Mortar Board Full Body Meeting Minutes
January 16, 2014
Those Present: Lauren Aprill, Alexandra Benson, Kate Bauer, Ashley Blauwkamp,
Rebecca Budde, Rachel Butts, Kimberly Collins, Kayleigh Forlow, Catherine Gammon,
Allison Greene, Kelsey Herbert, Sung Il Hwang, Megan Kelley, Mary Kelson, Kelsey
Masserant, Sheri McCormack, Hannah McCoy, Danielle Mila, Gerardo Ochoa, Kevin
Olson, Miranda Orlando, Caitlin Ploch, Colleen Quick, Bennet Riddering, Stephanie
Rogers, Sara Sanchez, Alexis Sears, Rachel Slotman, Emily Smith, Mallory Smith, Craig
Toren, Elizabeth Unterbrink, Emma Zagar, Prof. Pocock, Prof. Portfleet
Those Absent: Michael Atwell
Those Excused: Emily Dalgleish, Emily Raetz
The President opened the meeting at 9:35 pm.
1) Project/Snack – first 5-10 minutes
a. Writing encouraging letters to the CASA kids!
2) Reminder of Dates for Semester Full Body Meetings
a. Jan. 16, Jan. 30, Feb. 13, Feb. 27, (no meeting March 13 due to spring
break), March 27, April 10, April 24 (last two meetings will include both
old and new members)
b. Reminder: please check out your calendars, let Kayleigh know if you
cannot attend a particular meeting and give her reason why
c. Additionally, student teachers please give Kayleigh your spring break
dates or any additional dates that might result in a conflict
3) Spring Projects – descriptions and updates
a. New Member Selection – Lizzie
i. Applications for new members are due soon (Jan. 31st) about 30
juniors have already sent in their applications
ii. We have distributed the list of eligible juniors again encourage
anyone you know on list to apply and to ask for their two
references ASAP
iii. New member selection process will occur on Tues. Feb. 11th at
6pm and will take approximately 5-6 hours to complete
1. All members are expected to be there!
b. Last Lecture Series – Allie and Danielle
i. Next lecture is given by Dr. Don Luidens on Feb. 24th
ii. Dr. Luidens’ written lecture is complete and will prospectively be
titled “As I Was Saying…”
iii. Books titles have been chosen 4 titles and 25 distributed of each\
1. Another Country by James Baldwin
2. Native Son by Richard Wright
3. Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas
4. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
iv. Need to start advertising for this event shortly
v. Will have surprise reception and food after lecture
vi. Considering maybe different thank-you gift for lecturers
1. Ideas included framed picture of cover or lecture, name of a
place to which Mortard Board can give donation in his/her
name
2. Group like both ideas but will think about what we would
like to do and make a final decision about this at a later
date
vii. April date and lecturer pending (It will either be Dr. Barney or Dr.
Abrahantes)
c. Dance Marathon – Kayleigh (7th and 8th of March)
i. Needing a new chair for this event in addition to Kayleigh so that
Lizzie can switch over to chairing the Rwanda Orphanage Prokect
 ask if anyone is interested
1. Bennett step up to do
ii. Former MB member Mark Donkersloot already donated $50.00!
Let’s start fundraising!!
iii. Donation letters will coming soon for us to stuff and send to
Alumni for donations (will discuss if help is needed with this when
the letters arrive)
iv. Start thinking about ideas for fundraising if you come up with
something, please let Kayleigh or Bennet know!
v. Upcoming meeting about information for the event this week (Jan.
