The first MSW Student Association meeting for the fall was held on September 14 in HPA 363 at 7pm. For those who could not attend the first meeting please review the minutes:

MSW STUDENT ASSOCIATION MINUTES                                        SEPTEMBER 14, 2005

1.             Introduction of student president Joanna Gribble and faculty advisor George Jacinto.

2.             Ice breaker activity

3.             Election of officers held:

Joanna Gribble-President jmgribble@hotmail.com 

Megan Gillis-Vice President mscanadian@gmail.com

Sherry Mathews-Treasurer slmathews82@yahoo.com

Alexis Koppler-Secretary ak1556@aol.com

4.             Service Project Committees were established:

1) Hurricane Katrina disaster relief

      Committee Chair: La Toya Woods lwoods99@hotmail.com

-         volunteering for the Red Cross

-         working for the United Way, more information to be discussed

-         other ideas to help with relief efforts

2) Holiday greeting card drive

      Committee Chair: Gina DiBella rdibella79@hotmail.com

-             gathering holiday card donations

-             signing cards and giving them to nursing home clients and other populations who need cheering up during the holiday season

3) Charlee’s foster kids

      Committee Chair: Valerie Smith valjsmith@bellsouth.net

-         holding a drive for toiletry items to give to the foster kids at Charlee in the Quadrangle (across from UCF)

-          Children at Charee are given a small allowance each week with which they must purchase these items. We feel they shouldn’t have to spend their money on necessities

4) Russia scarves donations (a continuation of a previous project)

      Committee Chair: Sherry Mathews slmathews82@yahoo.com

-      scarves to be made and given to Russian exchange students to take back to Russia

-            more information to be gathered and presented at another meeting

5) Habitat for Humanity

      Committee Chair: Kellye Thomas kellyethomas02@yahoo.com

-            working with a local HFH chapter to volunteer with building houses (possibly for Hurricane Katrina refugees moving to Orlando)

-            Chair to look into Collegiate Challenge during Spring break

5.                   Fundraising committee established:

Committee Chair: Dung Nguyen nvietd@yahoo.com

-         We discussed a few ideas for events/projects.

-         Contact Chair with ideas and to join the committee.

6.                   Discussion of Spring 2006 events:

-         Lobby Day 2006 (date TBA, not during Spring break this year)

-         Helping with the Association of Play Therapy Conference being held at UCF in Spring (date TBA, Jill Davis to speak at an up- coming meeting regarding specifics)

-         Graduation Celebration

We are still eager to have as many first and second year MSW students join the association and are also looking for volunteers that are interested in helping on any of the committees discussed in the minutes. Please email the chair of the committee you are interested in for more information on how you can help. We are also looking for creative ideas for fundraising possibilities for projects such as Lobby Day 2006. Please contact Dung Nguyen with ideas.

Please join us for our next meeting in October! A further email will be sent with exact times and location. Refreshments will be included!