launch of ‘The Friends of Strabane Grammar’ at the Alley on Friday 5th October. There was some confusion about the actual time. Victoria thought it was to be booked for 7-30 to 9-30, Norman thought 7-00 to 9-00. Norman will confirm with Stephen tomorrow.   1.      Publicity Stephen will write a press release and send it to the local press for the weekend. This will be given to every pupil to take home and a copy will be sent to Austin who has an e-mail list. Small posters can be given to prominent community members and they would be asked to get shops in their community to display a poster about the meeting in their premises. Stephen will produce the poster. Some names suggested were:-       Bill Gordon and William Mealiff for Strabane       Noel Baskin for Castlederg       Valerie Lindsay for Sion Mills       David Canning for Donemana   2. Wine and Nibbles Victoria will visit the caterers at the Alley to ask if they can do wine cheese and crisps for the event. As we don’t know the numbers she will ask them if they can do as much as is needed on the evening.   3. Entertainment It would be nice to have music for the wine and cheese part of evening. Avril explained that the school was putting on a string quartet for the following day and wondered if they could be asked to do an hour for this meeting too. We would pay each musician £10 each. In the event that they can’t do this we will have a CD on hand with background music. Stephen said he would put a power point display together of the school’s activities over the last year or so and this can be running for the first hour.   4. Business We will ask the headmaster to give a brief overview of school today and the current state of play in the joining of the two schools. Norman will then pitch the idea of ‘Friends of Strabane Grammar School’ to the assembled throng and ask if there is any interest in setting up such a group. It could have three functions: social (organising events like the ball); financial (feeding money into SGS); supporting (making connections between the school and people in the community who can mentor or advise).   Meeting finished at 5-30pm