21 and 22 at 9 pm)
d. Professor Appreciation Night – Kevin, Emma, Catie
i. Not really met yet to finalize details the chairs will be looking
into room reservations/ordering food/drafting invitations in the
near future
ii. Prospective date for this event is March 25th
iii. Usually do at the seminary so we can serve own food usually do
potluck with members bringing a variety of dishes
iv. Usually just socializing, a sort of drop in and out event. Chairs
think it might be nice to have some sort of visual way of saying
thanks. Suggestions included:
1. Maybe slide show with students saying why they appreciate
some of the professors invited
2. Maybe gather quotes about why students appreciate the
professors invited
v. Can invite up to 2-3 professors per person
1. Chairs will put a Google doc up to list professors that
people invite so not too many people invite the same
person trying to invite professors in-person or through
some sort of personal communication is best
vi. Discuss catering food as we go
e. Disabilities Awareness Week (Bennett, Craig, Sung)
i. Haven’t met yet to finalize details
ii. Still trying to figure out dates for the various events Mortar Board
will be involved with as a part of this campus-wide event
iii. The chairs will be working with Hope’s Disabilities Awareness
Committee to solidify how we will be involved, in particular the
director (Louise Shumaker) events that we hope to put on
include the frolf tournament and the wheelchair challenge
f. Wearing of Blue Breakfast – Alexis, Kelsey, Emily
i. This event is still in the beginning stages of planning
ii. Chairs are thinking the first or third weekend in April as a tentative
date for this event, but will confirm in the near future
iii. This is a breakfast for freshmen and sophomores who are on the
Deans’ list
iv. There is usually a speaker for this event and the chairs have asked
for the group to think about who might be a good speaker for this
year and to let them know of any ideas you have!
v. Chairs are working on booking a space for this event
g. Rwanda Orphanage – Lizzie and Professor Portfleet
i. Lizzie going on the May term to Rwanda to the Orphanage, so she
will now be chairing this event instead of Dance Marathon
ii. Arnaud, a student who has been highly involved with the
orphanage in the past, is coming to speak about his involvement
and this upcoming trip at the next full-body meeting
iii. Our involvement with this orphanage would be twofold: 1.)
fundraise for a specific area of need (listed below) and 2.) forming
a personal connection with the children and adults at the
orphanage. This would include:
1. Creating care package for kids/community members
2. Skyping with the kids/community members
3. Working towards fundraising for one of these particular
areas of need of the children and others who live at the
orphanage:
a. Pay for the children’s schooling (costs about $2000)
b. Solar panels for energy (costs about $4000-$5000)
c. Pay for food a year (costs about $1500)
d. Pay for clean water (costs about $1000)
4. Think on which of these causes we would like to fundraise
for or if there is another area of need you think we should
raise money for—> we will vote on which of these we will
fundraise for in the near future
h. Presidential Involvement – Megan
i. Ideas for potential ideas
1. Ideas from last meeting include giving an internal
scholarship out through a Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
type event where the president is the host
2. Snow-sculpting contest fundraiser idea with Pres. involved
a. Idea was voted on by the members and not passed
by a majority
3. Most spirited competition at an athletic type of event was
suggested one member noted that this sort of event might
possibly alienate students with few friends or lack of access
to car
4. Maybe an event that is integrated with Spring Fling
a. A flash dance competition
b. Hope’s Got Talent type talent competition
ii. We will think about which of these options for events we like and
discuss which one we would like to undertake in the near future
iii. To give us time for Megan to make contact with the President
again to discuss the event and to plan for it, we will prospectively
plan to have it later in the semester
i. Heart Health Awareness
i. Fundraiser and community awareness project about how to
maintain heart health and other related concerns
ii. Show t-shirts that we would be selling for $10 (design created by
Rachel Slotman all of the profits made from the t-shirts would
be put towards the American Heart Association
iii. The chairs of this event are currently working with Hope’s athletic
directors and other staff to coordinate having a table for
information and other interactive learning opportunities at a home
Men’s Basketball game this semester
1. Two working dates
a. Feb. 5th-Hope/Calvin game
b. Feb. 15th- Hope/Alma game
iv. Asked for ideas for garnering campus interest/involvement in this
event decided to think on and get back to the chairs if members
have any ideas!
j. St. Vincent DePaul – Catie
i. At the previous meeting we talked about ideas for catering to
members’ interest for volunteering
ii. Catie spoke to sister Pat,who said that there is still a great need for
work being done in the following areas:
1. the food pantry because of elimination of food stamp
programs
2. winter clothing drive
iii. Catie also asked about working with the migrant population in
Holland
1. Sister Pat noted that migrant workers do not usually arrive
until March
2. Programs through the church occur on Sunday afternoons
during this time and cater to the children of migrant
workers
iv. Suggested that we should bring in winter wear items that the
church is seeking as a future beginning of meeting project Catie
will ask for more information about the types of items that are
needed
v. Catie will also get more information on areas of need that St.
Vincent caters to and will report back to the group at the next fullbody meeting
4) Reminder about the Project Lead Analysis – please fill it out if your project is
done!
5) Open Floor  no one motions to talk
6) Meeting adjourned